This course has the target of providing the students with the modern techniques of measuring
quantitatively advanced topics in economic statistics. In particular, our focus will be on
three main interrelated directions: 1) the analysis of production and efficiency, specifically
in the private but also in the public sectors, 2) economic dynamics of sectorial systems
founded on micro data, 3) growth, ICT and technology in the modern economy.
This course uses statistical methods, both stochastic and deterministic, to analyze
topics such as productivity, efficiency and growth at micro, sectorial, and for coherence at
macro level. We first take into exam data from firms that will be useful for the mentioned
three-level study, then, as regards the efficiency analysis of productive units, such data will
be employed in order to evaluate mergers and acquisitions of plants and firms and management
of productive factors. Efficiency will be evaluated from the sides of costs, profits
and revenues. As for the sectorial analysis, static and dynamic models will be considered
to allow for forecasts and simulations in each sector for variables like production, labour,
capital, raw materials, prices and capital gains. As a consequence, an aggregate analysis
on the production, growth and prices will follow. We also deal with ICT and technical
progress in the production process considering how and if the associated externalities are
effective. We will use the following techniques for data analysis: accounting rules for the
database, panel data econometrics, (possibly) time series analysis for systems of equations,
methods for differential equation systems. Topics on private and also public sectors will
contribute to explain the relationship between economic structure and the actual crisis.
Specifically, lectures also include the examinations of cases study concerning the efficiency
and productivity analysis on the recent patterns of the banking sector in the international
context.
Two main parts characterize the course. The first part considers the sectorial productivity
analysis, the second part the efficiency and productivity analysis of firms (micro
level).