Second-Year Ph.D. Reading Groups

Four reading groups will be offered: Applied Economics I (1st semester), Finance (1st semester), Economic Theory (2nd semester) and Applied Economics Il (2nd semester).

Second-year PhD students have to choose at least one reading group per semester: satisfying the requirements of each reading group is a necessary condition for admission to the next year of the program.

Third-year and fourth-year Ph.D. students and junior fellows are also welcome to enrol.

Students must inform Ms. Micol Sorrentino in which reading groups they wish to enrol no later than June 30 of the previous academic year.

Objectives. Reading groups will give students the opportunity to explore recent advances in selected areas of applied microeconomics, finance and economic theory. Reading groups aim at cultivating skills that are essential to start and conduct research, by exposing students to a diverse set of cutting-edge contributions. These skills include the ability to critically evaluate the literature, handle data and master new methods, and effectively communicate research questions and findings. Throughout each reading group, students will be encouraged to generate their own research ideas and will receive feedback on those ideas.

Structure. Meetings will occur every week. Reading groups are divided into modules. The typical module length is two weeks, with 3 hours of class meetings per week, except for cases detailed in the program below.

In the first week of each module, instructors present a research topic, with a focus on their own work and how they developed a project at each step (idea, implementation, revision process, etc.), to guide the students in the process.

In the first part of a module, instructors give students a list of papers. Each student must pick one, and prepare a referee report and a presentation for the last meeting of the module.

In the second part of a module, students hand in their referee reports and present them.

At the end of each reading group, students are expected to give a presentation of a research paper they intend to work on during the third year of the Ph.D..

Evaluations. Students will be evaluated on the basis of the following three criteria:
1. Class participation (20 percent)
2. Referee reports (30 percent)
3. Research project proposal (50 percent)

In the spring semester, students have the choice to work on a new research proposal, on top of that prepared in the first semester, or keep working on the previous proposal. In this case, the final evaluation will consider how much progress students made on their projects.

Detailed program: 1st semester

• Week 0: devoted to how to structure presentations and referee reports, and jointly held by all reading groups' coordinators.

Applied Microeconomics I

Coordinators: Michele Giannola, Armando Miano and Valeria Zurla.
lnstructors: Monica Langella, Lorenzo Pandolfi, Andrea Ramazzotti, Marco Stenborg Petterson.

• Week 1: The Economics of Migration, Monica Langella
• Week 2: The Economics of Migration, Monica Langella
• Week 3: Experimental Economics, Lorenzo Pandolfi
• Week 4: Experimental Economics, Lorenzo Pandolfi
• Week 5: Quantitative Economic History and Historical Economics, Andrea Ramazzotti
• Week 6: Quantitative Economic History and Historical Economics, Andrea Ramazzotti
• Week 7: Discrete Choice Models, Marco Stenborg Petterson
• Week 8: Discrete Choice Models, Marco Stenborg Petterson
• Week 9: Students' presentations of research proposal

Finance

Coordinator: Ettore Panetti.
lnstructors: Andrew Ellul, Tommaso Oliviero, Ettore Panetti, Giovanni Walter Puopolo, Alberto Zazzaro.

• Week 1: Asset pricing, Giovanni Walter Puopolo
• Week 2: Asset pricing, Giovanni Walter Puopolo
• Week 3: lnformation and discrimination in credit markets, Alberto Zazzaro
• Week 4: lnformation and discrimination in credit markets, Alberto Zazzaro
• Week 5: Topics in empirical banking, Tommaso Oliviero
• Week 6: Topics in empirical banking, Tommaso Oliviero
• Week 7: Topics in empirical corporate finance, Andrew Ellul
• Week 8: Topics in empirical corporate finance, Andrew Ellul
• Week 9: Theories of financial crises, Ettore Panetti
• Week 10: Theories of financial crises, Ettore Panetti
• Week 11: Students' presentations of research proposal

Detailed program: 2nd semester

Doctoral students are expected to participate to all the weekly seminars organised by the Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), which is located within DISES and collaborates closely with it.