Elective Courses

During the BA in Economics: Behaviour, Data and Policy (ECON), students are required to obtain 18 ECTS from elective activities. From the second year onwards, students may choose among the options offered by the University (e.g. elective courses, language courses, laboratories, internships), provided these are consistent with the approved study plan.

Students in ECON may obtain up to 12 ECTS by selecting elective courses taught at the University of Milan. When making their choice, students should observe the following criteria:
 

1. Coherence with the ECON programme. Selected courses must be coherent with the overall content and objectives of the ECON programme. More specifically:

   1.1. Any additional course belonging to the core disciplines of the ECON study plan (economics and econometrics; management, business and marketing; mathematics and statistics) will be considered coherent (and is highly recommended);

   1.2. Additional courses related to the supporting disciplines taught in the ECON standard study plan (i.e. logic and philosophy of science; coding, private and competition law) will be considered coherent;

   1.3. Courses in closely related fields - such as political science, sociology, psychology and behavioural sciences - would be also considered coherent.
    

2. Distinctiveness from compulsory courses.

   2.1. Selected courses must clearly differ in content from compulsory courses included in the standard ECON study plan 

   Example: students cannot select the course “Microeconomics and Macroeconomics” as elective course because its syllabus significantly overlaps with those of the “Microeconomics” and “Macroeconomics” courses which are already included in the standard ECON study plan

   2.2. Students can select courses in Italian, but they cannot choose courses which are the Italian version of courses already included in the standard ECON study plan

   Example: students cannot choose “Microeconomia” or “Macroeconomia” since the ECON plan includes “Microeconomics” and “Macroeconomics” 
    

3. Both undergraduate and graduate courses are admitted. Students can select undergraduate courses as well as graduate courses. For MA courses, however, they need to inquiry with the teacher which specific skills are required in order to successfully attend the course and take the exam and check whether the content of the course is not too advanced for ECON students.
    

Specific suggestions:

• We would recommend to consider modules taught in the IPLE (International Politics, Law and Economics) and EMA (Economia and Management) bachelor degrees
• Modules taught in the following Master programmes may also of interest (although in some cases the level may be too advanced): Economics and political science (EPS), Finance and Economics (MEF), Data Science for Economics and Health, Management of Human Resources (MHR), Computational Social and Political Science, Global Politics and Society (GPS)
• More generally, most of the courses offered by the Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences (SPES) would be relevant for ECON students

Study plans that do not comply with these rules will not be accepted by the ECON Teaching Committee.

In choosing their elective courses, students may consult the ECON Academic Guidance Tutor, Prof. Agne Kajackaite (agne.kajackaite@unimi.it) and the ECON Programme Director, Prof. Francesco Fasani (francesco.fasani@unimi.it) - as well as module teachers - to ensure that they are selecting coherent and suitable modules.