Course 2025-2026 a.y.

• Quick revision: consumer and firm behaviour
• Consumption-savings decision
• Credit market imperfections
• Money, financial intermediation and banking
• Macroeconomic policy in the global economy
• Financial and environmental crises
• The future of Euro Area
• Long-run growth and its determinants

• Explain the aggregate behaviour of consumers and firms from an intertemporal point of view, using a simple two-period macroeconomic model
• Illustrate the origins and consequences of financial market imperfections
• Identify the nature and role of money in modern economies, and how money creation interacts with other macroeconomic factors
• Recognize the main causes of the recent Great Recession and the Euro Area crisis
• Describe the interactions between financial markets developments and changes in the macroeconomic equilibrium of a country
• Summarize the causes of sustainability of the deficits (in the government budget, in the trade balance, etc.) incurred by a country, and their likely consequences
• Identify the main drivers of long-run growth and explain the role of capital accumulation and technological progress

• Apply the knowledge acquired during the course to evaluate the likely short-run and long-run evolution of the economic environment where the firm or organization they will join at the end of the program operates, from both a domestic and international point of view
• Students will be able to:
  • predict the impact of central banks' decisions on the likely evolution of interest rates, aggregate output, aggregate demand, etc.
  • predict the impact of fiscal policy announcements and interventions, and of other shocks, on the same variables
  • evaluate and compare the economic forecasts and views on the state of the economy made available on the internet and in other media and utilize the results of such analysis and comparison in the economic decisions (pricing decisions, portfolio choices, business investment, hiring decisions, and the like) they will be soon called to make in their work environment

• Lectures
• Practical Exercises

The teaching method is based on face-to face lectures. Links to recent articles or blog posts on topics discussed in class - with comments aimed at clarifying how each of them is related to the models and concepts introduced during lectures - are made available, at regular intervals, on the course web page that students can access on the Blackboard platform. Students are encouraged to go through the readings on an individual basis, to verify their understanding of the topics discussed in class, and their relevance for interpreting real world economic events.

Exams will be held only in the written form and will cover the entire programme. The exams will consist typically of five open questions, possibly divided into three sections: all questions and all sections must be answered. Exam rules apply to all students, with no exceptions.

• The CORE Econ team (2017): “The Economy 1.0,” ISBN 9781527212091 (free ebook)
• The CORE Econ team (2023): “The Economy 2.0,” ISBN 9781838165680 (free ebook)
• Carlin and Soskice (2024): Macroeconomics, Oxford Univ. Press., ISBN 9780198838661 (some chapters only)
• Slides and further compulsory readings will be made available on the Blackboard platform during the course. Slides are an essential study guide: they are considered part of the teaching material.