ECONOMIA APPLICATA

Expected Learning Outcomes

The course provides the analytical tools to understand how businesses and institutions manage the crucial challenges of coordination, motivation and innovation, whilst addressing market limitations and failures linked to imperfect information.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of the fundamental problems of economic organizations and the role played by innovation in their development and growth. This knowledge will enable them to interpret firms' innovative choices and strategic decisions.

Based on the Dublin Descriptors, students are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding

Students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fundamental problems of organizational architecture (coordination, member incentives, and the promotion of common interests), the concept of efficiency, the nature and classification of transaction costs, and coordination mechanisms via the price system and managerial action. They must also understand bargaining dynamics under bounded rationality and information asymmetries (adverse selection and moral hazard), as well as the role of innovation in organizational development and growth. This knowledge will allow students to recognize abstract models or relationships within complex situations in both public and private organizations, providing analytical tools to examine institutional performance, the functioning of public-private networks, and the governance of development processes. The course will foster critical and self-critical skills, the ability to conduct independent research to analyze institutional complexity, and a flexible mindset capable of valuing innovation and change as opportunities for improvement.

Applying knowledge and understanding

By the end of the course, students must be able to apply the theoretical and analytical tools of applied economics to interpret the practical functioning of organizational structures and markets. Students will know how to acquire, evaluate, and analyze information from various professional and institutional sources. This will enable them to understand and professionally analyze administrative issues, developing strong skills to prevent, identify, analyze, and resolve managerial and administrative problems in both the public and private sectors. Consequently, they will be able to propose resource management interventions, service evaluations, and public-private partnerships, always guided by an ethos of responsibility.

Making judgements

By the end of the course, students must be able to critically evaluate the efficiency of organizational structures, vertical integration vs. outsourcing decisions (make or buy), and the effectiveness of incentive systems in the face of opportunistic behavior. This critical and self-critical capability will allow students to independently interpret emerging issues in the administration of public and private organizations.

Learning skills

By developing high autonomy in literature research and the analysis of specialized sources and databases, students will be able to undertake individual or group projects. By the end of the course, they will have acquired the methodologies needed to select, with a high degree of autonomy and responsibility, paths for further academic or professional development (second-level Master's programs, Ph.D. programs, advanced training courses, or continuous self-directed learning).

Schilling, M. A. (2023). Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN: 978-1265073282.

The examination consists of three open-ended questions. Each response is awarded a score ranging from 0 to 10 points. The final grade is expressed out of 30 and is calculated as the sum of the three individual scores.

 grade of 30 with distinction will be awarded to students who, in all three answers, demonstrate:

• an excellent knowledge and understanding of the topics covered;

• a solid capacity for analysis and critical synthesis.