Unit Economic Policy
- Course
- Political sciences and international relations
- Study-unit Code
- 10001809
- Curriculum
- Scienze dell'amministrazione
- Teacher
- Marcello Signorelli
- Teachers
-
- Marcello Signorelli
- Cristina Montesi (Codocenza)
- Hours
- 42 ore - Marcello Signorelli
- 21 ore (Codocenza) - Cristina Montesi
- CFU
- 9
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2021
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline economiche-politiche
- Academic discipline
- SECS-P/02
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The course of Economic Policy aims to provide the analytical tools of the fundamental theory of economic policy along with concrete applications related to the European and Italian economic policies in the new global context, also referring to economic impact of pandemic and policy responses.
- Reference texts
- Libri di riferimento (i primi due sono da acquistare mentre il terzo si trova in pdf su Unistudium):
MARELLI E. e SIGNORELLI M. (2022) “POLITICA ECONOMICA – Le politiche dopo la grande recessione e lo shock pandemico”, Giappichelli Editore, Torino.
MONTESI C. (2016), "Il Paradigma dell’economia civile. Radici storiche e nuovi orizzonti", Umbria Volontariato Edizioni, Terni.
Montesi C. (2020), La scommessa della felicità nel pensiero economico di Robert Michels, in Federici R. (2020) (a cura di), Robert Michels. Un intellettuale di frontiera, Meltemi, Milano, pp.75-110.
Federici R., Montesi C. (2021), I rapporti fra economia e politica. Robert Michels, antiretorica per un sociologo, Gambini Editore. - Educational objectives
- The course of Economic Policy aims to provide the analytical tools of the fundamental theory of economic policy along with concrete applications related to the European and Italian economic policies in the new global context.
The student will be able to assess the costs and benefits of different policy options in the new European and global scenario. He will acquire both theoretical knowledge and, above all, an ability to analyze the empirical evidence and critically discuss the different possible policy options. - Prerequisites
- A good knowledge of Political Economy is necessary.
- Teaching methods
- face-to-face
- Other information
- As for additional information please visit the Unistudium web platform dedicated to this specific course.
- Learning verification modality
- Oral exam.
Erasmus students can use Italian or one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish.
More details are included in the Unistudium platform, in a section dedicated to this specific teaching. - Extended program
- Part I: Models, theories and policies
1. Political economy and economic policy. The macroeconomic models
2. Theory of economic policy
3. Type of economic policies
4. The Keynesian economic policies
5. Public intervention in economy: theory and empirical evidence
5.1 Market failures and government intervention
5.2 Theories on the secular expansion of the public sector
5.3 The schools of "public choice" and the "supply-side economics"
5.4 The expansion and reduction of the public sector
5.5 The weight of the public sector: evolution and comparisons
Part II: The role of economic policies
6. Unemployment and the labor market
6.1 Unemployment, cycle and growth
6.2 Indicators of the labor market
6.3 The Okun's Law: the link between unemployment and income
6.4 Frictional and structural unemployment
6.5 Unemployment, rigidity in the labor market and eurosclerosis
6.6 The models insider-outsider, the efficiency wages and the theory of hysteresis
6.7 Labour costs, wages and productivity
6.8 The evolution of the institutions of the labor market
7. The monetarists and the debate on stabilization policies
7.1 The monetarist school and debate with Keynesians
7.2 The Keynesian extreme cases
7.3 The monetarist extreme case and the quantity theory of money
7.4 The monetary policy, according to Keynesians and monetarists
7.5 Fiscal policy, according to Keynesians and monetarists
7.6 Effects crowding and wealth effects
7.7 Delays of economic policy and the permanence of the effects over time
7.8 The stabilization policies: effectiveness, objectives, rules and discretion
8. Inflation and disinflationary policies
8.1 Inflation: costs and benefits
8.2 The Phillips curve
8.3 The monetarist vision and the absence of trade-off in the long run
8.4 The disinflationary policies: the role of money
8.5 Incomes policy and wage negotiations
8.6 Effects of the rigidity of the price: the New Keynesian Economics
8.7 The hyperinflations and fiscal drag
9. Rational expectations and the credibility of economic policies
9.1 The New Classical Macroeconomics
9.2 Rational expectations
9.3 The supply curve à la Lucas and the real effects of the forecasting errors
9.4 Implications of economic policy and the "Lucas critique"
9.5 The Ricardian equivalence
9.6 The role of strategic interdependence
9.7 The time inconsistency of economic policy
9.8 Credibility, rules and institutions
Part III: Monetary policy and fiscal policy
10. Monetary policy: objectives, strategies and theories on central banking
10.1 The independence of central banks
10.2 Final objectives of monetary policy and types of conservatism
10.3 Intermediate objectives, monetary policy strategies and seigniorage
10.4 monetary policy instruments and the Taylor rule
11. Fiscal policy, the sustainability of public debt and return policies
11.1 Fiscal policy and public deficits
11.2 Deficit, debt and "risk premiums"
11.3 The public debt sustainability
11.4 Public debt and return policies: the Italian case
11.5 Financing monetary, interest rate policy and debt management
11.6 Primary budget, real growth and progression of fiscal consolidations
11.7 Public budget and planning documents in Italy
12. Macroeconomic policies in an open economy
Part IV: The world economy: growth and globalization
13. Growth and development in the world
13.1 Growth and development from a historical perspective
13.2 Problems and development policies
13.3 Development indicators and groups of countries
13.4 The Bric: growth, structure and policies of four emerging economies
14. Globalization and trade policies in an open economy
14.1 Globalization: historical stages and drivers
14.2 Liberalization, financialization and "global imbalances"
14.3 The internationalization of business and the effects of globalization on mature countries
14.4 Evolution of world trade
14.5 Theories of international trade and trade policies
14.6 Trade policies: instruments and evidence
14.7 International bodies: from GATT to WTO
Part V: The European economic integration
15. The process of EU integration: the customs union to the single market. The EU budget
15.1 The EU enlargements, the subsequent treaties and institutions
15.2 The customs union, competition policy and the Structural Funds
15.3 The Single Market and the four liberalization
15.4 Structure and evolution of the EU budget
16. The Maastricht Treaty and the European "economic and monetary union"
16.1 The European Monetary System
16.2 The Treaty of Maastricht and convergence criteria
16.3 Theory of Optimum Currency Areas: Benefits and costs of monetary unions
16.4 Shock asymmetric and insurance systems
16.5 The EMU is an OCA?
Part VI: The economic policies in the eurozone
17. The ECB and European monetary policy
17.1 The ECB, organs and characteristics
17.2 The inflation target and the two pillars of monetary strategy
17.3 Instruments of monetary policy and the degree of activism of the ECB
17.4 An assessment based on macroeconomic performance
17.5 The dispersion of inflation and the exchange rate
17.6 The crisis and unconventional operations
17.7 The new supervisory bodies and the European banking union
18. Rules on the financial statements: stability and growth pact, Fiscal Compact
18.1 Default Risk and rules on the budgets in a monetary union
18.2 The "Stability and Growth Pact" and its reforms
18.3 The crisis and the new rules for the Eurozone (Fiscal Compact)
18.4 Policies of austerity and stagnation: how to get out?
19. The financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis and the EU's responses
19.1 The crisis in the US: the subprime mortgages and the bursting of the bubble
19.2 The spread of the crisis and the Great Recession
19.3 The policy responses in different countries of the world
19.4 The sovereign debt crisis and the characteristics of the "PIIGS"
19.5 The EU and uncertain policy answers
19.6 The proposals for Eurobonds and greater European integration
Montesi C. (2016), Civil Economy Paradigm. Historical roots and new horizons, Umbria Volontariato Edizioni, Terni.
The book analyzes the foundations of Civil Economy (relational goods, social capital, relational gift, principle of reciprocity); its historical roots (Benedictine and Franciscan monasticism; Civil Humanism; Italian Enlightenment with a particular focus on the figure of Antonio Genovesi, exponent of the Neapolitan Enlightenment and father of Civil Economy); its anthropological archetype (homo reciprocans); the reasons for the decline of the Civil Economy in favor of English Political Economy of the nineteenth century; the definitive decline of Civil Economy with the advent in twentieth century of Economic Science by neoclassical economists; the causes of the rediscovery of the Civil Economy in the contemporary world; the Manifesto of Civil Economy (principles, method, boundaries); the current components of Civil Economy: the galaxy of civil society organizations, organizational hybrids disciplined by Italian norms, "civil" enterprises (starting from the unsurpassed example of Adriano Olivetti); the implementation of concrete forms of collaboration between the “civil” profit world and non-profit world (generativity of common projects, new forms of osmosis).
Montesi C. (2020), The gamble of happiness in Robert Michels' economic thought, in Federici R. (2020) (eds.), “Robert Michels. A frontier intellectual”, Meltemi, Milano, pp.75-110.
The essay deals with the problematic relationship between economy and happiness addressed by Robert Michels (1876-1936) in his book "The Economy of Happiness", printed in 1918. In this book Robert Michels, a true "frontier intellectual", anticipates and provides an answer to some of the questions, always recurring in the History of Philosophy, but also typical of the “science of happiness" of XXI century: what is happiness? What is the relationship between economy and happiness? What are the economic variables that determine it? What are the non-economic factors which affect happiness? What weight do the latter have in influencing happiness? Is it appropriate to think about public policies for happiness? What could these policies be? In the interdisciplinary reading of the different determinants of happiness and of their interactions, Robert Michels modernly manages to combine economics, psychology, sociology, history, courageously distancing himself from the reductionist paradigm of neoclassical economy prevailing in his time and suggesting a wide range of policies, to be carried out by the State and/or by workers' unions, for the achievement of happiness.
Federici R., Montesi C. (2021), Relations between economics and politics. Robert Michels, anti-rhetoric for a sociologist, Gambini Editore.
The book analyzes Robert Michels’ essay entitled “Around the problem of the relationship between economics and politics” written in 1919 in which Michels thematizes the study of the determinants of historical development. Michels demonstrates how all expressions of human activity (individual and collective) are not determined exclusively by monetary motivations and economic factors, but can also be equally influenced by intrinsic motivations of people and by cultural factors (by legal, social, moral norms, by psychological factors; by narratives; by religious faiths; by political ideologies; by political institutions; by political strategies; by economic policy measures adopted by States). Michels offers different and striking examples of the powerful influence of cultural factors (widely understood) on the birth of modern capitalism, on the economic growth / recession of a country, on the take-off of a national industry, on the economic prosperity / decline of a city, even on the genesis of wars (which Michels claims are declared not only for economic reasons). The rediscovery of the strategic role of institutions as a compass for the economy had implications not only on the changes to be made to historical method, but also involved a critical revision of the notion of economic science of Michels' contemporary neoclassical economists, a goal that Michels continued to pursue, with perseverance and courage, throughout his life in the context of his scientific production.