Teaching
Principles of Economic History and Economics (ECON 100)
University of Siena, Italy
Since the 1700s, improvements in average living standards have increasingly become a permanent feature of economic life around the globe. Such a process was associated with a new economic system organised around private property, with markets, firms, and governments playing major roles. Advances in technology and the specialisation in products and tasks have raised how much can be produced in a given period. Still, we have also documented growing ecological threats and unprecedented global inequalities. Economics studies how people interact with each other and the environment at different levels. This course aims to help you develop consistent thinking on major economic themes with particular attention to historical and macro elements.
Introduce students to basilar economic concepts emphasising their historical elements.
Provide initial insights on what it means to ''think as an economist''.
Introduce students to fundamental elements of macroeconomic theory.
Principles of Mathematics (ECON 200)
University of Siena, Italy
As long as economics has existed as a subject of study, mathematics has been used as its primary language. It allows a quantifiable representation of concepts such as prices and production and is a powerful way of analysing the relationships among these variables. Economists think, explain, and argue in terms of economic models. Modelling does not have to be mathematical, but such a language brings precision, logical rigour, and the capacity to deal as clearly as possible with complex systems, making it extremely valuable for analysing economic problems. This course aims to help you develop consistent thinking on a wide range of mathematical techniques that will be useful to speak the language of economists.
Introduce students to mathematical tools useful in their academic trajectories.
Provide initial insights on what it means to "think as an economist".
Introduce students to fundamental elements of Calculus and Linear Algebra.
Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECON 200)
Bucknell University, United States
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behaviour, and decision-making of an economy. It includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study aggregated indicators such as GDP, unemployment rates, national income, price indices, and the interrelations among the different sectors to understand better how the whole economy functions. This course aims to help develop consistent thinking about some critical macroeconomic phenomena.
Introduce students to a more formal and integrated analysis of business cycles, growth, and policy intervention.
Integrate Keynesian and classical macroeconomic theories.
Introduce students to case studies and macro data interpretation.
21st century challenges (ECON 200)
Bucknell University, United States
Despite being located at extreme points of the set of possible evolutionary paths, humans and social insects have colonised a large share of the earths biomass. Their reproductive success lies in their particular social nature, which entails a sophisticated division of labour. In terms of human organisation, a tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution: whereas it had taken until the 1800s for the world population to reach 1 billion, the second billion was achieved less than 150 years later, and we arrived at the 21st century counting more than 6 billion people. We face a complex set of global changes to how we conceive and structure our everyday lives. How do we find a way forward? This course aims at giving a general overview of five challenges:
Climate change and global warming.
Rising wealth and income inequality.
Will robots take my job?
International trade and Global Value Chains (GVC).
China and the emergence of a multipolar world.
Money & Financial Institutions (ECON 300)
Bucknell University, United States
The last three or four decades have seen a remarkable evolution in the modern monetary system institutions. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is a wake-up call that we need a similar evolution in the analytical apparatus and theories that we use to understand that system. This course will help understand the role that financial institutions and markets play in the business environment, and the connection between financial markets, financial institutions and the economy:
Bring a fresh perspective to major questions surrounding monetary policy.
Introduce students to the monetary policy process, the regulation and supervision of the financial system, and the internationalisation of financial markets.
Discuss causes and consequences of the last financial crisis.