Instructional goals
The course aims to provide the tools for understanding the State Accounting, a subject with recent reforms, in which is increasingly evident both the multilateral dimension of the relationships between European and national institutions, and the interconnection between the legal and economic dimension of public policy choices.
Prerequisites
Knowledge and comprehension: The student - through participation in lectures and course activities - will acquire the tools through which:
i) Analyze the changes in the constitutional framework and the regulatory evolution -European and national- on the subject of public accounting;
ii) Evaluate the different profiles (legal, economic and, in some cases, politological) of public accounting institutes
iii) Know the new financial instruments, such as Next Generation EU and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP), REPower EU; the reform of European economic governance and the new stability pact; the notion of budget balance and the evolution of fiscal federalism, also in the light of differentiated autonomy.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: The student - acquiring the tools and method learned during the course - will be able to interpret, also with respect to specific concrete cases, the main concepts of public accounting.
Autonomy of judgment: the student, through the methodologies acquired during the course, will be able to evaluate the content of the main budgetary and public finance documents and will acquire the ability to critically analyze the issues under study.
In particular, the ability to learn will be stimulated by guiding students to analyze institutional documents and data, and to elaborate in-depth studies, also in the form of debate, on topical issues in public accounting.
The development of autonomy of judgment will be achieved not only through traditional teaching, but also through participation in seminars and testimonials, and will be accompanied by the development of communicative skills through guided discussion of studies of institutional documentation and the creation of group presentations.
Communicative skills: At the end of the course, the student will be able to master, with adequate terminological precision, the vocabulary of the subject, also useful for competition purposes for future challenges of the postgraduate course.
Ability to learn: The knowledge acquired during the course, both legal and economic, will allow the student to understand and interpret independently the main values of public finance.
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge of the principles of Administrative Law and Public Economics and EU law
Course Contents
Public accounting in the European, national and territorial dimension;
The technical subjects of state accounting;
Instruments of economic and financial planning
The budget: principles, functions and structure;
The budget cycle between Government and Parliament
Implementation of the budget
The judgment of parification
Economic and financial accounting and accounting harmonization
Controls
Administrative-accounting responsibility
Public expenditure, with particular reference to investments
Public assets
Reference Books
D. Bolognino, Manuale di Contabilità di Stato, Cacucci editore, seconda edizione, 2025 (excluding pages 355–382 and 396–419).
Supplementary readings for further study will be provided on the reform resulting from Law No. 1 of 2026.
Teaching Methods
Seminar-style lectures, with testimonials on specific topics.
Active participation of the students is required, who may be involved in the development of group presentations on the analysis of specific cases or institutional and scientific documents.
Students' writing a homework on the topics covered during the course.
Assessment Method
The following are required for the course:
Continuous Assessment
an individual written exam;
a group exam.
Each exam will be graded on a scale from 0 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) and will account for a total of 1/3 of the final grade.
Both tests are mandatory during the semester. In the event of absence or withdrawal from one or more ongoing tests, the grade will be 0 and will be included in the overall continuous assessment average.
The final exam is oral and will account for 2/3 of the final grade.
The combination of continuous assessment (one-third) and final exam (two-thirds) applies exclusively to exam sessions scheduled at the end of the semester in which the course is taught.
In subsequent exam sessions (retake sessions), the grade is based exclusively on a single final exam (100%).
Finally, please note that starting in the 2025/2026 academic year, skipping an exam session and the option to reject a grade are no longer permitted; however, withdrawal is allowed under the following conditions:
• Oral exam with grading: withdrawal is permitted until the instructor has not yet assigned a grade on a 30-point scale, prior to the official recording of the grade.
• Written exam followed by an oral exam with grading: withdrawal is permitted throughout the duration of the written exam or during the subsequent oral exam, as indicated in the previous point.
Further details will be provided during the course.
Students who proceed directly to the retake session or who have been exempted by the University from mandatory attendance must take the final oral exam, which will account for 100% of the grade.
These students must also submit a 15-page term paper with a title agreed upon with the course instructors, to be submitted email 20 days prior to the oral exam
Thesis assignment criteria
We are willing to assign a plurality of final papers that address current issues and in which the student demonstrates a particular sensitivity to the topics covered in the course.
Week 1
Budgetary constraints deriving from the European system: the evolution of the Stability and Growth Pact (preventive and corrective parts); the rule on expenditure and debt; the recent activation of the general escape clause
On the state of art of the new economic european governance
Budgetary balance in the national and multilevel dimension. During the lesson, starting from the constitutional reform (articles 81, 97 and 119 of the Italian Constitution), the principle of budget balance, the space for recourse to debt, the sustainability of public debt will be analyzed in the multilevel and polycentric dimension of our institutional structure, with reference to the new Stability and Growth Pact.
Week 2
The financial and accounting organization of the State
The technical subjects of State accounting.
Analysis of the role of the main subjects that have - on a technical level - an active and propulsive role in the economic-financial planning activity and in the implementation of the same and in the control activity.
In particular:
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Fiscal Agencies, the Committees - with a particular in-depth study dedicated to the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (CIPESS).
The role of the State budget (legal-accounting document and policy act) and public intervention in the economy.
Week 3
As part of the study of the evolution of the documents of the national economic and financial planning cycle, a focus (application) will take place with an evolutionary analysis of the former Economic and Financial Document (DEF) and National medium-term fiscal-structural plans (MTPs) and annual progress report.
The National medium-term fiscal-structural plans (MTPs) and annual progress report: parliamentary examination procedures and the role of the Parliamentary Budget Office
A testimony will be given during the lesson
Week 4
The budget: types, functions (with specific focus on the financial and economic budget and the accrual and cash budget. The strengthening of the cash principle).
Budgeting principles.
Rationale and process of the reforms of the state budget.
The "structure" of the budget in the current regulatory framework.
Classification of expenditures and revenues.
Budget balances.
Week 5
Parliamentary examination of the draft budget law: its content and the admissibility examination by the Chambers, the cognitive instruments available to the Parliamentary Committees (hearings); the rationalization of examination times and the system of admissibility of amendments
Week 6
The other documents of the budget cycle: the statement of accounts, the adjustment and the related bills.
The preparation of a technical report
Implementation of the budget. Legal status and classification of revenues and expenditures (brief outline).
Week 7
Financial charges, covering techniques and controls carried out by the Court of Auditors (quarterly reports for the State).
The judgment of parification on the general accounts. Jurisprudential developments regarding the nature of and access to the Constitutional Court during the parification process.
Week 8
Gender and enviromental budget
The new system of economic and financial accounting, for an evaluation of the costs and returns of the work of public administrations and in the dimension of effectiveness, efficiency and economy of government actions. The subject is addressed within the broader process of harmonization of the accounting systems of public administrations - of the integrated chart of accounts currently undergoing experimentation. The new system of economic and financial accounting accrues
Week 9
The investment expenditure: the so-called golden rule
PNRR: the governance
The "public assets", analyzed in a dynamic key, addressing the issue of administrative concessions as a tool for the management of state-owned or non-disposable assets.
With the testimony of an expert, companies with public shareholdings will be analyzed in consideration of the classification of company shares as movable property of the State and as such represented in the general account of assets.
Week 10
Presentation of group papers and collective discussion
Week 11
The controls of the Court of Auditors: the control of legitimacy, the control on the management and the control of legitimacy-regularity, including pursuant to Law No. 1 of 2026.
Internal controls in central State administrations: legislative decree no. 286 of 1999 and performance evaluation, for aspects of connection with the budget.
Week 12
The constituent elements of financial responsibility: the service relationship, the subjective element, the causal link and the damage, pursuant to Law No. 1 of 2026.
A testimony will be given during the lesson
Focus on multifaceted forms of damage
Focus on the subjective element (between reforms and jurisprudential interventions)
Testimony is scheduled during the course of the lecture.