Students will gain the basic knowledge to assess the relationships between international relations and economic policy. In particular, they will be able to understand the role of institutions conceived as spaces of mediation referring to different levels of government potentially capable of positively and negatively affecting economic performance. They will also be able to understand the debate on major fiscal and monetary policies in open economies. They will know the role of the main international macroeconomic institutions and will be able to analyze them in a historical and evolutionary perspective. In particular, they will have delved into international economic policies in the new global context characterized by a trend toward friend-shoring and rearmament.
There are no special pre-requisites.
Teaching will take place through face-to-face lectures, but with a focus on discussion and direct dialogue with students, who will be able, during lectures, to formulate proposals for further study or debate. There will be contributions from external experts who will connect online during some lectures.
The oral examination will be geared toward proving the student's argumentative ability in relation to the issues addressed in the classroom from the analysis of texts, case studies and theoretical and institutional contextualization of the topics.
The aim of the course is to show the importance of economic policy in different institutional contexts. Particular attention will be paid to the different objectives that monetary and trade policies can assume for different international actors.
The contemporary debate on economic policy in the European and global scenario will focus on the following topics: Macroeconomic policies. The balance of payments. Protectionism. The centralisation of capital. Friend-shoring. The evolution of the international monetary system. The International Monetary Fund: tasks, operation and problems. The economic policy of the EMU: tasks, functioning and problems. Economic and institutional crises. Economic conditions for war and economic conditions for peace.
Reading list
Guidi M., Poletti A. (2024), Politiche dell'economia globale, Mondadori (Attending students: ch. 1; ch. 3, but not 3.2.2 e 3.3.3; ch. 4. Not-attending students: ch. 1, ch. 2, ch. 3, ch. 4).
Lucarelli S. (2025), Il tempo di Ares. Politiche internazionali, "leggi" economiche e guerre, Mondadori.
Pasinetti, L. L., Mariutti, G., Globalizzazione economica: incentivi, ostacoli e sproporzioni, in Accademia Di Scienza E Lettere, I. L. (ed.), Globalizzazione e trasmissione di modelli culturali e formativi, Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto per Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienza e Lettere., Milano 2007: 235- 273.
Schettino F., L'impatto della crisi su povertà e disuguaglianza, Materialismo Storico, 8(1), 2020, https://journals.uniurb.it/index.php/materialismostorico/article/view/2353
Gobbi L., De-dollarizzazione: la sfida dei paesi BRICS, Moneta e Credito, Dicembre 2023, https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/moneta_e_credito/article/view/18421
Other readings indicated during class by the lecturer.
