Statement of purpose

Dear all,

I hope you can help me with my SoP.

Thank you in advance.

I have always been fascinated by the economy and its functioning, but I had the opportunity to study it only at university. After five years of economic studies and two degrees, there are still plenty of concepts that are strange to me. However, in my academic career, I learnt that to approach the world of the economy is necessary a solid theoretical background together with rigorous quantitative skills and an ever-growing desire to learn. Therefore, I believe that this program would provide me with all these competencies to excel in the analysis of macroeconomic models.

My academic career starts at the University of X in 2016, where I was selected for the BSc in Business Administration. However, for personal reasons, I had to transfer to the University of Y after the first year, where I concluded my studies. Anyway, in the three years program, I largely improved my quantitative skills by taking courses in Statistics and Mathematics, and rigorous courses in economics, included Micro and Macroeconomics, Public and Industrial Economics and Finance. In the third year of the program, I had the opportunity to spend a whole academic year abroad at XX as an Erasmus student. This experience was based on the topic of my bachelor’s thesis “Foreign direct investments and the practice of transfer pricing in PP and XX” under the supervision of Prof. Z. In this thesis, I analyzed the determinants of FDI to understand in what measure transfer pricing, together with taxation, modify the use of capital in one country.

After my bachelor's degree, I decided to continue my studies in Y with an MSc in Economics. In this program, I had the opportunity to learn some programming languages (Stata, R and Matlab) and to sharpen my quantitative and economic skills. In the third semester, I was particularly impressed by the courses of Monetary Economics and macroeconomic models. For this reason, I decided to combine these two areas of interest in my master’s thesis titled “A two-country DSGE model: comparison between the economies of the US and the Euro Area” supervised by Prof. W. Specifically, I developed a New Keynesian DSGE model, with monopolistic competition and quadratic price adjustment cost à la Rotemberg, to study the impact of different monetary policies and shocks on the two economies. The principal analyses are based on the impulse response functions obtained by solving the model using the software Matlab and the Schmitt Grohe-Uribe framework.

Upon graduation, I applied for a regional call for two research internships at the Bank of YX in XY, in the Analysis and Local Economic Research division. I was selected by the economists of the Bank among all the Economics graduates of the universities of O, V and P. This experience is introducing me to the world of economic research. Specifically, this internship is aimed at the writing of the article “Environment and economy: the LL case” that will be published in the annual report on the economy of the LL region 2022. In this paper, I analyse the economic and physical vulnerabilities as well as the possible impact of transition risks on the regional production system by reproducing a Resilience Dashboard using data available at the regional level.

The area that fascinates me the most is International Economics. Specifically, I am interested in the application of macroeconomic models to analyse the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on aggregate variables as well as how and in what measure shocks transmit from one country to another. For this reason, I aspire to improve my knowledge of what concerns DSGE models, refining the quantitative methods to solve these models and enlarging the analysis to other sectors, such as the financial one, and other monetary and fiscal policies. In this respect, the courses held by Prof. ZY and Prof. WZ would give me the possibility to examine in detail the state-of-the-art macroeconomic policies that can be applied to DSGE models.

Therefore, I strongly believe that the MSc in Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Markets would provide me with the analytical and rigorous tools needed for specializing in the use and interpretation of DSGE and other macroeconomic models. Besides, being admitted to this program would enable me to study in an international and competitive environment, in direct contact with international experts in the field of Macroeconomics and Finance.

For what concerns my future goal, I intend on pursuing a PhD in Economics upon completion of this master and I believe that this program makes me uniquely suited to approach International Economics from a highly academic and interdisciplinary perspective.