- Docente: Matteo Falagiarda
- Credits: 6
- SSD: SECS-P/01
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Blended Learning
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Law and Economics (cod. 5913)
-
from Sep 17, 2024 to Dec 10, 2024
Learning outcomes
This course studies the purpose and the functions of central banks and monetary policies and how they have evolved over time. Students are introduced to the tools of monetary policy and to the rules that central banks follow, with special attention to inflation targets. At the end of the course students know the effects of the main policy tools and understand how central banks affect the financial system and the economy more generally and the role they have played in the recent financial crisis.
Course contents
1. Money
Introduction to money
The demand for money
Central bank money and money supply
Equilibrium in the money market
Money creation in practice
2. Interest rates and exchange rates
An introduction to interest rates
Interest rates and risk
The yield curve
The interest rate pass-through
An introduction to exchange rates
The drivers of exchange rates
3. Central Banks: Functions, goals and strategies
An introduction to central banks
Monetary policy strategies: inflation targeting and exchange rate targeting
Features of a successful central bank: independence, accountability, transparency
4. Central Banks: Structures
The European Central Bank
The Federal Reserve
5. Conventional monetary policy
Open market operations
Standing facilities
Minimum reserve requirements
Foreign exchange interventions
6. Unconventional monetary policy
Malfunctioning interbank markets in the aftermath of the GFC
Sovereign debt tensions and the zero lower bound
Quantitative and credit easing, forward guidance and negative rates
The monetary policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic
High inflation, monetary policy tightening and the TPI
7. Monetary policy transmission
Transmission channels
The time lags of monetary policy
Business cycle fluctuations and monetary policy
8. Taylor rules and Phillips curves
9. Potential side effects of monetary policy
Distributional effects
Asset price booms
Other potential side effects
10. Economics of a monetary union
Readings/Bibliography
Cecchetti, S. and Schoenholtz (2017) “Money, Banking and Financial Markets”, McGraw-Hill Education International Edition, Fifth Edition. (Or more recent)
Teaching methods
The course will be delivered online through a mix of traditional lectures, class discussions on the basis of case studies, and presentation of short videos to stimulate discussion in the classroom.
Assessment methods
Student assessment will be based on an online oral examination. Active participation in the class will be taken into account.
Teaching tools
The course will take place in online mode, using as support powerpoint presentations, videos, online questionnaires, material from central banks' websites, scientific articles, and readings from the specialized press.
Office hours
See the website of Matteo Falagiarda