Existence of an Individual Which

¶ … existence of an individual which determine the destiny and future course of life. The choices one makes come to define the road ahead. They can be a mirror image of the personal background or the result of external pressures. My choice to pursue doctoral studies at UC Santa Cruz is part of the former category. Indeed, in most cases, the passion for a certain area of study remains so often a mere hobby or aspirations. However, there are also few lucky persons, among which I dare to include myself, which have had the possibility to follow up on their passion and dream of transforming the subject of their strongest preoccupation into the field of a lifetime job. From this point-of-view, I see the study of monetary economics as the expression of my lifelong interest in the area of economics and at the same time as an obvious result of my entire academic and personal background.

Although I was interested in economy from the early stages of my academic life, there were certain personalities which guided my thoughts, ideas, and most importantly my questions towards the complex world of monetary economy. Professor Giovanni Ferri exercised an important influence upon me during my undergraduate years at the University of Bari, Italy. He was the one who supported me in completing my dissertation entitled "The Sacrifice Ratio and the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy." The paper discussed various factors that influence economic parameters in developing countries, and, although my task was difficult from the point-of-view of the accessibility of the data I had to use, my passion for the subject, the relentless efforts made to put together a high quality presentation, as well as the unlimited support from my professor enabled me to have a strong argument-based paper which won Special Merit from Evaluation Committee. However, none of this would have been possible if I hadn't benefited from the input of Professor Ferri who answered many of my uncertainties and guided my thoughts towards new, inquisitive questions.

As a result of this experience, and most importantly, as part of my constant desire to improve and find answers to problems facing economies in this globalised world, I am now completing my Master of Science in Economics degree at the University of Warwick where I focus on monetary economics, as part of my strive to one day become a professional researcher in this area. There were certain moments in my life which did not allow me to pursue my study programs as desired; yet it was precisely this set of obstacles which consisted a challenge for me and determined me ever more strongly to pursue my goal. Therefore, I am due to graduate in May 2008 with a presentation entitled "Have Central Banks and Private Agents Become Wiser?" conducted under the supervision of Dr. Dennis Novy who has also offered me considerable support in trying to address issues such as inflation, the role of central banks, and their relation with private agents. His precious advice has led me to follow lines of thought different from the ones already addressed by the literature and has opened new research directions I intend to analyze in my future studies.

Aside from the traditional academic environment created by the universities I attended, another important input represented the experience I accumulated in the various conferences I took part in. In this sense, during the conference organized by the Centre for International Macroeconomics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge, entitled "Inflation Targeting, Central Bank Independence, and Transparency," not only did I come in contact with new, interesting, and at the same time enticing ideas in the area of the central bank system and inflation, but also I met people whose remarks opened new possible directions for analysis in the field.