MEFAP Master in Economics

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1 MEFAP Master in Economics Master s Degree Academic year 2013/2014

2 Master in Economics The Master in Economics is a graduate program that allows students to complete their training in economics providing them with a thorough understanding of the role and working of the state in modern economies. The Master is a full-time, intensive course, with a maximum enrollment of 20 students. Mefap offers courses taught in English and it is accessible to students of all countries. The diploma, issued by the, is recognized as a second level Master s degree by the Italian Government. The Master is co-directed by Prof. Massimo Bordignon and Prof. Luca Colombo. The Master will allow students to. Acquire the needed knowledge and research experience in order to pursue further studies with a PhD in Economics;. Allow them to integrate their academic experience with professional skills of theoretical and practical relevance also through Internship in the research departments of banks, governments and international organization such as ILO, IMF, or the World Bank. Calendar All classes will be held at the Università Cattolica main campus from February 2014 to January 2015, from Monday to Friday. During the period from February 2014 to January 2015 students will develop on their project work and prepare for their final exam. Final Master Degree The Master degree (Master Universitario di II livello) will be granted by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore upon the successful completion of the required course work and of the research project for a total of 60 credits. After receiving the Master Degree, successful students may apply for admission to the Ph.D. in Public Economics with a stipend. If admitted to the Ph.D. program, a student may be granted exams waivers for the course work already undertaken during the Master, to the extent that it overlaps with the first year courses of the Ph.D. program. 2

3 Course structure The Master courses are taught in English and students are required to write all assignments and papers in English. The courses run from February 2014 to February 2015 and cover quantitative methods, microeconomics, macroeconomics and public economics: 1 st term (February April 2014) CFU Contact hours Mathematics 5 60 Econometrics nd term (May July 2014) CFU Contact hours Research Methods 5 33 Microeconomics rd term (September December 2014) CFU Contact hours Macroeconomics Public Economics th term (January February 2015) CFU Contact hours Project work Final Examination 7 3

4 Mathematics The course provides students with a thorough understanding of mathematical concepts and tools essential to economic modelling, with particular reference to static and dynamic optimisation as applied to microeconomics and macroeconomics. The course also covers differential calculus in Euclidean space; quasi-concavity; Taylor expansion; Implicit Function Theorem; Envelope Theorem; continuity concepts of correspondences; Theorem of the Maximum; fixed point theorems; difference and differential equations. Econometrics I The course focuses on techniques for estimating regression models, on problems commonly encountered in estimating such models, and on interpreting the estimates from such models. The goal of the course is to teach students the theory and practice of econometrics and to provide examples taken from the economics literature. The course includes empirical tutorials where students will learn how to estimate econometric models on real world data. Econometrics II The course intends to provide students with both the theoretical understanding and the practical ability to implement some of the techniques most commonly used in the econometric analysis of time series and panel data. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be placed on practical applications using Stata. Research Methods The course provides students with in-depth knowledge of recent advances in the analysis of surveydata and (quasi)experimental-data. In particular the course aims to equip students with the following competencies:. Awareness of the empirical approach to economics;. Experience in the analysis and use of empirical data in economics;. Understanding the nature of survey data and methods of dealing with it;. The use of econometric software packages as tools of policy analysis;. Understanding of causal and non-causal relations in economics and policy making. The course covers topics of interest in current research, with an emphasis on the issues entailed by their application (i.e. Public Economics, Labour Economics and Policy Issues). Tutorials and laboratory sessions, in which students can apply the techniques using micro-econometric software packages, complete the course. Microeconomics 4 The course is an introduction to advanced topics in microeconomic theory. It provides a survey of the main tools, results and achievements of microeconomic theory. Its objective is to equip the

5 students with tools which are essential to study applications of economic theory and for setting up and solving a wide range of economic problems. Therefore, while it aims to cover significant recent developments in the field, it mostly stresses classic papers rather than yet unpublished work, and particular attention is devoted to methodology and to economic applications. Familiarity with standard calculus, in particular optimisation theory, and with basic probability theory is assumed. Macroeconomics The New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (NK-DSGE) framework has emerged as the workhorse in contemporary macroeconomics for the analysis of business fluctuations and the design of optimal monetary policy. This course starts from the basic ideas lying behind this framework (i.e. intertemporal optimization for a representative agent, the use of Blanchard-Kahn procedures for solving the models), and it aims at covering the literature up to the analysis of medium-scale models. The final part of the course deals with the incorporation of financial frictions into the NK-DSGE framework to cope with issues pertaining to financial fragility which have been brought to the fore by the Global Financial Crisis. Public Economics This course discusses the role and the limits of government intervention in the economy. The course is divided in three parts, each taught by a different lecturer: welfare economics, taxation theory and political economics. The organization of the course follows a logical structure and the three parts must be thought of as interdependent. Welfare economics sets up the stage, by defining the normative criteria for assessing the relative role of states and markets; taxation theory applies these tools to the revenue side of the budgets, asking which is the optimal way to organize the tax system given the budget requirements of government; political economics shifts the emphasis from the normative to the positive side of the issues, asking how in fact governments will choose taxation and expenditure given the existing political institutions. Students will be asked to seat for a single examination at the end of the course. Programming Stata This course is designed to introduce participants to the basics of programming in Stata. It focuses on the use of do-files to automate your own work. Specific topics include macro variables, looping, branching, subscripting, and personalise the output. By the end of this one-day course, the participants will be able to program effectively in Stata version 11/11. It is assumed that participants will have basic knowledge of Stata or be familiar with the contents of this course and have used Stata for at least few months. 5

6 Project work and final exam The Master degree is granted upon the completion of a research project by which the candidate shows her/his ability to master the topics covered in the course work undertaken in the first three terms. Typically the research project takes the form of a research paper written under the supervision of a member of the Master Faculty or of a researcher approved by the Director of the Master. Under certain circumstances, a student may have the opportunity to undertake a stage on a project that is evaluated by the Director of the Master being consistent with the Master goals. In these cases, the research paper can be substituted by an essay detailing the results achieved during the stage, to be written under the supervision of a member of the Faculty and/or of the external tutor supervising the stage activity. Both in the case of a research paper and of a stage essay, the candidate will have to defend the results of her/his research during an oral final exam, in which the overall performance of the candidate in the Master program will also be assessed. Faculty Pr of. Massimo Bordignon Prof. Bruno Bosco Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Prof. Lorenzo Cappellari Dr. Michela Cella Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Prof. Domenico Delli Gatti Prof. Gianluca Femminis Dr. Paolo Ghinetti Università Piemonte Orientale Prof. Giovanna Iannantuoni Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Dr. Michele Longo Prof. Claudio Lucifora 6

7 Dr. Maria Luisa Mancusi Prof. Luca Micheletto Università degli Studi di Milano Prof. Carsten Nielsen Dr. Federica Origo Università degli Studi di Bergamo Dr. Alessia Paccagnini Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Dr. Lorenza Rossi Università degli Studi di Pavia Prof. Luca Stanca Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Prof. Patrizio Tirelli Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Prof. Gerd Weinrich Admission requirements Admission is open to candidates:. who hold an Italian Four-year University Degree (diploma di laurea), or a Master of Science (diploma di laurea specialistica);. who hold a post-graduate degree or any foreign academic qualification previously recognised as equivalent by the academic authorities, or recognised in accordance with inter-university agreements of co-operation and mobility;. who, by the date of the application deadline, have not yet been granted a degree, or a foreign academic qualification. In this case, the candidate will be requested to submit the diploma di laurea or the foreign academic qualification by the beginning of the Master course. Applications can also be submitted by candidates who do not hold the degrees mentioned above. In this case, if their candidature is evaluated positively by the Admission Committee despite lacking some of the requirements, the interested students will be allowed to audit all classes. However, they will eventually be officially enrolled in the Master Program only after having received the required Degree, which is an essential pre-requisite for being granted the title of Master. 7

8 How to apply Application process Phase I Applicants are required to produce the following documents:. Application form (to be completed online on the website: Copy of a certified transcript of grades (translated in English or in Italian). Passport-size photo. TOEFL certificate or one of the following language qualifications: FCE, CAE, CPE, BEC, IELTS, BRITISH CHAMBER of COMMERCE, TRINITY COLLEGE. The above documentation must be sent by the 24 th of January 2014 to: Ufficio Master Via Carducci 28/ Milan, Italy Upon receipt of the necessary documents the Applicant will receive a written communication regarding her/his definitive admission to the master programme. Then they can proceed with the second step of the Application Process. Phase II Students admitted to the Programme are required to produce the following documents:. Certified transcripts of grades (original). Two passport-size photos. Copy of passport or EU identity card document. Payment of the 1 st instalment (entrance fee 4,000). Those applicants who hold a Degree Certificate issued by a non-italian University must also provide the Dichiarazione di Valore* * Dichiarazione di Valore is a certificate issued by the Italian embassies (or consulates) that authenticates a foreign degree. To obtain the Dichiarazione di Valore the Applicant must apply to the Italian embassy (or consulate) of the country/region where the Applicant completed her/his university studies and provide them with a notarized translation of the diploma in the Italian language. In some countries, obtaining the Dichiarazione di Valore may take up to two months or longer. The Catholic University s Masters Division can assist the applicant in their effort to obtain the Dichiarazione di Valore. 8

9 The above documents - that are necessary for the second phase along with the application form - must arrive no later than the end of January and are to be sent according to the following procedures: NON-EU citizens must apply through their local Italian embassy or consulate. According to Italian law no Italian university may receive applications directly from NON-EU citizens. This means that the Applicant will submit the application documents stated in the second phase of the Application Process along with the application form to the local Italian embassy or consulate, which will in turn deliver them to: Ufficio Master Via Carducci 28/ Milan, Italy EU CITIZENS All application documents necessary for the 2 nd phase of the Application Process along with the application form must be sent to: Ufficio Master Via Carducci 28/ Milan, Italy When necessary, the Catholic University s Masters Division can assist the students in their effort to obtain a VISA by sending a letter of invitation to the Master Programme to the relevant consular office. Fees The tuition fee is to be paid as follows:. 1 st instalment (entrance fee): nd instalment: in June rd instalment: in September 2014 A number of scholarships, covering up to the entire tuition fees, may be awarded to the best applicants. The decision is taken by the Admission Committee upon consideration of the candidates curriculum studiorum, working experience and the overall quality of their applications. 9

10 Services available to Master s Students Master s students can use all the facilities offered by the University including:. Large interdisciplinary libraries;. Specialized libraries in economics;. Study and reading rooms;. Computer labs;. Health services;. Tutoring and administrative services 10

11 With 4 campuses, 12 faculties, 41,000 students and a teaching staff of more than 1,400, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is Europe s largest private university. Founded in Milan in 1921 by Father Agostino Gemelli, the University also has campuses in Rome, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona and Campobasso. Just a few figures illustrate the breadth and depth of the University s core curriculum, in both humanities and sciences: 41 three-year degree programmes, 37 two-year graduate programmes, 1 four-year degree programme, 6 intensive-study degree programmes, 53 schools of specialization, almost 100 master degree programmes and 7 other post-graduate schools. Research activity draws on 51 institutes, 24 departments and 72 research centres, plus another 5 centres at the University, and it is aimed towards the study and understanding of issues crucial to life and society: new frontiers in economics and bioethics, the recovery of cultural assets, changes in the field of law, family trends, the phenomenon of the mass media, the development of political systems, the aims of medicine, technological applications of mathematics and physics, and the most recent discoveries in environmental research. The university is both a lively community and a research hub, where students are urged towards constant and intense participation in academic life by taking advantage of the numerous opportunities for growth that the institution offers every day. With its undergraduate degrees, first- and second-level master degrees, research doctorates and other post-graduate programmes, gives young people an ongoing opportunity to interact with scholars and to fully and adequately fulfil the commitment to their studies, thereby making an essential contribution to their moral and professional enrichment. 11

12 Information Ufficio Master Via Carducci 28/ Milano Tel Fax master.universitari@unicatt.it defap@unicatt.it Website: