Presentation

© Università di Bologna

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna is the oldest university in the western world and is the best public university in Italy (World University Ranking 2021 by Times Higher Education).

The Department of Economics is among the largest in Europe and it offers excellent research and teaching. Established in 1983 through the union of two pre-existing institutes, it has become a reference point for scientific debate in economics, and it currently hosts a lively community of international researchers and students.

Research

Research at our Department covers 16 different fields, with high quality standards, and helps to understand and address fundamental problems such as poverty, inequality, development, employment, climate and technological change, immigration, health and many others.

• RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) in 2022 ranks our Department among the best Economics departments worldwide, at no. 1 in Italy, no. 14 in Europe and no. 41 in the world.
• According to the Tilburg University Economics Ranking 2016-2020, our Department is the only one of a public university in Italy among the top 100 worldwide in Economics.
• According to the QS World University Ranking in 2022 the University of Bologna is the only public university in Italy among the top 100 worldwide in Economics and Econometrics. 

At the beginning of 2018, our Department was funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the "Departments of Excellence" program for 2018-2022 and 2023-2027.

Teaching

The educational offer includes 4 three-year degree courses (Economics, markets and institutions, Economics of tourism, Economics and finance, Economics, politics and social sciences), 6 two-year master's degree courses (Applied economics and markets; Economics and econometrics; Economics and public policy; Health economics and management; Resource economics and sustainable development; Tourism economics and management), 3 professional masters (Economics of cooperation, International Management, Quantitative Risk Management), and 2 doctorates (Economics; Public Governance, Management e Policy).

 The University of Bologna ranks 1st among state universities for the quality of teaching in economics in the Censis ranking of Italian universities 2021-2022, both at the level of first cycle and master's degrees.

Department and society

Our Department actively spreads its research findings among the civil society, orients high school students and contributes to the debate on Italian and international economic policy.