Multidisciplinarity as Way of Being
Markets, finance and rules, these are the three buzzwords of the Baffi Carefin research center on banking and financial regulation. In the various research units that compose this sprawling center, legality and banks, financial markets and pensions, the international economy and sovereign wealth funds, the blockchain and much else are being studied.
The Baffi Carefin Center for Applied Research on International Markets, Banking, Finance and Regulation was born in 2015 from the merger of the two pre-existing research centers that had been founded in the mid-1980s by Mario Monti and Roberto Ruozi, respectively. It has one great strengths, says Donato Masciandaro, Full Professor at the Bocconi Department of Economics, who has directed it since 2018: "By its very nature, the Center was born multidisciplinary, thus meeting the indications contained in the University's Strategy Plan, which says that research produced at Bocconi should embrace several disciplines".
"The research output of Baffi Carefin is applied research", continues the Director, "and our interlocutors are academia, institutions, banks and businesses. A fundamental concept is that we do not only to want produce research, we also want to disseminate it." The type of research that has an actual impact on reality and which, as Masciandaro is keen to point out, is absolutely independent, but also able to attract external funding because it affects companies and institutions. "The quality of our research has international standing," continues Masciandaro, "but interlocutors can also be Italian."
Baffi Carefin's research activity is communicated externally through participation in grant competitions, debates and conferences with academics, policymakers and professionals, or through the production of annual reports, as is the case for the Sovereign Investment Lab which analyzes the performance of sovereign investment funds. It is also capable of attracting funding from donors, as in the case, for example, of the CLEAN (Crime, Law and Economic Analysis) research unit, which is supported by an anonymous donor.
Baffi Carefin involves seven departments of the University for a total of 108 research affiliates, and is divided into 13 research units, each of which deals with financial markets, banking and regulation from a specific perspective.
In addition to the two already mentioned, there is the Analysis in Pension Economics Unit, the Asset and Risk Management Unit that deals with asset and risk management, while intermediation and financial stability are the fields of action of the Banking, Finance and Regulation Unit. Then there are the Financial Education Unit, the Global-ID Unit which studies the effects and challenges of financial globalization, and the Monetary Innovation, New Technology and Society Unit that deals with cryptocurrencies.
The Insurance Market Observatory Unit covers communication strategies and customer care in insurance companies, the Moneta Unit deals with monetary regulation and financial sustainability, while applied research in investment banking is the subject explored by the Investment Banking and Structured Finance Unit. The Law and Economic Studies Research Unit delves into the economic theory of law, and finally, the Pericles research unit studies the historical evolution of monetary and financial systems. Each research unit has at least one director and the various units often interact with each other in joint projects.