This course aims at introducing the functioning of financial markets and their economic role, by focusing on main financial institutions, as well as products and services that they provide. The course will adopt an international perspective, by focusing on US and European markets and by considering interactions between intermediaries and markets on a global scale.

Participants will be able to understand the rationale for the existence of financial markets and related institutions, the prevailing limitations to their effective functioning as well as the overarching issues linked with their management and regulation, both on a qualitative and a quantitative basis.