90457 - Economics of Ratings and Rankings

Learning outcomes

In recent years, first in markets for trust services (financial, insurance, health, education, social) and then in markets for ordinary services and durable goods, quantitative indicators have been developed to reduce information asymmetries, to foster competition and, more generally, to promote allocative efficiency. The increased availability of data on the characteristics of services and goods, as well as of their users, is likely to lead to a further increase in the use of these indicators and therefore to a growing need to verify their allocative effects. Moreover, there will be rising problems due to potential conflicts of interest on the head of the third-party certifiers. The course will provide the students with the law and economics tools to understand the effects of different types of performance indicators and of the different forms of regulation of the markets for certification as well as of the different types of public agencies’ interventions.

Course contents

Markets with asymmetric information: private and public regulatory tools

• Allocative effects of asymmetric information
• Contractual solutions and market regulation
• Quality disclosure and third-party certification
• Accreditation, ratings and rankings

The effects of ratings and rankings

• Country performance indicators (capital markets and foreign investments)
• Financial and insurance markets
• Professional services (health, education and legal services)

Readings/Bibliography

The reading list and the slides are available on the Moodle Platform.

Teaching methods

Classes and discussions.

Assessment methods

Students regularly attending the lectures can take the exam discussing a presentation on one of the themes dealt with during the course. Those who do not choose to give the presentation have to take a written test to assess their ability to critically evaluate some of the themes discussed during the course. In the written test, students are given outlines to develop short essays in two hours. Students can choose the approach that is more coherent with their own background. However, they are expected to address the proposed themes with a good level of rigour and appropriateness and to take into consideration the interdisciplinary nature of the issues at stake.

Teaching tools

Video projector.

Office hours

See the website of Gianluca Fiorentini