By the end of this Master’s programme, the graduate student is:
1. aware of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the performance and competitiveness of the agricultural and food sectors and other profit (market) and non-profit (non-market) activities in rural areas,
2. able to understand the fundamentals of recent economic theory as well as its strengths and weaknesses,
3. able to use and apply adequate methods and tools to address and analyse socio-economic and environmental problems that are observed or anticipated in the agricultural and food sectors and rural areas in different development contexts,
4. able to use complementary approaches from other disciplines when needed,
5. able to perform sound quantitative economic analysis and anticipate possible effects of policy and regulation reforms,
6. able to interpret results and derive policy implications and recommendations,
7. able to draw from European experience and expertise in designing and evaluating policy and regulatory reforms given the economic, social, environmental and ethical dimensions of the issues facing societies expressing structural change, and
8. able to communicate their methods and results to both specialised and non-specialised audiences, in at least two European languages.
The main objective of this Master’s programme is that graduates be qualified to use and apply adequate methods to analyse socio-economic problems, formulate policy recommendations and understand the risks and consequences of any given economic policy measures, especially those oriented to the agricultural and food sector, rural areas as well as natural resources and their environment. In particular, graduates are expected to be able to use and develop quantitative methods to perform rigorous socio-economic and environmental assessments of these public policies, and provide sound and relevant policy recommendations to a better sustainable development of rural areas.