Topic courses
2024-25
Students may enroll in any of the following topic courses by emailing paolo.brunori@unifi.it indicating the list of topics they intend to take by December 15th. If at least 5 students enroll in a course, they will receive confirmation that the course is activated and they are enrolled. Once enrolled in one course, attendance is mandatory.
Carlos Gil-Hernandez – May, 22nd 2025, 2h: Advances in Social Stratification & Inequality Research
Well-being in advanced societies goes well beyond GDP growth, requiring shared prosperity through low economic inequality and equal opportunity in life chances. This topic course introduces key conceptual and analytical tools to study the stratification of socioeconomic inequalities across post-industrial societies from a sociological perspective. Drawing on advances in quantitative social science, it examines the trends, mechanisms, and institutional factors explaining the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status over the life course, from schools to labour markets, amidst emerging technological and demographic challenges
Rossella Bardazzi – TBA, 2h, Energy transition and the energy poor households
The linkages between energy transition path and energy poverty is explored. The household sector is a key player in the path toward the decarbonization process: individuals must be engaged in the deep behavioural changes required in this transformation to avoid the risk of being harmed or ‘left behind’. Firstly, energy poverty is defined and its recent trends in the European Union are described. We then briefly outline the main drivers of this multidimensional phenomenon and the most popular indicators, along with their advantages and pitfalls. Finally, we review recent policy developments in the EU aimed at tackling energy poverty and the social implications of the transition to climate neutrality. Based on empirical evidence from the relevant literature, we discuss the extent to which the proposed policies are sufficient to address the rise in energy poverty, or whether more tailored interventions are needed.
Amaia Palencia-Esteban – May, 15th 2025, 2h: Gender Gaps
Despite substantial progress, gender gaps in labour market outcomes persist. This session will review disparities in job quality, wages, and employment trajectories, exploring several key factors that contribute to these gaps. Discussions will address the influence of educational choices, particularly women’s underrepresentation in STEM fields, as well as occupational and sectoral segregation. We will also examine the role of discrimination and social norms, alongside the significant impact of childbearing and motherhood penalties on women’s labour market experiences. Through these topics, we aim to uncover the root causes of gender disparities and evaluate potential policy solutions.
Eugenio Vicario –TBA, Introduction to Python for ABM (6h)
The objective of the course is to introduce doctoral students to basic Python syntax and data structures to enable them to write and interpret code for simulating simple agent-based models applicable to social sciences. Organization: In the first two hours of the course, students will learn how to use Python both in the cloud and in a local Python environment, execute simple Python commands, and import functionalities from external code libraries. The course will also cover different data types, how to use and write functions, and the use of for and while loops, as well as if, else, and elif statements. In the following 4 hours, using a learning-by-doing approach, doctoral students, divided into small groups, will write code to simulate a simple evolutionary game theory model, in which repeated interactions within a population of agents determine which convention will be established.
Francesco Serti – TBA, 4h, Introduction to Synthetic Control Methods
This seminar explores Synthetic Control Methods (SCM), an empirical approach for causal inference in comparative case studies. SCM constructs a weighted combination of units not exposed to a policy intervention to be used as a counterfactual for those exposed, enabling robust evaluation of policy impacts and interventions. Participants will gain a clear understanding of the methodology, its theoretical foundations, and practical applications, with examples from diverse fields such as economics and social sciences.
Synthetic controls have been recognized as a pivotal innovation in policy evaluation, with Susan Athey and Guido Imbens describing them in a recent Journal of Economic Perspectives survey as "arguably the most important innovation in the policy evaluation literature in the last 15 years." Over the past decade, SCM has been used to study diverse policy issues, including the effects of right-to-carry laws (Donohue et al., 2017), immigration policy (Bohn et al., 2014), corporate political connections (Acemoglu et al., 2016), taxation (Kleven et al., 2013), and organized crime (Pinotti, 2015).
Beyond academia, SCM has gained significant traction in the popular press and has been widely adopted by multilateral organizations, think tanks, business analytics units, government agencies, and consulting firms. This seminar will equip participants with the tools and insights to apply this cutting-edge methodology to their research and policy evaluations.
Maria Grazia Pazienza – TBA, 2h, University education in prison: A Bridge to Rehabilitation and Social Integration
Access to higher education in prisons is a fundamental element in the process of rehabilitation and social reintegration of inmates. This seminar will explore the multiple dimensions of the importance of higher education in the prison context, analysing both practical and theoretical aspects.
University programmes in prisons generate private and external benefits at several levels: as regards the latter, they significantly reduce recidivism rates, increase the chances of finding employment after imprisonment and contribute to improving the climate within prisons, including aspects such as the creation of spaces with characteristics similar to "public goods" and the coexistence of students from different backgrounds, both in terms of criminality and geographical origin. From an individual perspective, access to higher education allows inmates to develop linguistic, critical and relational skills, strengthen self-esteem and maintain a constructive link with the outside world. Last but not least, benefits have also been identified for the university institution itself, both in terms of relationships with very different institutions and for the critical growth of the teachers themselves. University education in prisons is not only a guarantee of the right to education provided by the Italian Constitution, but also a "third mission" action, i.e. an investment by society as a whole.
Stefano Clò – TBA, 6h, Energy markets reforms and policy goals: which interplay?
The course explores major reforms in electricity markets, focusing on privatization, liberalization, and low-carbon policies. It examines whether policy goals like decarbonization can be met within reformed markets, emphasizing the government’s role as both regulator and market participant. Students will present papers about government roles in energy markets, focusing on key ideas to cover all topics concisely.
Vieri Calogero – TBA, 6h, Economics of Complexity: Theory and Applications
The course examines the concept of Economic Complexity, a framework for indirectly measuring a region's productive capabilities based on the spatial distribution of economic activities. Over the past decade, the study of economic complexity has advanced through significant theoretical and methodological contributions, including the introduction of Relatednes metrics—tools that measure the overall affinity between specific activities and locations to explain path dependency—and the development of Complexity and Fitness metrics. These metrics use data on the geography of activities to estimate the availability, diversity, and sophistication of local capabilities, enabling predictions of future economic dynamics. Economic complexity offers a powerful paradigm for understanding key societal challenges and issues of our time, such as the green transition, development and technological change, income inequality, and productivity polarization.
Jacopo Bencini – TBS, 2h Decarbonizing the global economy through UN negotiations: the (almost) impossible challenge of the climate COPs.
After 30 years of Conference of the Parties, trying to concretize the provisions of the 1992 Rio Convention, global GHG emissions are still not declining at the pace the IPCC indicated to contain global warming by 1.5C by the end of the century. Political impasses, diplomatic frictions and a quickly evolving geopolitical landscape are all contributing to making the COP process slow and sometimes byzantine for outside observers, but still, the same process managed to lead to the Paris Agreement, the first of its kind bottom-up international legal instrument in the governance of global public goods. Many factors, however, influence how COPs are tackling the climate crisis, with very different political and policy outcomes every year. In this seminar, participants will have the opportunity to grasp knowledge and intel on how the COPs really work from a climate diplomacy expert who attended more than ten UNFCCC summits.
Andrea Ferrannini – TBA, 6h, Strategies for the Revitalization of Public Heritage for the Common Good: The Cases of Pratolino and Mondeggi Note that this class will take place in Villa Demidoff, Pratolino (FI), easily reachable from Florence by bus (AT 25).
This seminar is meant to discuss strategies for the revitalization of local public heritage for the common good, in the sense of contributing to inclusive and sustainable wellbeing at local level. Indeed, the regeneration and revitalization of local public heritage represents a potential lever to multiplying the social and economic opportunities of the people who inhabit and will inhabit the local area, while respecting the environmental ecosystem and natural resources. This topic is addressed by focusing on two specific case-studies: 1) the enhancement of Parco Mediceo di Pratolino (a monumental complex owned by the Metropolitan City of Florence located in the municipality of Vaglia), with the ambition of making it a lively and accessible place for all citizens of the metropolitan territory and visitors, through improvements from a management and organizational point of view; 2) the regeneration and revitalization of the Tenuta of Villa Mondeggi (a public estate consisting of 170 hectares of land divided into six agricultural estates with associated rural houses and one manor house, all again owned by the Metropolitan City of Florence), which is object of a significant public investment (funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan) to create a new platform of innovation and social inclusion.
These two case studies are presented and discussed to highlight different strategies, issues, and factors affecting the revitalization of local public heritage.
Marco Mantovani – TBA, 2h, Fiat money in the lab
Impersonal exchange is fundamental to human societies. It expands the set of feasible allocations and the size of achievable gains-from-trade. However impersonal exchange is hard to sustain, as it requires cooperation in the absence of punishment, reputation and monitoring mechanisms. Fiat money is an institution that, among other purposes, is designed to facilitate impersonal exchange. The course covers experiments studying fiat money in laboratory experiments. After reviewing the literature studying whether money improves efficient exchanges in experimental economies, we will study more recent papers addressing sophisticated forms of money, trying to answer urgent questions on the potential of digital currencies issued by monetary authorities.
PREVIOUS TOPIC COURSES:
"Modelli di Impatto e Valutazione Socio Ambientale"
Tommaso Rondinella - Fondazione Finanza Etica
June 13th, 2024 - Room Melis
"Sustainability and the extraction of minerals in Colombia"
Saldarriaga Isaza - UNAL Colombia Medellín
June 6th, 2024 - Room Melis
"EFA and CFA"
Lamberto Zollo - University of Milan
May 30th, 2024 - Room Melis
"SMEs and Start-ups engagement with sustainability"
Roberta Discetti - Bournemouth University
May 16th, 2024 - Room Melis
"Visualization of Data with R"
Paolo Brunori - University of Florence
May 2nd-9th-23rd, 2024 - Room Melis
"Introduction to Python for ABM"
Eugenio Vicario - University of Florence
May 2nd-9th-16th, 2024 - Room Melis
"Energy Poverty & Energy Communities"
Rossella Bardazzi & Maria Grazia Pazienza - University of Florence
May 2nd-9th, 2024 - Room Melis
"Investimenti Sostenibili & Shareholder Engagement"
Lorenzo Tacconi & Ilaria Ghaleb - Fondazione Finanza Etica
April 18th, 2024 - Room Bracco
"Privatization and Liberalization of Public Utilities"
Stefano Clò - University of Florence
April, 11th-18th
"Play for Social Change: Sustainability & Education"
Matteo Bisanti - University of Florence
March 21st, 2024 - Room Ceccherelli
"Donation and Prosocial Behaviors"
Dario Menicagli & Costanza Usai - University of Florence
March 7th, 2024 - Room D5/0.02
"Commonspoly"
Attività Ludiche e Riflessioni sul Tema dei Beni Comuni
Fondazione Finanza Etica - Federica Ielasi, University of Florence
Room D6/0.04
"Satellite Imagery and Other Geodata for Economics and Societal Well-being"
Reginald Archer - Tennessee State University
February 22nd, 2024 - Room D6/2.03
"Bibliometric Analyses and Literature Reviews: Theory and Practice"
Giacomo Marzi - IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
January 27th, 2024 - Online
"Epistemic opacity in sustainability assessment - philosophical, methodological and practical implications"
Manfroni Michele - Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
January 18th, 2024 - Room D6/1.04
Last update
01.12.2024