About MEF

The Master degree (Laurea Magistrale, LM-16) in Finance and Economics (MEF) of the University of Milan aims at offering an exclusive and high-quality study programme. This internationally-oriented master degree is thought to provide students with an excellent academic background, as well as with a promising outlook for a future professional career in today’s challenging and dynamic national/international monetary/financial/real markets.

Due to the growing complexity of today’s economies, expertise only in economics and finance or, conversely, only in quantitative methods is not enough to succeed in everyday's challenges. The Master degree in MEF is organized: to provide theoretical and applied knowledge in both the economic mechanisms and the behaviour and history of financial markets; to build solid bases of quantitative and numerical methods; and to give insights into the process of economic/financial decision-making under uncertainty and/or in the presence of risk. Indeed, recent and repeated financial crises have proven that mathematical thinking and economic theories cannot be considered separately from historical analyses and regulatory mechanisms.

Throughout the program, a well-balanced study track builds strong quantitative skills coupled with a solid knowledge base of the underlying theory of finance and economics. Students acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to use mathematical models able to comprehend and solve complex financial and economic problems and learn how to apply these models in the fields of economic sciences and financial market analysis.

During the second year students of the Master degree in MEF choose to specialize in one of the two fields of Quantitative Economics or Quantitative Finance. Working closely together with our outstanding faculty, students will benefit from its international scientific networks as well as its links with the industry-sector. Students may also attend seminars, laboratories and other activities organized yearly by the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods.

Graduates of this master course will receive advanced training in quantitative methodologies and tools suitable to interpret and analyse economic and financial phenomena and will be able to operate directly on financial markets or in international economic institutions. The study program is designed to provide students with a solid background through the development of topics of economic theory, analysis of financial markets and the theory of decision-making under risk and uncertainty. It includes study of financial markets from both the point of view of international law, history and economics.
The first year courses, common to both curricula, also provide capabilities in statistics, mathematics and computational techniques for the analysis of financial data and economic time series.

The second year of the master program is organized in two curricula. The first, Quantitative Economics, is dedicated to the training of professional economists capable of operating at national/international, public/private institutions (including the academia) or at the level of central government in both the financial and economic spheres.
The second curriculum, named Quantitative Finance, is aimed at preparing financial specialists capable of operating in the areas of pricing of derivatives, portfolio management, risk management and control in the financial sector intended in a broad sense.

The strong background in economics and finance provided by this Master programme will further ease the preparation to the admission procedures to several international PhD programs in the areas of Finance and Economics for those students wishing to continue their career in the academic field.