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Freie Universität Bozen

Regional Development and New Digital Economy

Semester 1-2 · 31033 · Master in Tourismusmanagement · 12KP · EN


M-1
• This module provides a solid foundation in regional and environmental economics, covering key topics such as location decisions, infrastructure, regional disparities, and environmental policy.
• Students learn to apply formal economic models and analyze real-world location and environmental challenges.
• The course combines theoretical modeling with practical case studies and policy applications.
• The main goal is to develop analytical thinking skills and the ability to formulate evidence-based policy recommendations.

M-2
The course deals with incentives and strategies in platform markets, with an application to the tourism sector. The course will cover within side and cross side network effects, and their relations with platform pricing. The lecturer will discuss how platforms create value and how they monetize, the impact of competition on platforms pricing will also be analyzed.

Lehrende: Federico Boffa, Nicola Campigotto

Vorlesungsstunden: 72 (36 M-1 + 36 M-2)
Laboratoriumsstunden: 12
Anwesenheitpflicht: -

Themen der Lehrveranstaltung
- Network Externalities; - Two sided markets; - Platforms; - How to finance platforms (e.g. fixed or variable fees, advertisment, sale of data) - Pricing mechanisms (auctions vs. fixed prices) - Regional possibilities for challenging monopolistic platforms - Applications to the tourism sector (e.g. Booking.com, Airbnb)

Unterrichtsform
Lectures, group presentations, discussion of case studies

Bildungsziele
Knowledge and understanding The student acquires the competence to apply knowledge and understanding about the role of tourism in the economic development of communities, regions and nations. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding The student acquires specific skills in spatial planning and economic models related to tourism development. The student acquires mastery in the planning of mobility and digitalisation systems within the regional economy. The student also acquires the ability to read and understand economic analyses. Autonomy of judgement acquire the ability to select data and use appropriate information to describe a problem concerning the management of tourism businesses as well as tourism associations and destinations acquire the ability to relate models and empirical evidence in the study of tourism businesses, associations, consortia and tourist destinations Communication skills The Master's degree graduate will be able to communicate effectively in oral and written form the specialised content of the individual disciplines, using different registers depending on the recipients and the communicative and didactic purposes, and to evaluate the formative effects of his/her communication. Written and oral communication skills are particularly developed in the training activities carried out for the preparation of the Master's thesis, in the discussion of business cases and in interactive lectures involving group discussions and the comparison of individual analyses. Learning skills to identify thematic connections and to establish relationships between different cases and contexts of analysis to frame a new problem systematically and generate appropriate taxonomies. to develop general models from the phenomena studied.

Art der Prüfung
Final exam + evaluation of group presentation

Bewertungskriterien
Exam: Ability to understand the material and apply the knowledge to cases. Presentation: Clarity and ability to understand the papers and the topics

Pflichtliteratur

Paul Belleflamme & Martin Peitz (2021).The Economics of Platforms: Concepts and Strategy, Cambridge University Press.




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Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung
Diese Lehrtätigkeit trägt zur Erreichung der folgenden Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung bei.

8

Modules

Semester 1 · 31033A · Master in Tourismusmanagement · 6KP · EN

Module A — M-1 - Regional Economics and Development

• This module provides a solid foundation in regional and environmental economics, covering key topics such as location decisions, infrastructure, regional disparities, and environmental policy.
• Students learn to apply formal economic models and analyze real-world location and environmental challenges.
• The course combines theoretical modeling with practical case studies and policy applications.
• The main goal is to develop analytical thinking skills and the ability to formulate evidence-based policy recommendations.

Lehrende: Nicola Campigotto

Vorlesungsstunden: 36
Laboratoriumsstunden: 12

Themen der Lehrveranstaltung
This course provides an applied introduction to modern regional economics. It focuses on the determinants of the attractiveness of a territory and will be divided into two parts. An initial part will deal with classical regional economics, while a second part will deal with environmental economics. The first part will introduce students to the determinants of firms’ and people’s location decisions as well as on the principles of urban economics. It will look at the role of infrastructures and at place-based policies. The second part will provide for core concepts of environmental economics with special emphasis on policy. To this purpose, the course will start with the economic theory of environmental policy. Based on the theory of externalities, it will analyze instruments for environmental policy from an economic point-of-view. It will then introduce topics of behavioral environmental economics. The course is aimed at understanding how formal models can be used to analyze real-world situations. Theoretical analyses are complemented with empirical evidence, case studies, and discussions of implications for environmental policies.

Unterrichtsform
Interactive lectures, case-based discussions, and hands-on exercises.

Pflichtliteratur

Capello, R. (2015), Regional Economics, Routledge

Sterner, T. and Coria, J. (2013), Policy instruments for environmental and natural resource management, Routledge

Perman, R. (2003), Natural resource and environmental economics, Pearson Education

OECD (2022), The Contribution of Migration to Regional Development, OECD Regional Development Studies



Semester 2 · 31033B · Master in Tourismusmanagement · 6KP · EN

Module B — M-2 - Digital Economics

The course deals with incentives and strategies in platform markets, with an application to the tourism sector. The course will cover within side and cross side network effects, and their relations with platform pricing. The lecturer will discuss how platforms create value and how they monetize, the impact of competition on platforms pricing will also be analyzed.

Lehrende: Federico Boffa

Vorlesungsstunden: 36 (12 + 24) second lecturer to be defined
Laboratoriumsstunden: -

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