THE HARRIS SCHOOL - Programs - Courses

The following descriptions include some of the courses offered at the Harris School. To find out which courses are offered for this academic year, consult the Harris School's course schedule or the University's time schedule.

30000 Level Courses

The course covers the microfoundations of development economics and also provides a more general training on topics in applied microeconomics. The focus is on studies of empirically testable/tractable models of individual, household, and firm/farm behavior in less-developed countries, but the techniques discussed can also be applied to the analysis of poverty in developed economies. A wide range of topics are covered, including agriculture, labor markets, population growth, schooling, health and nutrition, migration, savings, risk, insurance, credit markets and social capital. The course devotes special attention to the evaluation of policies implemented in the developing world context.

This course will provide an overview of the theoretical and pragmatic frameworks for conducting research on and promoting change to policy affecting children and families in the United States. In the course, students will explore the conditions of children and families, discuss the ways in which data can shape definitions of policy problems and responses to those problems. It will map out the interplay amongst policy stakeholders and examine possible policy levers. These considerations will then be applied to three topical child and family policy issues in depth: child welfare, teen and unintended pregnancy, and child care/out of school time.

This course introduces the political economy approach and the use of models to analyze public policy problems. Topics include strategic behavior in both political and economic situations; elementary game theory; the politics of collective action; market failure and the problems posed by externalities and public goods; cost/benefit analysis; the effectiveness of public policies working within and outside of the market; institutional mechanisms such as voting, agenda-setting, and political jurisdictions; and the limits of rational decision-making. The goal of the course is to explain how public policy can be understood within a common framework that considers the objectives of, and constraints imposed upon, individuals in political and economic situations, the decision rules consistent with these objectives and constraints, and the likely outcomes of various policy initiatives. Application of these tools to current public policy issues is emphasized in lectures, discussion sessions, and problem sets. Required of all first-year students.

This course aims to provide a basic understanding of statistical analysis in policy research. Fundamental to understanding and using statistical analysis is the realization that data does not emerge perfect and fully-formed from a vacuum. An appreciation of the provenance of the data, the way it was collected, why it was collected, is necessary for effective analysis. Equally important is an understanding of the nature of the statistical inference being attempted-the course will distinguish between model-based and design-based inference. There will be some emphasis placed on sampling from finite populations and on data from survey research.

The emphasis of the course is on the use of statistical methods rather than on the mathematical foundations of statistics. Because of the wide variety of backgrounds of participating students, the course will make no assumptions about prior knowledge, apart from arithmetic. For students with a strong technical background, the aim of the course is to increase their understanding of the reasoning underlying the methods, and to deepen their appreciation of the kinds of substantive problems that can be addressed by the statistical methods described. PP31000 or PP31200 required of all first-year students.

A continuation of PP31000, this course focuses on the statistical concepts and tools used to study the association between variables. This course will introduce students to regression analysis and explore its uses in policy analysis. PP31100 or PP31300 required of all first-year students.

This course focuses on concepts used in statistical inference. This course will introduce students to basic principles of probability and statistics: random variables, standard distributions, and hypothesis testing. Lectures will explore uses of these principles in policy analyses. This course seeks to prepare students for PP31300. This course will assume a greater mathematical sophistication on the part of students than is assumed in PP31000.

A continuation of PP31200, this course focuses on the statistical concepts and tools used to study the association between variables and causal inference. This course will introduce students to regression analysis and explore its uses in policy analyses. This course will assume a greater mathematical sophistication on the part of students than is assumed in PP31100.

Environmental issues are often marked by strong contrasts between expert judgment and the convictions that are common among even well informed members of the wider public. This course on social responses to risk and environmental politics focuses on that disparity, its roots and its consequences. A term paper is required, applying material of the course to a social risk issue (not necessarily environmental) of special interest to the student.

This course explores the importance of formal and informal institutions in democracies, with an emphasis on the American electoral and legislative systems. Topics covered include the relationship between political institutions and well-being and the role of political actors and institutional structure on policy formation. Prerequisite: PP30800 (political economics) and PP32300 (microeconomics) or equivalent course work. Required of all first-year students.

This course will cover aspects of the interaction between politics and policy not covered in Harris School core courses on politics: Political Economy for Public Policy (PP30800), and Political Institutions and the Policy Process (PP31600). The main concerns of the course turn on interactions among logic, interests, and cognition.

Mixing theoretical approaches and case study applications, this course focuses on how organizations operate, their structure and performance, and the political control of public organizations by legislatures, courts, executives, and interest groups. Specific topics include decision-making and bounded rationality; incentives, motivation, and control problems; and the effects of transaction costs and information asymmetries. Required of all first-year students.

Public policy positions increasingly require an expertise in finance. This expertise includes the ability to analyze investments and projects, to undertake borrowing operations and portfolio management, and to deal with financial instruments, markets, and institutions in a variety of ways. The content of this course is somewhat deeper than typical entry-level finance courses in MBA programs. Although it is nearly impossible to learn modern finance without the use of some mathematics, this should not be a concern for students who have fulfilled the prerequisites described below.

This course will cover the central ideas and tools of finance. These ideas and tools are largely independent of whether they are used in the public or the private sector. The policy orientation of the course is reflected in the choices of the contexts and examples. The development of financial intuition is emphasized in every part of the course. Regular class participation is required. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400, or consent of the instructor.

This course analyzes the expenditure and financing decisions of state and local governments in the United States. We will use basic microeconomic theory to analyze the spending and programmatic choices of these governments, relying on the median voter and Tiebout models. We will focus on at least two major expenditure categories, public education and income assistance programs. Next we will carefully analyze the role of property taxes, including tax caps and tax increment financing, as well as other revenue sources such as sales taxes, income taxes, intergovernmental grants, and user fees. We will also consider the effects of state and local economic development policies on localities.

This course analyzes the rationales for government intervention in the economy, the form that intervention takes, and the effects of government policy. The course will focus on policies to remedy externalities, the provision of public goods, social insurance, and the effects of taxes. On the government spending side we will pay particular attention to welfare programs such as TANF and Medicaid, income redistribution through the EITC, and social insurance programs such as social security, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, disability insurance and Medicare. On the tax side we will focus on income taxation and estate taxation. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400 or their equivalent; the course uses economic theory.

This course covers the theory of consumer choice and the theory of the firm. Moderately fast-paced, the course is designed for students lacking a background in economics. Students will have an opportunity to apply economics to policy issues such as food stamps, income taxation, housing subsidies, and labor markets. Extensive problem sets provide an opportunity for practical application and a deeper understanding of the material. Calculus is not required, but a good grasp of algebra is necessary. Required of all first-year students.

A continuation of Public Policy 323, this course introduces the role of government in the economic system, explores market failures that undermine the useful characteristics of the competitive market, and considers the role of government in these failures. Issues of equity and efficiency and the government's role in influencing the distribution of income are explored. Important economic concepts in policy analysis such as time discounting, opportunities costs and decision-making under uncertainty are also featured. Differential calculus is used extensively throughout this course. Required of all first-year students.

This course will focus on translating the tools of policy analysis into action and social change. The course will have three interwoven components: 1) Opportunities to apply the analytic tools learned in the core courses to real world policy problems; 2) Exercises in writing and speaking that will refine the student's ability to communicate complex policy ideas concisely and effectively; 3) A study of real world cases in which major policy changes have succeeded or failed in the political process. In particular, we will focus on how the proponents and opponents framed and communicated their key ideas.

Overall, the course will emphasize both the skills necessary to analyze complex policy problems and the tools necessary to communicate such analysis to a non-professional audience. Students will be responsible for writing memos, working in groups, conducting meetings, making presentations, working with the media, and other communications-related tasks.

The principal aim of this course is to provide background and insight on what might be called the "rhetoric of policy analysis." What kinds of arguments might be effective, and under what sorts of conditions? Given a piece of analysis, how should its results be presented; how does that vary with the audience and political context; and, most important, looking ahead to these problems of rhetoric, how might that wisely and reasonably affect the analytical work?

This course applies theoretical and empirical economic tools to environmental issues. Concepts include externalities, public goods, property rights, non-market valuation, and social cost-benefit analysis. These concepts are applied to a number of areas including nonrenewable resources, air pollution, water pollution, solid waste management, climate change and sustainable development. Special emphasis is devoted to analyzing the role of economics in regional and international environmental policy. Prerequisite: ECON 20100.

This course presents the economic analyses of and insights into a wide range of taxes, subsidies, and related government policies. The concepts and methods necessary for such analyses, which have quite general applications, are also presented. The course will highlight many institutional issues that are of special potential interest to students preparing for professional careers. Main topics include principles of taxation, incidence of taxation, taxation of goods and services (sales tax, excise tax, value-added tax), personal income tax, social security taxes, tax arbitrage, tax avoidance, and tax evasion. Within the context of these topics, the course will also discuss some of the characteristics of the tax systems of the United States and some other countries, as well as some current controversies regarding tax policies. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400 or consent of the instructor.

Distributive politics is the study of who gets what, where, how, and why-as allocated by any level of government. This course introduces several concepts such as coalition and collective action theory, along with a study of domestic institutions that structure bargaining and access to government goods (money, jobs, etc.). Policy examples are thoroughly developed, including studies of federal taxation and spending policy more generally-and military procurement, transportation, and entitlement spending like Social Security and Medicare in particular.

This course will have two topics of focus organized around the issue of determinants of income. The first topic will be human capital investments, one of the most widely used and effective policies for generating earnings. The second topic will be the measurement of poverty and inequality and the policy issues related to their measurement. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400 or their equivalent; the course will use economic theory.

This course will cover the rationale for US welfare programs and analyze their effects on behavior. Although some attention will be paid to the history of such programs and the politics of reform, the class will focus primarily on economic analyses of the behavioral effects of welfare programs. The course will cover traditional welfare programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children as well as modern alternatives to welfare such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. Time permitting, the course will compare US welfare policy to welfare programs in other OECD countries. Students will prepare a term paper that will be presented in class and will be expected to participate in lectures.

This course introduces students to key issues in U.S. national security policy. We will examine U.S. interests in the post-cold war era, threats to these interests from states and terrorist organizations, and policies for minimizing the danger posed by these threats. Topics include the U.S. National Security Strategy and its emphasis on preventive action; prospects for peace in Europe and the future of the Atlantic alliance; the prospects for peace in Northeast Asia and the potential challenges posed by a rising China; roles and requirements for U.S. conventional forces; U.S. nuclear strategy and force requirements, and national missile defense; the dangers posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, and policies for dealing with them; and Iraq. In addition, the course provides background on the challenges the United States faced during the cold war and the policies it pursued to meet them. While primarily concerned with policy questions, the course will explore theoretical issues that provide the foundation for U.S. security policy. The course should be valuable to students who plan to pursue careers in international relations and security policy. It is broad enough in scope to provide a useful introduction to students interested in security issues, but not preparing to work in this area.

This seminar provides an introduction to the investment management industry-the development and distribution of investment advisory services and financial investment products to investors and retirement plans. Although the growth and development of the U.S. capital markets in the preceding 25 years has been remarkable, the increase in the size and significance of the investment management industry has been even more dramatic. While during the period from 1980 to 2005 the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by an unprecedented rate of nearly 13-fold, during the same 25-year period the investment management industry increased by over 90-fold, with estimates of discretionary assets under management in the industry exceeding $13 trillion. This growth in the size of the industry is coupled with an increase in the breadth and complexity of the investment products offered, involving a broad array of disciplines with which legal advisers and industry participants need to have a basic familiarity. This seminar examines the basic regulatory framework-primarily the federal Investment Company Act and Investment Advisers Act-by analyzing selected issues involving the structure, management, marketing, and distribution aspects of mutual funds and other investment products. Other topics will be highlighted through analysis of the development of new investment products, such as ETFs and publicly offered hedge funds and private equity funds. This seminar will provide an introductory level analysis of certain core areas of the investment management industry, including portfolio management philosophies; basic characteristics of equity, fixed income, and alternative asset classes; the role of fund directors, conflicts of interest, and corporate governance issues; and distribution and marketing-related issues, including the impact of the Internet on financial product design and distribution. A student's grade will be based on a final examination. Active class participation is encouraged and may be a factor in the final grade. Harris students, in addition to taking the final exam, must write a 10- to 12-page paper.

In 2003, the Nobel Prize in economics was shared by a psychologist (Daniel Kahneman) for his leading role in establishing departures from narrowly rational choice as a recognized component of mainstream economics. The work by Kahneman and others has turned out to have application to many applied topics where judgment and intuition systematically departs from what might be expected in terms of formal logic. This course will survey a wide range of contexts in which cognitive issues have come to play a substantial role, with particular attention to public policy.

Despite the fact of a national market and ease of migration, US states persist in making dramatically different policy choices. This is true across a wide swath of issues, including Medicaid, education, pensions, criminal justice, and regulation. What accounts for these enduring differences? Is it variation in public opinion, demographics, income, or inequality? Or is it different political institutions? It is also the case that states vary systematically in their political choices for state and federal offices, perhaps most dramatically illustrated in the opposition of red and blue states. What are the consequences of this emerging political polarization? This course will compare the political and policy choices made by various US states in a variety of electoral, administrative, and policy settings. Students with interests in state policy, American and comparative politics are particularly suited for the course, though all are welcome.

Individuals' choice of an employer, a spouse or a neighborhood to live in can be described in terms of matching. Individuals aim at choosing the best possible match given their preferences. The course will explore the determinants of the efficiency of matching from the individuals' point of view: search costs, informational barriers, etc. It will then address the social and economic consequences of individuals' behavior. Thus, in the marriage market, matching tends to perpetuate human capital inequalities across generations, while in the housing market, matching often leads to racial segregation. Understanding matching mechanisms can thus help policy makers shape inequality-reducing policies in areas such as education or housing.

This course will explore the political, economic, social, and demographic forces associated with development patterns in metropolitan areas, with a particular focus on Chicago. We will examine the government policies, economic forces, and social attitudes that affect the way a region grows and develops. Over the past half century, the flight from urban centers to the surrounding suburbs has delivered the "American dram" as interpreted by many: attractive homes and good schools in relatively homogenous communities. At the same time, this ongoing "suburbanization" has been associated with economic and racial segregation, environmental degradation, worsening traffic congestion, and even America's obesity epidemic.

This course is taught at a significantly higher level than a typical master's level introductory courses on finance. Its primary emphasis is on the applications and the practice in some key areas of finance. The main components of this course are class discussions of readings and cases and a group project. Vigorous participation in class discussion is required. Submission of a typed project report and a class presentation of the project's findings are required. Key topics are fixed-income basics and applications, municipal securities and financing, securitization, and investment management. Additional topics that might be covered are: capital allocation, valuation, market efficiency, and emerging global issues. Prerequisites: PP32000 or consent of the instructor.

This course examines the working of the aggregate economy. It aims to understand the key determinants of business cycle fluctuations and of and long-run economic development. This includes coverage of the role of employment, productivity, trade and fiscal deficits, inflation, and interest rates. The emphasis of the course is on the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on the macro economy. Students will be able to analyze and discuss important current economic issues, such as government spending and tax reforms, Social Security reforms, the conduct of monetary policy, and the impact of changing economic conditions around the world.

This course introduces you to the tools used by social scientists and policy makers to evaluate the impact of government policies. The course's objective is to teach you how to use these tools well enough to feel comfortable evaluating the quality of program evaluations that you are likely to review during your careers. The course begins by examining the elements of a cost/benefit analysis. Some of the principles we discuss during this part of the course are identical to those used by managers in a private firm when they consider whether to invest in new plant or equipment, to train their workers, or to initiate new human resource practices. But it also is important to recognize the differences between cost-benefit analyses of social programs and of private sector investments. Here we examine how the concepts of consumer and producer surplus discussed in your economics courses guide us in formulating evaluation questions and choosing appropriate outcome measures.

Most of the course examines the strategies for evaluating the impact that government polices have on alternative outcomes. The key question here is what would have been the outcome had individuals, neighborhoods, state etc. not been exposed to the policy. The impact of the policy is the difference between the actual outcome and this counterfactual outcome. Much social science research demonstrates that obtaining credible estimates of these impacts can be difficult. During this part of the course, we discuss how to plausibly address some of the more common difficulties encountered by program evaluators. Prerequisites: PP31000 and PP31100 or equivalent statistics coursework.

This course is an introduction to developmental psychology that stresses the development and integration of cognitive, social, and perceptual skills.

This course examines the impact of trade policies using the theory of international trade. The first part of the course is devoted to a survey of theory, beginning with traditional competitive trade theory and concluding with more recent advances of the theory of trade in imperfectly competitive markets. The next section examines the economic impact of unilateral trade policy instruments such as tariffs, export subsides and anti-dumping provisions. The effect of multilateral trading arrangements such as the WTO and NAFTA are examined next. The final section is devoted to the application of the theory to the international movement of factors of production with an emphasis on immigration.

35400. Topics in Health Economics, Sociology and Policy (=HSTD 35401; LAWS 97002; SOCI 50038)

This seminar course will explore three topics: 1) Do physicians, hospitals, and health plans have a "business case" for making investments to improve quality in health care? 2) What relationship (if any) is there among the malpractice system, medical errors, patient safety, and quality? 3) Has medical practice in the U.S. been "corporatized"? What might this mean, and what might be the benefits and costs? We will approach these topics by drawing from the health policy, law, and organizational and institutional sociology and economics literatures.

This course will focus on developing countries. We will study causes of poverty and underdevelopment, poverty measurement issues, and policies to improve wellbeing. We will concentrate on topics such as nutrition and health, education, labor markets, intra-household allocation of resources and policies to alleviate poverty. Empirical evidence from developing economies will be use extensively.

This course begins with an overview of unions in the U.S. economy and compares their role to their counterparts in other industrialized countries. Before turning to a discussion of the laws governing union/management relations and the economic impact of unions, the course briefly surveys the history of the U.S. labor movement and how that history has shaped the current regulatory environment. Next, we will examine the National Labor Relations Act. Topics covered in this section of the course are as follows: employer and union unfair labor practices, the processes for organizing and decertifying unions, and the regulation of strikes and lockouts. After discussing how private sector unionism is regulated, we will turn to examine how unionism is regulated in the public sector. In this section of the course we will survey the role played by interest arbitration in some political jurisdictions. Finally, the course will explore the components of the collective bargaining agreement. This part of the course will include an extensive discussion of contract administration, especially on grievance procedures. Even students who do not intend to work in a union environment may find this part of the course helpful for understanding the design of human resource policies in nonunion work places. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400 or equivalent microeconomics coursework.

This course explores current issues in elementary and secondary education from an economic perspective. Topics include accountability, charter schools, vouchers, standards, class size, policies to increase educational attainment, and school finance reforms. Tools of economic theory and econometric analysis will be used extensively. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400, and PP31000 and PP31100 or equivalent coursework in statistics and economic theory.

An introduction to political economy and policymaking in large U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. The course examines the institutional, economic, political, and demographic settings that distinguish urban policymaking. We begin by analyzing the institutions of local government and their role in the federal system, the sources of urban growth, competition among cities, and the importance of real estate markets in shaping local politics. We next study several specific urban issues including concentrated poverty, racial conflict, housing, governmental fragmentation, and sprawl. Although the course will focus on large central cities, we will pay attention to the suburbanization of population and employment, politics in suburbia, and city-suburb relations. Finally, students will be introduced to the latest research on social interactions in cities, with a focus on social capital, neighborhood and peer effects, and human capital spillovers.

This course examines the legal rights of parents and children, and the state's authority to define and regulate the parent-child relationship. Among the topics discussed are children's and parent's rights of expression and religious exercise, termination of parental rights and adoption, paternity rights, the state's response to child abuse and neglect, the role of race in defining the family, and the legal issues raised by the development of new reproductive technologies. The student's grade is based on a take-home examination.

Budgeting and financial planning is a key component of the overall management of a government and nonprofit organization. This course focuses on the fundamental tools and techniques in budgeting. Topics covered in the course include budgetary politics, financial management cycle, development of operating and capital budgets, long-term financial planning, debt management, and budgeting technology. Although state and local government will be the main focus of the course, nearly all of the topics are presented in a manner that will be useful to students seeking careers in the federal and nonprofit sectors.

Accounting and financial reporting are the locus of an organization's overall information systems. This course teaches students the fundamental tools and techniques needed for financial management and control. While nearly all of the topics are relevant to those seeking careers in the federal government and nonprofit sector, the primary focus of the course is the state and local sector. Topics in the course include fund accounting, financial reporting, cost accounting, internal controls, and evaluation of organizational performance (e.g., fiscal indicators and balanced scorecard). The course also surveys the features and functions of leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software packages for public sector financial management (e.g., Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP).

This course uses available research and practice to examine the youth gang problem in urban, suburban, and rural communities, with special attention given to developing and implementing policy and programs at the community level that take into account the needs of a diverse community and individual young people. Students complete practical exercises to foster skills in the areas of problem assessment, program development, and grant preparation.

Governments across the globe are facing simultaneous pressures to meet increasing citizen service demands while coping with significant resistance to tax increases. The governments that have successfully made the transformation to cope with these pressures--"high performance governments"--are at the forefront of efficiency and innovation. High performance governments are relentlessly outcome and value focused, integrate their information systems, are open to new service delivery models such as outsourcing and shared services, adopt new methods of budgeting and financial management, and embrace a progressive human capital strategy. This course presents the leading-edge strategies, tools and leadership skills that governments are using to achieve high performance.

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in human populations. This course introduces the basic principles of epidemiologic study design, analysis and interpretation, through lectures, assignments, and critical appraisement of both classic and contemporary research articles. The course objectives include: (1) To be able to critically read and understand epidemiologic studies; (2) To be able to calculate and interpret measures of disease occurrence and measures of disease-exposure associations; and (3) To understand the contributions of epidemiology to clinical research, medicine and public health.

This is a course in population aging and its social, economic and political ramifications. It will examine basic models of demographic and health transitions, trends in aging and health status, characteristics of medical care and long-term care, and the implications of these for the development of public policy. Emphasis will be placed on life course approaches to the study of aging. Specific topics include health, functional status, and well-being; socioeconomic status and inequality; family structure and living arrangements; formal and informal long-term care; early life predictors of health and longevity; generational equity; neighborhood social context. We will begin with micro-level considerations such as health and functional status, then shift the unit of analysis to family formation and social networks, then to neighborhood effects. We will use the City of Chicago as case study. We will examine the extent to which age, and aging neighborhoods, shape political and social forces in our community. To extend this theme, we will explore in depth the 1995 Chicago heat wave; we will pay particular attention to the roles that social isolation and neighborhood social context play in the lives of older adults.

This course covers issues in higher education from an economic and public policy perspective. We begin by examining the individual's decision to attend college and the main reasons for government intervention in higher education. We then review estimates of both private and social returns to college and consider the difficulties associated with measuring these returns. We also examine the history of the American system of higher education and compare it to other systems around the world. After summarizing the differences in educational attainment by income, the course will analyze the main forms of financial aid currently used in the American system of higher education: means-tested grants (Pell Grant program), subsidized loans (Stafford loans), direct subsidies to public institutions, recent tax reforms to encourage saving for college (Hope and Life-Long Learning credits), as well as state and institutional merit aid. We will discuss whether these policies make sense from both an economic and an educational perspective, and look at their effect on enrollment. After summarizing differences in educational attainment by race, we will consider affirmative action policy past and present. Finally, we will examine the market for college education and the increasing price of college in recent years. Other topics may include the importance of peer effects, graduate and professional education, and for-profit higher education. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP31000 or equivalent coursework in statistics and economic theory.

From the federalist/anti-federalist debate of the U.S. founding to the current wave of decentralization in developing countries, this course analyzes the theory and practice of federalism, or multi-tiered governance. Drawing on literature at the intersection of political science and economics, we focus on the allocation of power across tiers of government and its consequences for policy outcomes. Special attention will be devoted to fears of and protections against an overreaching national government, competition among lower-tiered governments, the distinct problems of political accountability when jurisdictions overlap, and the causes and consequences of increasing decentralization. Although we begin by building political and economic theories of federalism, we quickly move to empirical studies of policymaking, examining cases from around the world.

This course covers the causes and consequences of crime, as well as ways to reduce the costs of crime to society. Emphasis will be placed on trying to understand the causal effects of different policy interventions on crime, and exploring what can be learned about the benefits and costs of such efforts. Among the topics covered in the course are the costs and benefits of criminal justice programs and policies related to incarceration, policing, and the regulation of drugs, alcohol, and firearms, as well as the influence on crime of public policies in other areas such as education, the environment, health care, and the labor market.

This course examines how legislatures, courts, the media, and the public define the range of options available to presidents who contemplate military action. It also examines how features of the crises themselves-the governing structure of foreign nations, the location of a crisis, and the levels of trade and diplomatic relations between the United States and foreign states-influence the likelihood of military action. Special attention will be paid to the "war on terror" and recent military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This course will explore various policies that underlie regulation of the provision of health care in the United States. We will begin with an examination of the principal government programs for financing the delivery of health care in America - Medicare and Medicaid. This first third of the course will focus on how these programs seek to resolve the tension between controlling costs, promoting quality, and assuring access. We will then move to a consideration of policy issues relating to managed care organizations, including the functioning of these organizations and the impact of ERISA on their actions. Next, we will explore issues relating to the behavior of physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes. This exploration will focus on the impact of the antitrust, labor, and tax laws on these entities.

37600. Theories of Justice and the Common Good: A Philosophical Approach to Public Policy

Economic analysis of public policy typically presumes that we know which ultimate objectives the legislator is pursuing. This course explores the philosophical foundations of such objectives: what is justice, what is the common good? Drawing on the works of philosophers from Antiquity (Plato, Aristotle85) to the contemporary era (Rawls, Dworkin85), the course will spell out fundamental philosophical views and debates. These philosophical debates are relevant to public policy choices in areas such as taxation, crime repression, etc.

Health care constitutes a significant amount of private and public economic activity in many countries, especially in the United States. This course covers special topics on the economic analysis of production and consumption of health care, and the extensive public involvement in this industry. Topics to be discussed include: the investment in health through health care or other means, the extent of technological change in health care and its regulation by the FDA, the demand subsidy programs Medicaid and Medicare as regulated by CMS, and the relationship between health care and social insurance for the aged.

This course concerns economic and legal aspects of health and health care markets, focusing mainly on public sector involvement in health care in the United States in recent decades. Examples of topics that will be discussed are as follows: nonprofit and public production of health care, public regulation of health insurance markets, and the effects of public demand subsidies such as Medicare and Medicaid. Students are expected to participate in class discussion.

This course will be an introduction to survey design and sampling methodology focused on health outcomes and the quality of medical care. We will address two central questions: 1) How do we measure health outcomes and the quality of medical care? 2) How do we insure that the study population is representative of the population of interest? Topics will include concepts of quality and health status assessment, scaling and scoring health status and quality of life measures, assessing validity and reliability of these measures, uses and limitations of outcomes data, sample design, sampling methodology, and survey implementation. Prerequisite: Descriptive and bivariate statistics. Recommended: Multivariate statistics, epidemiology.

38100. The Economics and Public Policy Perspectives of Science and Innovation

This seminar provides an overview of the economic market and institutional forces that affect innovation and technological progress. We will also study how innovation and diffusion of technology, in turn, affects the economy, inequality and society more generally. Key topics to be treated include: assessing the role that markets, culture and institutions play in fostering or impeding innovation and growth; studying the economic principles that justify public policy intervention in private R&D markets; and discussing how scientific advances and innovation affect the human capital, health and wellbeing of societies. Applications will be drawn from the basic sciences, space, telecommunications, health, pharmaceutical, energy, and environmental sectors.

Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) and Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) are widely used for the economic evaluation of health and medical treatments. Emphasis will be on understanding the basic foundations of CEA/CUA and the implications for the components in the evaluation. The course will address the measurement of health and medical effectiveness, health care and societal costs, and their integration into a formal assessment of alternative treatments. Applications from the literature will be used. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to critique methods used in published papers.

This course analyzes the economics of health and medical care in the United States with particular attention to the role of government. The first part of the course examines the demand for health and medical and the structure and the consequences of public and private insurance. The second part of the course examines the supply of medical care, including professional training, specialization and compensation, hospital competition, and finance and the determinants and consequences of technological change in medicine. The course concludes with an examination of recent proposals and initiatives for health care reform.

Europe's "sclerotic" high unemployment labor markets are often contrasted with "dynamic," low unemployment U.S. labor markets. This course explores institutional differences between American and typical European labor markets and asks to what extent these differences can empirically account for the unemployment gap. We will focus on four fundamental institutional arrangements: firing costs, unemployment insurance, minimum wages and union coverage and bargaining power.

This course presents an economic analysis of policy issues in developing countries. Its main focus is on helping students understand both the sources of differences in the levels of development across countries and the likely impact of policies designed to foment growth and well-being. General aspects of the theory of and evidence on economic development from a policy-oriented perspective are discussed. Topics covered include: economic growth and cross-country convergence of development patterns; productivity and technological change; macro-level analysis of institutions and governance; health and education as human capital; poverty and inequality, population growth, and; international integration.

The objective is to provide students with hands-on experience in country risk analysis. There will be no pre-requisites, although previous course work in economics, international finance or global business/political economy will be helpful. The course will be interactive and involve intensive student participation. The instructor will use case studies, as well as material from the IMF/World Bank, rating agencies, the financial press, government source and academic articles. This material will be used to develop case studies on the following issues: 1) comparative country risk techniques and indicators; 2) sovereign debt restructurings; 3) early warning systems; 4) political risk and 5) individual country studies.

This course begins with a brief survey of the formal institutions and processes that are involved in the consideration, passage, and implementation of environmental policy, with some emphasis on Environmental Impact Statement review processes. It focuses on a critical review of alternative theoretical models that explain public attitudes, particularly the values and ethics of the public, towards environmental protection, and research data that documents these attitudes. Students will choose an environmental policy of interest, investigate its legislative history, and develop their skills in documenting attitudinal research towards that policy. The course includes consideration of how environmental policy processes affect democratic capacity building, environmental education, and the treatment of animals, as broader aspects of environmental policy.

With a strong emphasis on the fundamental physics and chemistry of the environment, this course is aimed at students interested in assessing the scientific repercussions of various policies on the environment. The primary goal of the class is to assess how scientific information, the economics of scientific research, and the politics of science interact with and influence public policy development and implementation.

This course builds upon the theoretical and empirical underpinnings developed in Environmental Science and Policy to examine and critique the current state of national and international environmental policy. Topics include environmental law and the institutions of environmental regulations; property rights and the environment; and business interaction with the environment and with environmental policy. Special emphasis is placed on evaluating the Clean Air and Water Acts, Superfund legislation, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Federal legislation regulating the toxicity of hazardous substances. Other specific areas of policy may also be examined if current legislative and student interests apply.

This seminar explores the law associated with nonprofit organizations. Such topics as fiduciary duties, conversions from nonprofit to for-profit status, tax exemptions, charitable deductions, and limits on lobbying activities are included. We dwell on the underlying question of why some activities (and not others) are carried out in the nonprofit sector. The student's grade is based on class participation and a final examination.

Law both constrains and facilitates policymaking. Administrators are both empowered and limited by law in their creation and implementation of public policy. This course will examine the intersection of law and policy in the modern administrative state and the respective roles played by legislative bodies, executive and "independent" agencies, and the courts, in the articulation, implementation and enforcement of policy. The course will also consider the ways in which policy determinations become more or less authoritative as a legal matter, how the various branches of government contribute to that process, and the means by which that process occurs. Because agencies manifest policy determinations principally through enforcement, agency adjudication, and rulemaking procedures, the course will examine these phenomena, and will pay particular attention to the respective roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government with respect to them.

The course is designed to move beyond the values debate of the "culture wars" in order to focus on how culture-here defined as the arts and humanities-can be evaluated analytically as a sector, an object of policy research. In what sense can it be said that there is a "national interest" or "public interest" in culture? What is the rationale for government intervention in or provision for the arts and humanities? Is it possible to define the workings of culture in a way that would permit one to recommend one form of support rather than another, one mode of collaboration or regulation over another? Is it possible to measure the benefits (or costs)-economic, social, and political-of culture? We will begin by reading some classic definitions of culture and more recent general policy statements, then address a series of problematic issues that require a combination of theoretical reflection and empirical research.

In this course, we will be looking at the ways in which different thinkers and different political systems have defined both culture itself and the state's interest in culture. Among the questions to be considered are: What counts as culture and why? What kind of power is art, sculpture, literature, etc. though to exert and over whom? From the state's point of view, what is dangerous in culture and what is valuable about culture? What kinds of controls do different states exercise over culture, and what uses do different states make of culture? We will focus on several recent arts controversies and will try to develop comparisons between Japanese, American and European approaches to cultural policy.

This course examines the theory, process, and policy outcomes surrounding international organizations (IOs), including international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). The course begins with a discussion of the structural challenges facing IOs, then moves to discuss various theories describing the operation of a wide range of IOs. Finally, the course examines several particular cases of IOs and INGOs, highlighting debates concerning their ability to achieve their stated goals.

40000 Level Courses

This master's-level course provides students with the basic tools of policy analysis. Students will learn and apply tools of decision analysis in written group assignments and in an accompanying computer lab. Students will also learn and apply concepts of cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and cost-utility analysis with social service, medical, public health applications. Doctoral students and master's students who intend to take the course Advanced Applications of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Health will complete two additional laboratory assignments. Topics to be covered include: Decision trees for structured policy analysis, the economic value of information, analysis of screening programs for HIV and child maltreatment, sensitivity analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis of life-saving interventions and programs to reduce behavioral risk, valuing quality of life outcomes, ethical issues in cost-benefit analysis, analysis of "irrational" risk behaviors. Substantive areas covered include: HIV/substance use prevention, school-based prevention of sexual risk, smoking cessation, and housing policy. In the associated learning lab, students will use computer decision software to build and analyze decision trees in policy-relevant examples. They will conduct one-way and two-way sensitivity analysis to explore the impact of key parameters on cost-effectiveness of alternative policies. Students will receive an introduction to dynamic modeling in the context of HIV prevention, cancer screening, and transportation programs. Prerequisite: One prior course in microeconomics.

Scholars and public policy experts alike have been bedeviled for years by the large and persistent racial differences in economic outcomes. Differences in income or earnings are the usual index on which most discussion focuses. However, differences in wealth - the sum total of what people own, minus what they owe - dwarf these income differences. This course will do three main things. First, it will discuss the best current evidence about the extent of racial and class wealth inequality, both in the U.S. and around the world. Differences in the level of overall wealth; differences in the propensity to hold wealth-increasing assets like housing and stocks; as well as differences in levels of debt will all be explored. Second, drawing from literature in sociology, political science, history, and (especially) economics, alternative theoretical accounts of the reasons for wealth disparities will be discussed. We will discuss as well speculative accounts not presented in the available literature. Finally, we will critically assess a series of public policy initiatives-the inheritance tax, affirmative action, reparations, F.H.A. loans, residential relocation schemes, to take a few examples-which have as their stated or implicit aim the reduction of wealth inequality or its level of persistence.

40300. Migration and Immigration: Social Economic Causes and Effects (=SOCI 20152/30152)

This course reviews basic concepts, research methodology, and theories (i.e., economic, demographic, sociological, social-psychological) for all forms of spatial mobility (i.e., local moving, internal migration, immigration). Equal emphasis is given to the United States and to other world regions. The goal is to prepare students for independent research and/or policy investigation on a wide range of topics and issues pertaining to the voluntary and involuntary spatial movement of people in the modern world.

The transition to adulthood takes place in an economic landscape characterized by a widening gap between rich and poor. Changing economic conditions have made jobs scarce in many areas, especially inner cities. Delays in marriage and parenthood are increasingly common. Cohabitation and prolonged residence with parents characterize the life choice of many young adults. How are young people's early family experiences related to the paths they take in early adulthood? What role does adolescent employment play in youths' subsequent development? How do teenage child bearers navigate the "transition to adulthood?" How do young men and women combine work and close relationships? Who are the winners and losers at this critical life transition? What role can public policy play? This seminar will explore these and other related questions through readings and the discussion of empirical research drawn primarily from developmental psychology, sociology, and demography.

This is a course in applied intermediate micro-economic theory. The tools and perspectives of economics will be applied to topics in family behavior and family and child policy. Three topic areas will be covered, including: family structure (cohabitation, marriage, and divorce); sexual behavior; and investments in children. The principal objective of the course is to foster a heightened understanding of the tools and approaches of economics and how they can be used in analyzing social policy issues. Prerequisites: PP32300 and PP32400 or permission of the instructor.

This course is designed to provide an overview of current policy issues involving children and families, and will emphasize the scientific perspective of developmental psychology. The following topics will be addressed: family structure and child development; the role of the father in children's lives; poverty and family processes; maternal employment and child care; adolescent parenthood; neighborhood influences on families; and welfare reform. Theoretical perspectives and measurements, (e.g., the tools of the science), regarding how children develop from infancy to adulthood, will be stressed.

40900. Work and Family: Policies to Promote Family Well-Being and Child Development

This multidisciplinary course will draw from research in sociology, psychology, demography, and economics to examine the conditions shaping America's working families and the public policies that can help to improve the quality of child and adolescent development in working families. Among other topics, we will examine the growing population of working mothers with young children, the use and effects of non-parental child care, welfare reform and the low-wage labor market, the emergence of a 24/7 economy, job loss and underemployment, the effectiveness of job training programs, and the availability and utilization of paid family leave and other public policies to support working parents.

This course covers aspects of health human capital that interact with the behavior of the rest of the economy. Of particular interest will be the analysis of production and consumption of health care that constitutes a significant amount of private and public economic activity in many countries, especially the United States. Topics to be discussed will include: the investment in health through health care or other means, the effects of public intervention in health care markets, and the relationship between health care and social insurance for the aged.

The purpose of this course is to better acquaint students with the general principles of economic evaluation of projects or of policy changes. The primary methods of to be studied will be those of cost-benefit analysis for the situations where all costs and benefits can be monetized. A secondary set of economic evaluation tools is used in economic evaluations of health or in situations where the analyst is unwilling or reluctant to value all of the benefits or costs in monetary terms.

This course is based on the theory and practice of econometrics. Its intention is to provide hands-on experience with econometric analysis, without neglecting sound knowledge of econometric theory. It is designed to help students acquire skills that make them effective consumers and producers of empirical research in public policy, economics and related fields. Throughout the course, concepts will be illustrated with application in economics. Various aspects will be covered in the course, in particular: i) development of testable econometric models; ii) use of appropriate data, and; iii) specification and estimation of econometric models.

This course covers basic concepts of demand and supply analysis in economics. The course is intended to be taken by students who have taken the economics core, but is at a lower degree of difficulty than the PhD courses in economics offered.

Scientific social surveys provide a substantial proportion of the data on which policy decisions in government are based. In health services research, child and family research, education, and much of social and economic statistics, the dominant data source is the survey. This course is designed to introduce participants to the key components of the survey and how to evaluate them.

The field of survey methodology draws on theories and practices from several academic disciplines - sociology, psychology, statistics, mathematics, computer science, and economics. This course will introduce the set of principles that are the basis of standard practice in the field. Topics include: inference in social research; survey design; coverage, sampling, and nonresponse; questionnaire and question design; modes of data collection; interviewing; post-collection processing; scientific integrity and ethics; history of survey research; evaluation of surveys.

The course will include a quarter-long project in which small groups will design a survey to tackle a real-life survey issue and present the results at the end of the quarter. Prerequisites: At least one course in statistics at the level of PP31000.

This is a course on the economics of labor markets and the regulations that affect them. Students will focus on several sets of public policies aimed at increasing the earnings of low-income families, reducing discrimination in the labor market, and increasing workers' well being. Students will have the opportunity to use and analyze several influential policy studies using economic, empirical, and policy skills developed in the first year core courses and in the workshop course. Prerequisite: PP 32300 and PP 32400 or consent of the instructor.

This course covers principles related to the writing of survey questions and the design of survey questionnaires in order to optimize the collection of useful information, minimize response bias and reduce total survey error. The approach to questionnaire design will hinge on the psychological tasks respondents engage in when confronted with a survey question. The construction of questions in all areas of social and behavioral science and to be used in all survey modalities (including web surveys) will be considered. Important theoretical and research articles in survey methodology, and a book on the psychology of survey responding, will comprise the readings. Students will engage in a small survey methodology project. Grades will be based on a mid-term examination and a final project involving the construction of a questionnaire.

In this course we will focus on noncooperative game theory and its application to the study of the political process in which public policy is made. Models and tests from current literature will be used extensively to solidify development of theoretical tools. Some applications we will cover include legislative-executive interaction, the design and behavior of bureaucracies, and the organization of legislatures. The course objectives are to make the outcomes of the policy process intelligible in terms of goal-seeking individual behavior (and therefore allow us to analyze implications of different ways of structuring the policy process), and to enable students to draw on game theory and political economy in their own work. Some background in math and data analysis (at the level of algebra, elementary probability, and basic regression analysis) and intermediate microeconomics is required.

This course is the first in a two-part sequence designed to cover applied econometrics and regression methods at a fairly advanced level. The focus in this course is primarily on variants of least squares for linear models. The course reviews the fundamentals of econometrics using matrix algebra. It considers analytical issues caused by violations of linearity (functional form), influence and outliers, heteroscedasticity and auto-correlation. Alternative estimators are examined to deal with each. In addition, the course addresses issues that arise from data that are missing at random or partially complete, as well as measurement error. The course concludes with implications for research design. Prerequisites: This course is intended for first or second-year Ph.D. students or advanced master's-level students who have taken an intermediate or advanced course in statistics (such as Statistics 24400 or Public Policy 31200) and an introductory or intermediate course in regression methods or econometrics such as Public Policy 31100 or 31300. Some familiarity with matrix algebra is recommended.

Public Policy 42100, the second in a two-part sequence, is a basic course in applied econometrics designed to provide students with the tools necessary to evaluate and conduct empirical research. It will focus on the analysis of theoretical econometric problems and the "hands-on" use of economic data. Topics will include non-linear estimation, multi-variate and simultaneous systems of equations, and qualitative and limited dependent variables. Some familiarity with linear algebra is strongly recommended. Required of all first-year Ph.D. students.

First part of a two-quarter sequence in the economics of state and local governments; students can take either one or both of the courses. Goals of class: Use applied tools of microeconomics to analyze taxes and other revenues raised by state and local governments in the United States. Assess the efficiency and equity properties of income, sales and excise, and property taxes. Consider tax alternatives such as user fees, impact fees, and lotteries. Evaluate effectiveness of various tax-related programs such as tax increment financing. Prerequisites: the two-quarter core sequence in microeconomics, PP32300 and PP32400, or their equivalent.

Second part of a two-quarter sequence in the economics of state and local governments; students can take either one or both of the courses. Goals of class: Use applied tools of microeconomics to analyze the expenditure and service provision decisions of state and local governments in the United States. Apply the theory of market failure to analyze public sector spending decisions. Evaluate privatization and/or outsourcing decisions on efficiency and equity grounds, drawing examples from parks and recreation, transportation, and/or other sectors. Use economic theory of fiscal federalism to analyze role of intergovernmental grants, with focus on Medicaid and public education. Analyze use of debt finance for capital projects. Investigate effectiveness of economic development programs. Prerequisites: the two-quarter core sequence in microeconomics, PP32300 and PP32400, or their equivalent.

This course provides a detailed examination of theoretical and empirical techniques used to measure the economic value of a public good. Topics include market-based and hedonic measurement techniques. A major section of the course examines the use of survey and contingent valuation methods for valuing public goods in the context of cost-benefit analysis. This section of the course will include an examination of non-use, information, and ethical, legal, and moral considerations related to the use of contingent valuation methodology. The course also examines in detail the policy specific applicability of the various measuring techniques.

This Ph.D.-level course provides the conceptual and theoretical foundations of public finance by dealing with a large number of concepts, models, and techniques that are used in the research on public finance. A command of the positive analysis of the incidence of government policies is fundamental to the study of most problems of public finance; positive analysis is emphasized throughout the course. Among the topics are: measurements of changes in welfare; economy-wide incidence of taxes; effects of taxation on risk-taking, investments, and financial markets; corporate taxation; taxation of goods and services; taxation of income; taxation and savings; positive problems of redistribution; and tax arbitrage, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and the underground economy. Prerequisites: Open to Ph.D. students; other students may enroll with consent of the instructor.

This course will cover a number of topics pertaining to the main means-tested transfer programs in the United States. The goal is to provide Ph.D. students with sufficient substantive, conceptual, and methodological background that they could pursue dissertation research in this area, and to provide MPP students with an in-depth background on the nature and economic analysis of these programs. The format of the course will include a mix of instructor- and student-led lectures, with expectations for substantial student participation. Students will also present interim and final versions of a research project that forms the basis for a paper. Grades for the class will be based on the quality of in-class presentations and the paper.

A public policy initiative ultimately gets played out in the public arena, where it is subjected to a variety of intervening factors that can overwhelm even the most elegantly reasoned policy proposal. Politicians seeking re-election, publishers looking to sell papers, lobbyists trying to show results for their clients, all have a serious impact on the eventual success or failure of a plan no matter how well conceived or crafted. This course uses the political campaign as a model for approaching public policy implementation. We will examine the infrastructure and mechanics of successful campaigns, components of effective media strategies, both paid and earned, and the use lobbying and coalition-building to achieve public policy goals. Through presentations by various policy experts, politicians, business and labor leaders, this course will provide students with a working knowledge of the fundamentals of a political campaign as well as the ability to apply this knowledge to success in the public policy sphere.

We will discuss a) the historical rationales for governmental intervention in culture; b) the objects of policing action (producers, distributors, consumers, products, practices. etc.); c) the objectives of policing; d) the tools of governmental policing (negative tools such as regulation, prohibition/censorship, etc., but also positive tools such as incentives, allocation of property rights; information); and d) the political economy of cultural policy (how does one measure the impact of a governmental action on institutions, artists, audiences, or art works?). We will focus on three very different efforts at policing: the National Endowment for the Humanities' programs; attempts to develop cultural districts; and initiatives to stem the looting of archaeological sites.

This course is designed to help students improve their capacity to analyze international policy. The analysis of foreign economic and security policy is "soft" in that it rarely requires the use of sophisticated statistical methods, but this does not mean it is easy. Quite the contrary, international policy analysis can, for that very reason, be quite difficult to perform well; it is soft and hard at the same time. The course begins by exploring the qualities of good arguments and analysis, the role of international relations theory in this type of work, and the uses of analysis in the formulation and implementation of inter

Course Descriptions 2007-08

30000 Level Courses

40000 Level Courses