The second cycle degree programme inEconomics and Public Policy (LMEPP) aims to train professional economists whoare able to analyse, manage and estimate the value of the public interventionin the economy.
LMEPP focusses on interventions toencourage an efficient use of resources in the economy by supplyinginfrastructure, goods and services, regulating economic behaviour, establishingstandards, approving tax reliefs, and providing information in sectorscharacterised by market failures. In the global competitive framework, usingresources more efficiently is increasingly important. This makes professionaleconomists who are able to analyse, manage and estimate the value of the publicintervention in the economy extremely useful and sought-after both in thepublic sector and within private organisations that operate in highly regulatedenvironments.
LMEPP offers a curriculum that providesstudents with theoretical and quantitative tools applied to a number of areasof public intervention in the economy – from environmental and developmentpolicies, to policies to reduce poverty and inequality, from social securityand tax policies, to antitrust and market regulation policies, from educationand labour policies, to international trade policies, as well as healthpolicies. Attention is paid to the peculiar interaction of the public policyand the private sector, which characterises healthcare, and its growingimportance in the economy of the countries.
At the end of the programme, graduates willhave acquired specialist knowledge and competencies in the area of publiceconomics and its applications in government intervention across the variousmarkets, in the cost-benefit and impact analysis of policies, in bargainingtechniques, in the legal and management fundamentals of public administration,and in regulatory actions in sectors characterised by market failures. Giventhe importance of measuring the effectiveness of any intervention, by taking anapproach inspired by empirical evidence, and given the growing number of dataavailable, special attention is paid to gaining advanced skills in programmingwith open-source languages, in order to collect and organise databases, analysepublic policies from a statistical and econometric viewpoint, and design andcarry out field tests to assess them.
The curriculum for the first year focusseson public economics, quantitative (statistical and econometric) methods, publicregulation and management of the economy, while the specialist courses of thesecond year focus on the various areas that are relevant to public policies.Students are given the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of microeconomicpublic policies in general, or concentrate on health policies in particular.
To allow students from first cycle degreesthat do not provide sufficient training in the areas of economics andstatistics to gain this knowledge quickly, the study plan can be supplementedwith preparatory course units in those areas. Alongside traditional lectures,students will be able to discuss the main current topics of public policy atseminars and workshops. These activities allow students to acquire publicspeaking, communication and effective policy report writing skills as well.Students will also be offered public policy seminars held by external expertsfrom institutions tasked with designing, implementing and assessing policies,or from public regulatory authorities, particularly in the sector of healthpolicy and economics. These seminars will give students the opportunity to dealwith and discuss case studies and real-life examples.
