The Department of Economics Ancona (DEA) groups together faculty and researchers in the fields of Economics, Finance,
Statistics and Demography, together with administrative and ICT staff.
Research activity
DEA has a long-standing tradition in far reaching research projects that have involved a large part of the department members,
for many years led by Giorgio Fuà. This group of economists working together as a team soon became known as the "Ancona Group".
The first outstanding research project on long-term Italian economic development carried out by the Ancona Group started in 1964.
The study was part of a larger international programme on the comparative growth experience of seven industrial countries promoted
and financed by the Social Science Research Council (USA) and led by Simon Kuznets and Moses Abramovitz. The Italian section of this project
focused on the study of the national economic system and its long term development since the political unification of Italy in 1861.
A second research project was started towards the end of the sixties. The main objective was to build a systematic framework for the
analysis of alternative economic policy measures in the short term. The characteristic of the project was the development of a
simplified, but effective econometric model of the Italian economy, as opposed to the larger, but much more complex model that was
being developed at the same time by the Bank of Italy.
In the following decades other far reaching research projects contributed to shed light on the peculiar features of the Italian
economy as a late developing country and gave rise to new successful lines of enquiry both at the national and international level.
The underlying idea was that late developers don’t follow the path of the forerunners but that the development path of each country
is influenced by its social, cultural and geographic conditions as well as by the moment in which it takes off. Seminal works were
published on the dualism of the Italian labour market and the factors responsible for the existence of a large black/grey sector, the
structural tendency to macroeconomic instability in late developing European Countries and the regional distribution of economic activity
and infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the birth and development of the Italian industrial districts for which the term NEC model
was coined.
After this research, other successful wide-reaching projects have been carried out such as the project regarding the Transformation
of the Italian Economy and Society (T.E.S.I.) which looked at the problems of Italy as a mature industrial country and its role
in the European Union.
The lines and methodology of research as well as the attention given to problems in society is still influenced by the teachings
of Prof. Giorgio Fuà, the unforgettable founder both of the Faculty of Economics which bears his name, and of the Department of Economics.
Today, with an enlarged and younger body of scholars, the lines of research of the department have widened considerably,
as it can be easily demonstrated by the Department wp series.
Working papers
DEA publishes, in Italian and/or in English, a series of working papers: "Quaderni di Dipartimento ". They are devoted to the
research work carried out within the Department and are available online (http://www.dea.univpm.it/pubblicazioni/wp).
Didactic Activity
DEA faculty members are involved in providing the Faculty with courses in the fields of finance and monetary economics,
economic development, international economics, public economic policy, statistical methods, economic statistics, econometrics,
history of economic thought, applied economics and agricultural economics. In addition they provide advanced courses and tutorials
for the department's Doctoral Programmes.
Research Doctorate Programmes
DEA is the driving force behind two lines of the Faculty Research Doctorates: