Learning objectives
The students will learn the main tools of the analysis of international trade and exchange rate, will acquire the ability to understand the dynamics and the influence on them of trade policy. He will learn the determinants of the dynamics of public debt, acquire the ability to assess the factors that cause stability or instability. He will also learn the problems related to economic policy choices in intertemporal contexts. He will acquire skills related to saving choices and the use of funds in presence of risky assets. The students will ultimately be in a position to understand the development of Italian economy.
At the end of the course, students will have acquired:
Applying knowledge and understanding
• Acquisition of specialized tools for macroeconomic analysis of intermediate and advanced macroeconomic models.
• Acquisition of the basic tools for assessing the impact of interventions of fiscal and monetary policy and trade policy.
Making judgments
• Ability to assess the conclusions and results of macro-economic analysis and the effects of alternative economic policy actions and interventions.
communication skills
• Ability to present and explain the results in a critical form of macroeconomic studies, the implications of different policy choices and scenarios described by the economic statistics is to be qualified persons to non-experts.
Ability to learn
• Ability to explain complex topics in a concise manner through the use of graphs and mathematical formulas.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The course is divided into two parts. The first part is lectured by prof. Mario Menegatti and the second part is lectured by Prof Daniela Buscaglia. First part examines: 1) The balance of payments and the relationship between different economies 2) international trade and exchange of goods between economies, with a focus on Ricardo, Heckscher, Ohlin 3) The New Economic Geography 4) Exchange rate, prices, interest rate and currency areas 5) Trade policy 6) The long-term stability of public debt.
The second part of the ourse examines: 1)Exchange rates and currency markets; 2) The link between money, interest rate and exchange rate; 3) The exchange rate and the money and financial markets; 4) The trade balance, exchange rates and international repercussions; 5) The Open Economy Macroeconomics and the Mundell-Fleming Model; 6) The choice of the exchange rate regime, the speculative attacks and the European experience; 7) Aspects of global macroeconomic stability, sustainability and policy coherence.
Full programme
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Bibliography
De Arcangelis G. “Economia Internazionale”, Mc Graw-Hill,ed. 017 chapters 3,5,6,10,13,14,15 , 16, 17, 18
Menegatti M. e Seravalli G. “La New Economic Geography e lo sviluppo locale”, Working paper n.5/2004 Economia e Politica economica del Dipartimento di Economia della Facoltà di Economia (available in Elly)
-Blanchard O. “Scoprire la macroeconomia vol. 2”, Il Mulino, ed. 2011, chapters 3.1, 3.2 e 8 –
Blanchard O. “Scoprire la macroeconomia vol. 2”, Il Mulino, ed. 2003, chapter 7.2 –
Teaching methods
• Knowledge and understanding: lectures
• Applying knowledge and understanding: examples applied to real economic problems
• Making judgements: during this module, students will be encouraged to identify strengths and weaknesses of the main economic theories and their usefulness in real world applications
• Learning skills: each topic will be addressed first, explaining the problem to be solved, and then critically analyzing the adopted solutions
• Communication skills: the teacher will illustrate
the meaning of the most common terms used by the economic community.
Assessment methods and criteria
Written exam.
The exam will consist of 6 open-ended questions (3 for the first part of the course and 3 for the second one). The student will answer 4 questions (2 for the first part of the course and 2 for the second part)
The acquisition of knowledge and technical language will be assessed by the answers to the theoretical sections of the questions. The ability to apply the knowledge and learning skills will be evaluated in the application and in the treatment of specific cases and problems. Making judgement will be evaluated in the explanation and comments of cases analyzed.
Beyond traditional exam rounds, we will provide a partial exam after each part of the course. Each partial exam will be on the program of the specific part of the course just concluded. In this case the grade will be obtained computing the average between the grades obtained in the two partial exams.
Other information
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