Fausto Panunzi, All About the New Dean of General Affairs

Fausto Panunzi set foot in Bocconi in 1983. He could not have imagined that it would become a life changing experience. "And I am not talking about being married to a Bocconi alumna", he jokes.

The new Dean of General Affairs, starting November 1 in the team of new Rector Gianmario Verona, left Bocconi for a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He has held positions at the University of Pavia and Insubria, Université des Sciences Sociales in Toulouse, University College London, University of Bologna, "but Bocconi has been pivotal to my life since my first day here". He lived the "heroic era" of IGIER, when the headquarters of the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research were at the Mirasole Abbey, and he has witnessed a real change in faculty culture. "Now we face the challenge to improve the process of internationalization, starting from research".

Panunzi developed his interest in economics in high school. Gatherings and group discussions left him with plenty of unanswered questions. "We didn't have the tools to understand the economy. It was an impenetrable aspect of social life. It prompted me to enroll in Economics. I've never sent a cv to a company. I didn't study at Bocconi to become a manager or to build a career in the private sector. I did it, naively perhaps, to better understand reality". It's a drive that has led him to Contract Theory and the Theory of the Firm. "I wanted to study market imperfections, their consequences, the possible remedies".

His belief that good research in social sciences comes from asking relevant questions, and that it shatters certainties, has strengthened over time. Panunzi, Full Professor at the Department of Economics, finds teaching especially gratifying. "Bocconi attracts excellent students and being able to motivate them and become passionate about economics is by far one of the most rewarding parts of my job".