Title: Advanced Topics in Macroeconomics
Instructors: Marco Guerrazzi; Alessia Cafferata; Marco Mazzoli; Simone Lombardini; Gabriele Cardullo
Credit (CFU): 4 CFU
Lectures: 54 hours (First module: 10 hours; Second Module: 10 hours; Third Module: 14 hours; Fourth Module: 12 hours; Fifth Module 8 hours)
Reading and Essay Writing: 60 hours
Period Taught: November 2025 – February 2026
Course Description and objectives
This course is divided in five modules.
The first module (taught by Marco Guerrazzi) will deal with the essential models in macroeconomic theory, namely the growth models. Specifically, after a deep analysis of theoretical structure and the empirical implications of the Solow model, lectures will be focused on the Ramsey model with infinitely lived aged and on the standard overlapping generations model. The module will be closed with an introduction of two-sector models of optimal growth.
The second module (taught by Alessia Cafferata) aims to provide the basic knowledge to model different economic problems under the formalism of dynamical systems in one and two dimensions in discrete time. After a brief review of linear and nonlinear difference equations and the introduction of deterministic chaos, different kinds of maps and local bifurcations will be investigated. Students are expected to learn the basic discrete-time formulation of dynamic models for the study of economic systems and to the study of economic policies and to learn an autonomous approach to the problems related to the analysis of systems that evolve over time. Macroeconomic applications of chaos in dynamic models, such as the Solow model and the Kaldor model, will be explored.
The third module (taught by Marco Mazzoli), will provide students with the analytical knowledge of some relevant topics in macroeconomics (Consumption Theory, Investments Theory, an introduction to DSGE - Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models and the methodological tools commonly employed for these topics.
The fourth module (taught by Simone Lombardini) is focused on extensions (sequential to the previous model) of consumption and investment theory, unemployment, monetary policy and financial markets. The lessons will be taught using the flipped classroom methodology.
Finally, the fifth module, taught by Gabriele Cardullo, will cover macroeconomic models of the labour market, namely the search and matching framework.
On the methodological side, this course aims to offer insights on how general theoretical concepts are useful to interpret data collected in various countries and to build theoretical macroeconomic models.
Prerequisites
It is expected that students have prior knowledge of intermediate macro and microeconomics methods and concepts.
Course Materials
Lecture slides will generally contain all the material students are expected to learn.
As concerns the first and the second modules, the lectures will often refer to and closely follow the relevant chapters in:
Romer, D. (2019), Advanced Macroeconomics, Chapters 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11. 5th edition, McGraw-Hill Irwin.
As concerns the second module, Alessia Cafferata will clarify which readings from the following textbook are compulsory and which are optional:
Gandolfo, G. (2009), Economic Dynamics, 4th edition, Springer
The references for the third module are the following:
Lecture notes that will be sent to PhD students at the beginning of the module.
Walsh, Carl, E., “Monetary Theory and Policy”, MIT Press, 2020, or further editions, ch. 8.