General Description

 

We are pleased to announce the latest EABCN Training School; a three-day course entitled “New developments on theoretical models of cryptocurrencies, monetary policy and inflation determination” taught by Professor Pierpaolo Benigno (University of Bern). It is primarily aimed at participants in the Euro Area Business Cycle Network, but applications will also be considered from doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and economists working in central banks and government institutions outside of the network, as well as commercial organisations (fees are applicable for non-network non-academic organisations).

 

The course will cover the foundations of modern currency systems, focusing on intrinsically worthless currencies and their applications, whether in government-issued currencies or private currencies like cryptocurrencies. It will analyze competition among different forms of currency and compare cryptocurrency frameworks with other payment methods. The course will then delve into the determinants of currency value, with a specific focus on the recent surge in inflation. Subsequently, the course will explore recent developments in the New Keynesian Phillips Curve, introducing an "Inverse-L" New Keynesian Phillips Curve grounded in search-and-matching labor market models. It will integrate the Phillips Curve and Beveridge Curve to examine the implications for a soft or hard landing during disinflationary processes. The discussion will also include new measures of the unemployment gap.

 

The practical sessions will emphasize machine learning methods for predicting Bitcoin exchange rate, estimating the Inverse-L New Keynesian Phillips Curve, and decomposing its contributions to different inflation determinants. Finally, the sessions will analyze the fit of the Beveridge Curve and derive related measures, such as the non-inflationary Beveridge-threshold unemployment rate.

 

 

Tentative Course Outline

 

There will be about a 15-minute break between the lecture sessions on each day.

 

DAY 1

Lecture Session: 9:00 to 12:00 CET

Practical Session: 14:30 to 16:30 CET

 

Session 1

Introduction and Overview; Definition of Currency and Money; Cryptocurrency and Blockchain.

 

Session 2

Currency Competition as a Medium of Exchange. Commodity Money versus Fiduciary Currency and Cryptocurrency.

 

Practice Session

Prediction of Cryptocurrency Exchange Rates using Machine Learning Methods.

 

DAY 2

Lecture Session: 9:00 to 12:00 CET

Practical Session: 14:30 to 16:30 CET

 

Session 3

The Inflation-Unemployment Trade-Off: an Historical perspective. Concept of Natural Rate of Unemployment and Minimum Unemployment.

 

Session 4

Models of Labor Market and Inflation Dynamic. The Inverse-L New Keynesian Phillips Curve.

 

Practice Session

Estimation of the Inverse-L New Keynesian Phillips Curve, and its implications.

 

DAY 3

Lecture Session: 9:00 to 12:00 CET

Practical Session: 14:30 to 16:30 CET

 

Session 5

Beveridge Curve integration with the Phillips Curve

 

Session 6

Alternative Models of the Beveridge Curve

 

Practice Session

Comparison and Evaluation of Alternative Models of the Beveridge Curve.

 

 

We are no longer accepting submissions to this training school. 

 

 

About the Instructor: 

 

Pierpaolo Benigno holds the Chair in Monetary Macroeconomics at the University of Bern, where he serves as Deputy Head of the Department of Economics. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Bocconi University and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. Prior to his current position, he taught at New York University and Columbia University, and later became a full professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. He is a regular lecturer at the Study Center Gerzensee for central bankers' courses and has held consultancy and visiting researcher roles at prestigious policy institutions. His research has been published in renowned economics journals, and he is the author of "Monetary Economics and Policy," published in 2025 by Princeton University Press.