Macroeconomics

The course aims to provide tools and analytical frameworks to understand the functioning of a macroeconomic system. To this end, the course presents fundamental concepts and models to analyze the behavior of key macroeconomic aggregates (consumption, savings, investments, public expenditure, money supply, imports and exports, movements of financial capital). The focus will be on the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on short and medium-term macroeconomic dynamics and on the determinants of long-term growth. Special attention will be devoted to the interpretation of real-world macroeconomic data, and to the analysis of contemporary policy issues.

At the end of the course, students will have: i) gained knowledge and understanding of the main models used to interpret short to long-run macroeconomic fluctuations; ii) the ability to comprehend international trade and financial linkages characterizing an open economy; iii) acquired knowledge and understanding of instruments and objectives of monetary and fiscal policy; iv) developed the capacity to autonomously interpret and evaluate documents produced by major research institutions and specialized outlets concerning economic conditions; v) acquired technical language skills enabling them to communicate with industry experts.