Political Economy

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: Massimo ARNONE

Expected Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

The course aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the functioning mechanisms of the economic system as a whole, highlighting the differences between a microeconomic and a macroeconomic approach. Part of the program will be dedicated to illustrating the reasons for public intervention in the economy, providing the fundamental concepts of economic policy. Its main objective is to enable students to understand how the overall functioning of the economy also influences the elements specific to business disciplines and the operational logic of business systems.

Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Students must demonstrate that they have understood the determinants of the main macroeconomic equilibrium variables and their interactions.

Judgment Autonomy and Learning Ability
The student must be able to understand and discuss independently and critically the concepts and fundamental mechanisms of macroeconomic equilibrium.

Communication skills

The student must achieve a clear development of the main conceptual connections in order to be able to apply the language and argumentative methods typical of the discipline with rigor and simplicity, both in oral and written form.

Required Prerequisites

Prior knowledge may be useful in the following subjects:

statistics

business economics

Detailed Course Content

MICROECONOMICS: Introduction to Economic Science - Notes on the History of Economic Thought - Consumer Theory - Construction of the Demand Curve - Production Theory - The Production Function and Marginal Productivity - Costs - Construction of Supply - Exchange Dynamics - Market Forms

MACROECONOMICS: Assessment of the National Economy - Aggregate Demand - Notes on Monetary Economics - The Banking Economy - Money Issuance - The IS-LM Model - The AS-AD Model - Open Economies: International Trade - Business Cycles, Path, and Economic Growth