Teaching

In the strategic plan of the University of Bologna, in relation to PhDs, the following objectives are set, among others:
- qualifying the doctorate in an international dimension and strengthening its role in the productive world and in public administration;
- improving the professional prospects of PhDs by increasing orientation activities and training activities aimed at acquiring soft skills;
- planning and recognizing doctoral teaching through the development of a shared formal system.

To achieve these goals, in the second half of 2023, a training plan dedicated to the development of the Soft Skills of PhD students will be implemented, in an initial trial phase.

The main training areas will be:

- research enhancement and communication;
- methods, techniques and tools;
- future-planning.

PhD Public GoMaP PhD students are invited to enroll to and attend the following courses:

• Communicating research: Scientific Public Speaking.

The program offers 3 modules on Open Science principles and practices
1) PhD Information Literacy, Open Access & Copyright Workshop;
2) Research data management and Open Science principles;
3) Valuing research to generate impact.

• Career guidance for non-academic career development [for 1st year PhD students not already employed and not interested in changing]

Goals

The course recalls the essential elements of the methodology and methods of social research and offers the foundations for the application of statistical methods to support public policies.
At the end of the course, students:
- are familiar with the fundamental elements of a research report, also from a methodological point of view;
- know the characteristics and contents of the main national and international official statistical sources;
- are able to plan an empirical research with direct data collection through a sample survey;
- know the fundamental principles of statistical inference and have the basis for learning the techniques of causal inference;
- recognize the distinction between monitoring public policy outcomes and impact assessment with tools of causal inference.

Teaching plan
(1) Introduction to social research methods
- Difference between scientific knowledge and ordinary knowledge;
- Specificity of knowledge of the social sciences with respect to the natural sciences;
- Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology of the social sciences;
- The design of research in the social sciences;
- Sources (direct and indirect);
- The role of the researcher;
- Quantitative methods and qualitative methods;
- Some examples of empirical research

(2) Principles and methods of applied statistical analysis
- The measurement problem
- Sample surveys and primary data collection
- Secondary data - The main national and international statistical sources
- Descriptive statistics
- Inferential statistics
- The regression model
- Introduction to causal inference
- Applied statistics: Examples to support public policies and statistical software

Goals

The course provides the tools which are necessary for understanding the challenges to current governance in view of its more adequate management and organization, in synergy with the digitization and innovation processes underway at local, national and international level.

Plan

(1) Comparative and European public law: theoretical and practical aspects of legal comparison in public law, with particular reference to the European legal area; methodological knowledge and analytical skills to apply the comparative methodology in their theses, according to the research objectives; foreign law and comparison for the activities of national and EU administrations, with notions on the comparative discipline of coordination instruments between national/regional/local administrations and the EU and on environmental protection in the European legal area.
(2) Governance: basic notions on the processes of global governance, with particular attention to the actors, the issues, the coordination dynamics and the challenges determined by the globalization context; multilevel governance in the field of national and supranational welfare, with a focus on institutional and policy change, analysis of new social risks and comparative analysis of welfare systems.
(3) Public policies and organization: theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools for the analysis of public policies and the study of complex organizations; analysis of public policies and organizational studies (the topics covered in the module will be discussed with the help of practical cases drawn from recent empirical research); policy tools and policy design, analysis of decision making processes, relationship between formal and real organization, strategic behavior of organizational actors, processes of innovation and change in public organizations.

Goals

The course covers the main topics in the public management area, illustrating the essential characteristics, and the implications for management studies, of the different models that have settled and have been studied over time. In particular, the traditional model of public administration, New Public Management, Public Governance, and alternative models (e.g. digitization, social equity, sustainability) will be explored in the first lessons. The course offers specific insights on topics of relevance to public management, including economics and social innovation, diversity and inclusion, sustainable development, marketing of public services and financial sustainability.

At the end of the course, students:
° will know the main fields of study in the field of public management, the relative methodological approaches adopted, and will be aware of their evolution over time;
° will be able to develop a literature review on public management, identify possible gaps, and hypothesize possible research questions;
° will be able to critically identify current public management problems and place them in relation to their respective research lines;
° will have acquired knowledge relating to entrepreneurship and innovation, qualifying the potential aspects of creating public value;
° will have understood the contribution of marketing, both in terms of managerial orientation and operational tools available.

Plan

1) Introduction to public management, general concepts and frameworks (from managerialism to public governance, from digital governance to equity and sustainability);
2) Economy, entrepreneurship and social innovation;
3) Equity, diversity, inclusion and entrepreneurial ecosystems;
4) Sustainable development in the co-creation of public value;
5) Organizational autonomy: expectations and impacts;
6) Marketing in public services;
7) Sustainability and financial vulnerability.

Goals

The course presents the elements which are useful for understanding the reasons, methods and consequences of public intervention. The fundamental theoretical elements and the knowledge useful for understanding the allocative, redistributive and stabilizing role of the public sector and the main economic aspects of public intervention in the economy achieved through the various forms of regulation, public expenditure and taxation are discussed.
Examples of policies are presented with reference to the sphere of health and welfare policies, national and international taxation and market regulation policies. The effects of the reactions and behaviors of taxpayers and beneficiaries of public intervention on the pursuit of the objectives of efficiency and equity are discussed, and how their knowledge can be exploited to improve the design of public policies. The dimension of the attribution of public policy responsibilities to the different levels of government (supranational, national and local) and the interactions between these different levels (fiscal rules, equalizing transfers, cohesion policies) are also explored.

At the end of the course, the students:
· are familiar with the essential elements useful for understanding the reasons, methods and consequences of public intervention;
· know the characteristics and contents of some examples of public policies and possible interdependencies;
· are able to understand the role of individual and business behavior in designing an effective policy.

Within the second year of the doctorate and subject to the approval of the teaching board, Phd students continue their learning by attending additional doctoral elective courses offered by the teaching staff at the four related departments in relation to the specific research areas of the thesis project. Among these, at the Department of Political Science (SPS) (only the main training activities are listed):

a) Doctorate in Political and Social Sciences (EN)
https://phd.unibo.it/pss/en
Contents: Big Data for the Social Sciences; Political Research Methods; Research Design for Social and Political Research; Understanding Political Dynamics.

b) Master's Degree in Politics, Administration and Organization (IT/EN)
https://corsi.unibo.it/[…]/PoliticaAmministazioneOrganisation
Content: Comparative public administrations; Governance and public policies; PA law; Company organization and structures; local public services policies; prediction and the future of public policy; organization analysis; HR organizational strategies.

c) Master's Degree in Local and Global Development (IT)
https://corsi.unibo.it/magistrale/SviluppoLocaleGlobale
Content: Sociology of innovation and sustainable development; organizational and institutional processes; Regional economic policies; Project management, monitoring and evaluation.

d) Master's Degree in Public and Corporate Journalistic Communication (IT)
https://corsi.unibo.it/[…]/ComunicazionePubblicaImpresa
Content: Information techniques and practices; Digital Journalism; Social stratification and economic inequality (EN); Public communication

e) Master's Degree in Governance and Digital Innovation Policies (IT)
https://corsi.unibo.it/[…]/PoliticheInnovazioneDigitale
Content: Governance of innovation in PAs; IT Methods for Digital Transformation; Analysis And Evaluation Of Public Policies; Governance And PA Law; Politics in the digital age; Society, algorithms and digital transition; Digital platforms, data and the public sphere; Institutions, decisions and change; Cybersecurity Governance; Activation policies and welfare platforms; Health Policies and Digital Transformation; Environmental and social sustainability in the public sector.

Within the second year of the doctorate and subject to the approval of the College, candidates continue their learning by attending additional doctoral elective courses offered by the teaching staff at the four related departments in relation to the specific research areas of the thesis project. Among these, at the Department of Management (DISA) (only the main training activities are listed):

a) PhD in Management (EN)
https://phd.unibo.it/management/en
Contents: Strategic Management, Marketing Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Corporate Finance, Economics and Management of Innovation, Research in Accounting.

b) Master's Degree in Social Economy Management (IT)
https://corsi.unibo.it/magistrale/EconomiaSociale
Contents: Management of social and cooperative enterprises, Social economy, Mission and accountability of cooperative enterprises, Welfare and third sector policies, Third sector law, Economic ethics, Business plan for social entrepreneurship, Finance for non-profit companies, Economics development and international cooperation.

Within the second year of the doctorate and subject to the approval of the College, candidates continue their education by attending additional doctoral elective courses offered by the teaching staff at the four related departments in relation to the specific research areas of the thesis project. Among these, at the Department of Economics (DSE) (only the main training activities are listed):

a) Doctorate in Economics (EN)
https://phd.unibo.it/economics/en/phd-programme
Contents: Experimental Economics –Topics, Behavioral Law and Economics and Enforcement Mechanisms, Experimental Economics – Methods, Climate Macroeconomics and Finance, Nudging, Political Economy, Comparative Development, Institutions and Demography, Text as a source of data, Topics in Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Agents .

b) Master's degree in Economics - LMEC, Resource Economics and Sustainable Development - RESD (EN)
https://corsi.unibo.it/2cycle/lmec
https://corsi.unibo.it/[…]/ResourceEconomicsSustainableDevelopment
Contents: Advanced Panel Data Methods, Behavioral Economics, Political Economy in Macroeconomics, Introduction to Python for Econometrics, Advanced Microeconometrics, History of Economic Thought, Machine Learning For Economists, Structural Macroeconomics, Economic Development, Public Economics, International Monetary Economics, Causal Inference and Program Evaluation, Theory and Empirics of Comparative Development, Labor Economics, GIS Tools Laboratory, Research Methods and Communication; Resource Valuation and Decision Making Methods, Regional and Transport Economics.

c) Master's degree in Economics and Economic Policy, curriculum Economics and Economic Policy and curriculum Health Economics, Management and Policy (IT/EN)
https://corsi.unibo.it/magistrale/HealthEconomicsManagement
Contents: Industrial and Antitrust Policies, Quantitative Methods, Advanced Econometrics, Health Economics, Welfare State and Taxation (Economics of Taxation, Public Policies and Income Redistribution), Environmental Economics and Policy, Regulatory Economics, Community Policies and Regulation.

As part of the research activity of the departments, in-depth seminars on specific topics are organized in which PhD students can participate.