Monti: "Onida, a great mentor"

Macroeconomic stability and direct investments, Italian exports and international trade were alla discussed in detail at "Italy and International Competition", the symposium held by the University in honor of Fabrizio Onida, who devoted his whole academic career to studying these issues. The symposium was organized by his students, many of whom are professors at Bocconi today, to celebrate their mentor who has just retired. international competitiveness, di competitività internazionale dell'Italia.

The event was oponed by Bocconi President Mario Monti, who commented on Onida's career by highlighting "the keen sense of the political and economic relevance of the issues he was studying and his fecundity as a teacher". Monti, also reminded the audience that Onida was among the first Italian economists studying abroad, at the University of Michigan, and spoke of the positive influence that Professor Onida has had on Bocconi's economists and Bocconi itself: "He was the one that made us break with the University's tradition of tenuring only people educated at Bocconi, and supported the introduction of the evaluation of teaching performance in the University in the early 1990s".

"The ability to attract talent that the University has", Rector Guido Tabellini added, "depends from the presence of individuals like Fabrizio Onida", who, in the course of his academic career, "managed to put two things together that are not easy to combine: international standards of research and the application of such tools to the problems that are relevant for our country. He also gave his extra-academic contribution by directing the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade".

Onida, according to the Director of the Department of Economics, Donato Masciandaro, "is a living symbol for researchers in international economics. The Department," he added, "sincerely hopes that he will continue to contribute to its development."