The objective of this laboratory is to bring the student toward selecting, reading, understanding and communicating scientific research in the field of economics. Our times are characterized by a deep division between scientific research and diffusion of relevant knowledge in the society and in the popular debate. A student of economics should be able evaluate the merit of economic and policy discussions on the basis of the appropriate findings of the literature, and in particular to select the relevant papers on the basis of the relevance and credibility of their publication, digest the theoretical and empirical material of these papers, realize their limits and their points of strength and weakness, and also communicate their message in a clear way with respect to alternative views. In this laboratory we will select economic issues of various nature, policy questions and aggregate phenomena that can be analyzed with economic tools, and will select relevant papers from the economic literature at the frontier to try to find some answers. In this laboratory, students will be assigned a topic, will have to review the literature through appropriate tools and select a paper, analyze it and be able to summarize, criticize and communicate its message. This will be done by a presentation in class and/or an essays written at home.
The lab takes place inthe second semester.
Those interested in attending the lab should write an email (with "Enrolling Economics Lab" in the object) to lapo.filistrucchi@unifi.it by the end of January 2023.