Syllabus

Schedule

The course takes place from the 25th September until the 8th of December 2017.

Lectures will be held every week on:
– Monday 12.15 am room F2 (Polo Piagge)
– Tuesday 10.30 am room F2 (Polo Piagge)
– Friday 8.45 am room Windows (Centro di Calcolo)

The Course is articulated into 4 Modules:

Module 1: Quantitative methods for economics (20 h)

Introduction to non-parametric techniques. (Prof. Davide Fiaschi)
Introduction to bootstrap. (Prof. Davide Fiaschi)
Introduction to basic ideas of Bayesian statistical inference. (Prof. Davide Fiaschi)
Introduction to panel. (Dr. Angela Parenti)
Introduction to spatial econometrics. (Dr. Angela Parenti)

Module 2: European Regional policy and economic convergence (20 h)

Causes and effects of regional imbalance: economic theory and empirical evidence. (Prof. Davide Fiaschi)
Regional policies: theoretical models. (Prof. Davide Fiaschi)
Historical development of European Regional Policy. (Dr. Angela Parenti)
Econometric models for convergence. (Dr. Angela Parenti): Magrini chapter of handbook

Module 3: Evaluation of economic policy (18 h)

What is a causal effect? (Dr. Irene Brunetti)
The potential outcome and the estimate of the counterfactual. (Dr. Irene Brunetti)
The evaluation designs (from random assignment to quasi-experimental evaluation methods). (Dr. Irene Brunetti)

Module 4: European taxation and fiscal policy coordination and competition (4 h)

Implications of fiscal policy coordination and competition in terms of labour mobility, spatial location of activities, and household residential decisions. (Prof. Sonia Paty)

Prerequisites for the course:

Advanced Statistics, Advanced Econometrics and Advanced Macroeconomics.