Research Overview
The Department of Economics and Management has 67 members covering with their research almost every aspect of modern economic analysis and its applications. Our researchers engage actively with policy makers, national and international businesses, and the society.
Since its foundation, the Department has also developed scientific relations with other Italian and foreign universities, research institutes and top international researchers. The department runs several research events, weekly research seminars, and an international four-year PhD programme. It also funds several postdoctoral positions and research visits within the Research Visiting Senior Fellowship programme.
Our research is published in leading international journals and several national and international rankings position us among the leading research institutions in Italy for economics and management. We were nominated “Department of Excellence for research” in 2018 by the Italian Ministry of Education, and rank first among medium size universities in economics, business and statistics in the last national research assessment exercise (ANVUR 2011-2014). Internationally, the QS World University Rankings ranks us among the top-150 departments, and the Times Higher Education among the top-250 departments worldwide, with a consistent upward trajectory in the last years.
While the boundaries among research areas are often overlapping and the department hosts a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment, our main research areas are:
Accounting
Members of this group have published in journals such as:
Academic Management Journal, European Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies.
Most of their research focuses on:
- Banking and finance
The Banking and Finance research area investigates the role of financial and information intermediaries in the financial markets, determinants and effects of banking systems, corporate finance and governance of listed and private firms. Banking and Finance deploys quantitative methods, theoretical models and case studies. The results of this area of research are relevant for market participants, banks, listed and private firms, as well as policy-makers.
Members:
Cinzia Baldan
Bruno Buchetti
Camilla Ciappei
Marco Ghitti
Bruno Maria Parigi
Salvatore Perdichizzi
Francesco Zen
- Financial accounting
The Financial Accounting research area focuses on the role of accounting principles (IFRS and/or US-GAAP) and corporate disclosure in increasing market efficiency. Particular effort is put in investigating: the trade-off between reliability and relevance of accounting information; management discretionality in providing accounting information; market participants' reactions to corporate disclosure. Financial Accounting deploys mainly quantitative methods using international databases and hand-collected data. The results of this area of research are relevant for market participants, managers, standard setters, and practitioners.
Members:
Bruno Buchetti
Fabio Buttignon
Fabrizio Cerbioni
Camilla Ciappei
Michele Fabrizi
Marco Ghitti
Andrea Menini
Antonio Parbonetti
Amedeo Pugliese
Elena Sapienza
Francesco Zen
Economics
Members of this group have published in journals such as:
American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the European Economic Association.
Most of their research focuses on:
- Applied economics and econometrics: labor, education, health and ageing.
The questions developed in the area "Applied economics and econometrics" range from labour economics, to education economics, health and ageing economics and economics of institutions. Often the purpose of the research projects carried out in the area is that of estimating the causal effects of policy interventions, reforms or institutional changes in the labour market or other domains. In other cases, policy interventions are used to identify the causal effects of individual decisions, such as investment in human capital or retirement, on income, consumption and health behaviours among others. In addition, attention is devoted to questions such as gender inequality, the effects of immigration on several several socio-economic outcomes, the role of different types on secondary education on subsequent outcomes, how families choose their children school, the cultural determinants of self-employment and many others.
Members:
Marco Bertoni
Giorgio Brunello
Martina Celidoni
Chiara Dal Bianco
Donata Favaro
Angelica Gianfreda
Elisabetta Lodigiani
Andreas Menzel
Martina Miotto
Luca Nunziata
Vincenzo Rebba
Enrico Rettore
Lorenzo Rocco
Alessia Russo
Elisa Tosetti
Guglielmo Weber
- Economic analysis in a historical perspective
This research area deals with the different economic theories and methodological approaches that have characterized economic science since its early beginning. It aims at understanding how economists have faced economic problems, have developed them in their theoretical contributions, and have given insights to work out economic policies in different periods and countries.
Members:
Arrigo Opocher
Stefano Solari
Gianfranco Tusset
- Economic geography and regional science
This area investigates the economic role of space, specifically the drivers and the economic effects of the geographical concentration of firms and industries. The research activity involves different spatial levels (industrial districts, clusters, cities, regions and countries) and different approaches (like new economic geography, evolutionary economic geography and network analysis). Particular emphasis is given to the geography of innovation and foreign direct investments.
Members:
Roberto Antonietti
Marco Bettiol
Chiara Burlina
Giulio Cainelli
Donata Favaro
Roberto Ganau
Silvia Rita Sedita
Stefano Solari
- Energy, environmental economics and environmental sustainability
This area involves two main research lines. One is energy economics, where researchers: (i) calibrate theoretical models on the optimal investment strategy in energy infrastructures; (ii) study the industrial organization of energy markets. The other is environmental economics and management, where researchers analyse: (i) the determinants, characteristics and economic effects of environmental innovations; (ii) the circular economy and its impacts on firms and business practices; (iii) the link between environmental regulation and production offshoring.
Members:
Roberto Antonietti
Marco Buso
Giulio Cainelli
Marta Castellini
Valentina De Marchi
Cesare Dosi
Fulvio Fontini
Duccio Gamannossi degl'Innocenti
Angelica Gianfreda
Michele Moretto
Silvia Rita Sedita
- Macroeconomics and macroeconometrics
The aim of conducting research in macroeconomics is that of understanding causes and consequences of business cycle fluctuations. The identification of the drivers of the business cycle, the modelling and investigation of the mechanisms via which macroeconomic shocks can affect output and inflation, and the study of the role that macroeconomic policies (in particular, fiscal and monetary policies) can play in avoiding recessions or excessive price volatility are crucial aspects of this discipline. State-of-the-art research comprises the identification of non-linearities in the above mentioned transmission mechanisms as well as the distributional consequences of macroeconomic policy interventions.
Members:
Giovanni Caggiano
Nunzio Cappuccio
Efrem Castelnuovo
Lorenzo Forni
Giovanni Pellegrino
- Microeconomics and industrial organization
This research area is devoted to the analysis of individual and group decision making with particular emphasis on strategic behavior and decision under risk and uncertainty and also to the study of industrial organization - i.e. the analysis of the way firms organize their activities/strategies, compete with one another, react to incentives and public policies - and it features strong coverage of information economics, contracting issues, and game theory.
Members:
Marco Buso
Riccardo Camboni
Marta Castellini
Giuseppe Danese
Fulvio Fontini
Luciano Giovanni Greco
Edoardo Grillo
Leonardo Madio
Fabio Manenti
Michele Moretto
Antonio Nicolo'
Arrigo Opocher
Bruno Maria Parigi
Orestis Troumpounis
Paola Valbonesi
- Public economics and political economy
This research area is devoted to the analysis of market and government failures. The main focus is on the design of public and private institutions and government policies considering efficiency and social justice criteria. Methodological approaches are based on applied economic theory and empirical economics (e.g., econometric analysis, experimental studies). Typical issues that are analyzed by researchers in this field are the public provision of public and private goods; taxation; social security, health policies, and social public expenditure; cost-benefit analysis and public investments; market regulation; social choice and collective decisions; voting mechanisms and political institutions; fiscal federalism; public-private interactions; public finance and public debt management.
Members:
Thomas Bassetti
Marco Bertoni
Roberto Bonfatti
Marco Buso
Riccardo Camboni
Martina Celidoni
Lorenzo Forni
Duccio Gamannossi degl'Innocenti
Roberto Ganau
Luciano Giovanni Greco
Edoardo Grillo
Leonardo Madio
Antonio Nicolo'
Vincenzo Rebba
Alessia Russo
Stefano Solari
Orestis Troumpounis
Paola Valbonesi
Management
Members of this group have published in journals such as:
Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Research Policy.
Most of their research focuses on:
- Operations management, entrepreneurship and innovation
This area focus on two topics: technological and behavioral underpinnings of operational excellence and 2) analysis of the determinants and the economic effects of innovation and technological change. Research is mainly focused on: (i) the industrial organization of internet and high technology markets; (ii) the effects of robotics, artificial intelligence, automation and the Internet of Things on productivity and employment at firm, regional and country-level; (iii) business model innovation, i.e. how to change business models for enhancing the sustainability of the business.
Members:
Fiorenza Belussi
Marco Bettiol
Giuseppe Danese
Valentina De Marchi
Eleonora Di Maria
Ivan De Noni
Andrea Furlan
Ambra Galeazzo
Marco Ugo Paiola
Silvia Rita Sedita
- Organization and human resource management
This research area deals with the problems of design, implementation and management of structures and operating systems connected to the behavior of people in the organization of companies. The studies concern the organizational forms and mechanisms that carry out coordination between specialized units at a structural level; the organizational translation of strategies and the management of organizational change; the organization of work and operational processes for the production of goods and services; the roles and tasks of individuals and work groups; the organization of information systems, their impact on indivual and group behaviour and on the relathionships between internal and external organizational units; the management of human resources and incentive and control systems; the evolution of forms, organizational populations and theoretical tools developed to explain and predict their behavior and performance.
Current research projects of the group of research include the following topics: organizational resilience, hybrid jobs, career management, management and organization of internationalization processes, entrepreneurship and family business.
Members:
Enrico Carlet
Diego Campagnolo
Martina Gianecchini
Paolo Gubitta
Simona Leonelli
Enrico Marcazzan
Alessandra Tognazzo
- Social responsibility
This research area focuses on social innovation and new business model generation, social and environmental performance measurement, social & integrated reporting, corporate disclosure, stakeholder management & engagement and strategic philanthropy. It deploys qualitative and quantitative methods on international database as well as case analysis, surveys and interviews. It is a multidisciplinary research area merging scholars from economics and management.
Members:
Giacomo Boesso
Fabrizio Cerbioni
Eleonora Di Maria
Fulvio Fontini
Alberto Lanzavecchia
Silvia Pilonato