Teacher

prof. Luca ISEPPI

Credits

6 CFU

Objectives

The students should know the theoretical, methodological principles required for the management of agro-forestry firms. Moreover they should understand and to deal with critical capacity the economic facts of agro-forestry firms and the interactions between market demand, market structure and business strategies

Acquired skills

Skills related disciplines:
-       Knowledge and understanding: the students have to be able to understand which are the basic elements in the decision-making of business management and they have to be able to apply the analysis in the management of the complex systems. Moreover the students have to be able to choice the best planning to improve the firm business processes.
-       Applying Knowledge and understanding: the student should be able to deal with the issue of decision-making with the tools that will be provided by the teacher. He has to be able to deal with the management problems using the skills acquired.

 Soft skills
-       Making judgments: the student has to be able to place yourself in front the problems related to the management of the forestry with a critical point of view
-       Communication skills: the student has to be able to clearly communicate the knowledge acquired.

Contents

Part One: an introduction to demand and supply. Theory of production (the factors of production, the production function, the short and the long-run, the innovations and the very long-run, the short and the long-run changes in production). Theory of cost of production (cost of production, cost in short and in long run). The markets structure and the firm behaviour (the firm and its objectives, competitive markets, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, strategic behaviour). The consumption goods supply and the factors of production demand functions.

The theory of consumer behaviour (consumer and his objectives, consumption and saving, consumer equilibrium, income and substitution effects of price changes). The resource allocation.

The consumption goods demand and factors of production supply functions. The market equilibrium (equilibrium, stable and unstable equilibrium, some applications of equilibrium analysis, dynamic equilibrium).

Part Two: the economy of forestry production and multifunctionality in a context of globalization analysis tools used in forestry. Distinction between the analysis of production and business decisions by the tools of choice (budget, efficiency indices and models for optimizing use of resources). Principles and applications estimated forestry and environmental issues. Valuation and the economy found their mutual capabilities. The forest will be considered as typical well mixed (public-private) from which the chance of a revolt within the social costs and benefits. Criteria for assessing the suitability of investments: NPV, cost / benefit analysis, the choice of test and update the internal rate of return (IRR).

The course includes simulations of balance sheets of agro-forestry firms and methods to evaluation the public goods.

Lessons (h): 50
 (h): 7
Seminars (h): 3
Total (h): 60

References

−     Del Bono F. e Zamagni S. (1997), Microeconomia, Il Mulino, Bologna.
−     Merlo M. (1992), Elementi di economia ed estimo forestale-ambientale, Patron Editore, Bologna.

−     Casini L. (1992), Tecniche avanzate di gestione delle risorse forestali e ambientali, Il Mulino, Bologna.
−     Robinson Gregory G. (1987), Resource economics for forests, John Wiley&Sons.

All lectures of the course are available in Power Point

Type of exam

The exam consists of two written tests for the first and second part of the course.