ECTS: 6

Year: 2

Semester: II

Instructor: Giulio Cifarelli

In the course the following topics shall be discussed: the foreign exchange market and the main financial markets; the efficient markets approach and the statistical properties of the financial time series; the monetary approach to the Balance of Payments and the portfolio balance approach; the exchange rate regimes and the "fear of floating" debate; the recent (excess) foreign exchange reserve policy of central banks; the theory of (ir)rational speculative bubbles; the recent financial crises and the literature on contagion; the relevance of speculation and the interaction between fundamentalists and chartists.