Public & International Affairs
- CEE 334/SPI 452/ENV 334/ENE 334: Global Environmental IssuesThis course examines a set of global environmental issues including population growth, ozone layer depletion, climate change, air pollution, the environmental consequences of energy supply and demand decisions and sustainable development. It provides an overview of the scientific basis for these problems and examines past, present and possible future policy responses. Individual projects, presentations, and problem sets are included.
- ENV 304/ECO 328/EEB 304/SPI 455: Disease Ecology, Economics, and PolicyThe dynamics of the emergence and spread of disease arise from a complex interplay between disease ecology, economics, and human behavior. Lectures will provide an introduction to complementarities between economic and epidemiological approaches to understanding the emergence, spread, and control of infectious diseases. The course will cover topics such as drug-resistance in bacterial and parasitic infections, individual incentives to vaccinate, the role of information in the transmission of infectious diseases, and the evolution of social norms in healthcare practices.
- GHP 350/SPI 380/ANT 380: Critical Perspectives in Global HealthGlobal health brings together a vast array of actors addressing urgent health and environmental issues with unprecedented financial and technological resources. The course is a critical analysis of the social, political, and economic processes underlying this expanding medical and humanitarian field. As we scrutinize the design, evidence-making practices and values shaping global health, we will place interventions in historical perspective, gauge their impact, and explore new paradigms in-the-making. Students are encouraged to find new, collaborative ways to understand and act in and through the field of global health.
- POL 230/SPI 325: Introduction to Comparative PoliticsThis course introduces students to the study of comparative politics, defined as the study of domestic politics in both developing and advanced industrial countries. Course topics include the relationship between capitalism, democracy, and economic development; the implications of political institutional choices (such as electoral systems); the politics of ethnic diversity and conflict; and the dynamics of political mobilization (including protest). The course also provides an introduction to the comparative method, using both "classics" and recent research as examples.
- POL 240/SPI 312: International RelationsThis course introduces major theories of international relations, uses them to explain historical events from 10,000 BC to the present, and investigates contemporary policy issues such as human rights, terrorism, US foreign policy, climate change and global environmental regulation. The course also trains students how to write academic analyses, policy memos and media opinion pieces, thus preparing them for more specialized courses and research in international relations, as well as jobs in foreign policy.
- POL 345/SOC 305/SPI 211: Introduction to Quantitative Social ScienceWould universal health insurance improve the health of the poor? Do patterns of arrests in US cities show evidence of racial profiling? What accounts for who votes and their choice of candidates? This course will teach students how to address these and other social science questions by analyzing quantitative data. The course introduces basic principles of statistical inference and programming skills for data analysis. The goal is to provide students with the foundation necessary to analyze data in their own research and to become critical consumers of statistical claims made in the news media, in policy reports, and in academic research.
- POL 351/SPI 311/LAS 371: The Politics of DevelopmentThis course investigates the key political drivers of economic development and human welfare. It explores the effects of geography, historical legacies, policy, incentive design, and institutional capacity on standards of living, including vulnerability to disease and climate risk. Uses theory, comparison, and case studies to motivate discussion.
- SPI 306/ECO 329/ENV 319: Environmental EconomicsCourse introduces use of economics in understanding both the sources of and the remedies to environmental and resource allocation problems. It emphasizes the reoccurrence of economic phenomena like public goods, externalities, market failure and imperfect information. Students learn about the design and evaluation of environmental policy instruments, the political economy of environmental policy, and the valuation of environmental and natural resource services. These concepts are illustrated in a variety of applications from domestic pollution of air, water and land to international issues such as global warming and sustainable development.
- SPI 316/POL 399: China's Foreign RelationsThis course will review and analyze the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the present. It will emphasize Beijing's relations with the US as well as examine its dealings with the USSR, Asia and the developing world. It will explore the changes and continuities in the PRC's foreign policy during three periods; 1) the era of Mao Zedong's dominance, 2) the reform era begun under Deng Xiaoping and 3) the turn back toward authoritarianism since the advent of Xi Jinping.
- SPI 324/POL 371: Designing DemocracyIntroducing the study of political institutions as levers of conflict management in ethnically plural, post-conflict national states. Our attention will be focused on ongoing and historical cases of constitutional design. These states will be analyzed in terms of their paths toward democracy, the nature of their internal conflict, and the types of political institutions they have (or are adopting).
- SPI 328/URB 328: Crime and Violence in U.S. CitiesThis course focuses on the problems of crime and violence in the United States, and considers how to confront these problems. The semester is organized into four parts: 1) How to think about and study the problems of crime and violence; 2) Ideas and theories explaining crime and violence; 3) The challenge of violence in the United States; and 4) Approaches to confronting violence. Over the course of the semester students will carry out a research project analyzing data and policy related to crime and violence.
- SPI 331/SOC 312/AAS 317/POL 343: Race and Public PolicyAnalyzes the historical construction of race as a concept in American society, how and why this concept was institutionalized publicly and privately in various arenas of U.S. public life at different historical junctures, and the progress that has been made in dismantling racialized institutios since the civil rights era.
- SPI 340/PSY 321: The Psychology of Decision Making and JudgmentAn introduction to the main issues and research findings underlying decision-making and judgment under uncertainty. The focus is on the contrast between the normative theory of judgment and choice, and the psychological principles that guide decision behavior, often producing biases and errors. Among other topics, we will consider political, medical, and financial decision-making, poverty, negotiations, and the law, along with the implications of the findings for the rational agent model typically assumed in economics, throughout the social sciences, and in policy making.
- SPI 350/ENV 350: The Environment: Science and PolicyThis course examines the ways domestic U.S. and international environmental regulatory frameworks adopt, interpret and otherwise accommodate scientific information. The course focuses on several case studies, that provide insights into the science-policy interactions which emerge from managing natural resources and environmental risk along with related socio-political issues. Topics include air pollution; climate change; managing fisheries, and nuclear risk. Students will explore the science underlying these issues as well as current policies and the range of future policy responses.
- SPI 370/POL 308/CHV 301: Ethics and Public PolicyThe course examines major moral controversies in public life and differing conceptions of justice and the common good. It seeks to help students develop the skills required for thinking and writing about the ethical considerations that ought to shape public institutions, guide public authorities, and inform the public's judgments. The course will focus on issues that are particularly challenging for advanced, pluralist democracies such as the USA, including justice in war, terrorism and torture, markets and distributive justice, immigration, refugees, and criminal justice.
- SPI 373/GSS 205: Women, Law and Public PolicyThis course will explore how women's rights activists, lawyers, and legal scholars have considered legal institutions and law to be arenas and resources for transforming women's lives and gender norms, identities, and roles. Since the early 1970s, feminist legal scholars and lawyers have challenged traditional understandings of law and the core civic values of freedom, justice, and equality. Others have questioned whether litigation-centered approaches to reform have harmed more than helped advance the goal of women's equality and liberation.
- SPI 394: Inequities in HealthIn both wealthy and low and middle income countries, the most disadvantaged people in societies are more likely to be exposed to health threats and more likely to suffer the consequences of those threats. We see evidence and the consequences of health inequities across countries and within them, and across socioeconomic, gender, racial and ethnic groups. In this course, we consider differences in the burden of disease and explore the myriad reasons for these differences. We also examine how the structure of health systems and health services, and the ways these are resources, can exacerbate inequities.
- SPI 396/ECO 396/LAS 399: Education Economics and PolicyThis course is designed to describe the policies defining the provision of educational services with special attention to the context of the US and Latin America. The focus will be on policies that have implications for understanding inequality in education and income through the lens of economic theory of human capital. The course topics will include governance, accountability, choice, finance, and personnel policies for K-12 education, with a focus on the role of teachers; it will also briefly cover issues related to early childhood education and higher education. Class sessions are a mixture of lectures and student-led discussions.
- SPI 401: Policy SeminarsIn policy task forces, students work in groups of 8 to 10, first formulating the general problem, then engaging in individual research on subtopics, and finally presenting their inferences for discussion and debate and producing a collective policy report.
- SPI 403: Policy Research SeminarThe junior policy research seminar serves to introduce departmental majors to the tools, methods, and interpretations employed in policy research and writing. Students may choose from a range of topics.
- SPI 421/POL 479/CHV 470: Comparative Constitutional LawThis course will introduce students to constitutional government in comparative perspective. In the first half of the course, we will focus on presidential v. parliamentary systems, separation of powers, "fourth branch" institutions and the influence of transnational institutions. In the second half, we will focus on rights and the way that they are interpreted by courts. We will trace the emergence (and decline) of a global constitutional culture and discuss the constitutions of South Africa, India, Germany, France, Hungary, Colombia and Canada with side references to the U.S.
- SPI 466/HIS 467: Financial HistoryThe course examines the history of financial innovation and its consequences. It examines the evolution of trading practices, bills of exchange, government bonds, equities, banking activity, derivatives markets, and securitization. How do these evolve in particular state or national settings, how are the practices regulated, how do they relate to broader development? What happens as financial instruments are traded across state boundaries, and how does an international financial order evolve? What are the effects of international capital mobility? How is resulting conflict and instability managed, on both a national and international level?
- SPI 500: Extramural Public Policy FellowshipThis course is limited to students participating in the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI), the Richard H. Ullman Fellowship, or an approved MPA middle year out. Enrolled students participate in one or more internships with a federal, state, or local government agency, non-governmental organization, or multilateral institution in the U.S. or overseas. The purpose is to provide a learning environment for students to use/develop quantitative and qualitative analytical skills in an active public policy setting, with oversight from Princeton University faculty and staff.
- SPI 501: The Politics of Public PolicyAn analysis of the forces that shape the behavior of public organizations and individuals in organizational settings. The emphasis is on the workings of U.S. governmental agencies. Special attention is given to writing skills as they apply to the roles of advisers and decision makers in public-sector organizations.
- SPI 504: Policy Issues and Analysis of Nonprofits, NGOs, and PhilanthropyExamines policy issues at international, national and local levels. Provides groundwork on nonprofits, NGOs, and philanthropy that can be followed with specialized courses on management and program evaluation. Emphasis on understanding how philanthropy, nonprofit, and NGO sectors operate, their niche alongside private and public sectors, revenue sources, impact on society, and converse effects of society and its institutions; the policy making process. Explores impact of reliance on government or overseas support for Third World NGOs; faith-based service provisions: accountability and transparency; advocacy; and government regulations.
- SPI 506: The Sociology of OrganizationsFormal organizations are key to understanding most facets of modern life. This course examines organizations as complex social systems, which reflect and shape their broader social environments. The first half explores why organizations look and act the way they do: Why are they so bureaucratic? How do they influence one another? Why are they so often resistant to change? The second half of the course focuses on the consequences of organizational practices: How do they shape work, inequality and diversity? How do they mediate the effects of public policies? How do they become instruments of political change?
- SPI 507B: Quantitative Analysis for PolicymakersStatistical analysis with applications to public policy, begins with an introduction to probability theory followed by discussion of statistical methods for estimating the quantitative effects of changes in policy variables. Regression methods appropriate for the analysis of observational data and data from randomized controlled experiments are stressed. By the end of the course students are able to do their own empirical analysis using statistical software package, interpret regression results and competently assess the work of others. The course assumes a fluency in high school algebra.
- SPI 507C: Quantitative Analysis for Policymakers (Advanced)Statistical analysis with applications to public policy, begins with an introduction to probability theory followed by discussion of statistical methods for estimating the quantitative effects of changes in policy variables. Regression methods appropriate for the analysis of observational data & data from randomized controlled experiments are stressed. By course end, students are able to do their own empirical analysis using statistical software package & interpret regression results from the professional literature. The course assumes fluency in calculus, which is necessary for rigorous mathematical analysis of probability & statistics.
- SPI 511B: Microeconomic Analysis for PolicymakersThis course presents concepts and tools from microeconomic theory with an emphasis on how they are applied to public policy analysis. No previous experience in economics required although students should be familiar with basic concepts in calculus. A strong understanding of algebra is a prerequisite.
- SPI 511C: Microeconomic Analysis for Policymakers (Advanced)This course is an introduction to the use of microeconomics for the analysis of public policy on an advanced level. The emphasis is on both the intuitive and formal logic of economic principles, a deeper perspective on the impacts of typical policy measures, and an introduction to the use of professional microeconomic tools to assess and weigh these policy impacts. One goal is to move students towards the ability to read professional microeconomic literature with appreciation of both its contributions and foibles.
- SPI 515B: Program and Policy EvaluationThis course introduces students to evaluation. It explores ways: to develop and implement research-based program improvement strategies and program accountability systems; to judge the effects of policies and programs; and to assess the benefits and costs of policy or program changes. Students study a wide range of evaluation tools; read and discuss both domestic and international evaluation examples and apply this knowledge by designing several different types of evaluations on programs of their choosing.
- SPI 521: Domestic PoliticsAn introduction to the political analysis of policy making in the American setting. The course includes theoretical and empirical analyses of political institutions, including executives, legislatures, and bureaucracies. It also examines the political environment in which these institutions operate, with special attention given to the role of public opinion, interest groups, and elections.
- SPI 522: Microeconomic Analysis of Domestic PolicyExamines a series of major issues of policy designed to illustrate and develop skills in particularly important applications of microeconomics. Topics include education and training, the minimum wage, mandated benefits, affirmative action, the theory of public goods and externalities, and the basic theory of taxation. Prerequisite: 511b.
- SPI 527C: Topics in Domestic Policy: Public Management in the Digital Technology AgeBig data, social media, the internet; digital technology, is changing the nature of government and leadership in democratic societies. This course introduces students of government to the ramifications of digital technology, and its technical concepts and infrastructure. This course emphasizes how the changing technological landscape can drive performance improvement and innovation in government. We discuss what digital technology means for leaders in the public sector, and how its potential can be better used to serve the public. The course relies on the case study method.
- SPI 529: Great Leadership in Historical PerspectiveThis course used historical analysis to evaluate why some presidents have been considered to be among the most effective leaders and why others have left a legacy of failure. We focus on the twentieth century, from FDR to Clinton, for our case studies. The seminar evaluates social scientific models of leadership and delves into the historical record to discover any consistent patterns that are relevant for today. Careful consideration is given to the distinct challenges posed by different institutional and political settings. The course also explores the ways in which historical analysis can be useful to policymaking.
- SPI 537/SOC 537: Urban Inequality and Social PolicyThis course focuses on the causes, consequences, and responses to urban inequality. The course is organized in four parts. First, we consider how one comes to learn about and understand cities and neighborhoods. Second, we review classic and current ideas about how urbanization affects the way we live and interact with each other. Third, we assess various explanations for urban inequality. Fourth, we focus our attention on central problems and challenges of urban life, from segregation to violence, and consider policy responses.
- SPI 541: International PoliticsThis course introduces competing theories of international relations and evaluates their explanation of foreign policy decisions and general patterns in international relations over the last century. Broadly covering security policy and international political economy, topics include the causes of war, the role of international organizations to promote cooperation, and the interaction between domestic actors and governments in negotiations on trade and the environment.
- SPI 542: International EconomicsSurvey course in international economics for non-specialists. The first half covers microeconomic topics such as trade theory and policy, multilateral trade negotiations and regional economic integration. The second half addresses macroeconomic topics such as current account imbalances, exchange rates, and international financial crises. The course stresses concepts and real-world applications rather than formal models. Prerequisite: 511b and 512b.
- SPI 549: National Security PolicyExamines the changing meaning of "national security" and the various policies and institutions through which states may seek to enhance it. Course emphasizes the formation and implementation of national security policy by the United States government.
- SPI 550: PhD Gateway in Security StudiesThe field of Security Studies is distinguished by its focus on a clearly delineated set of intellectual and practical problems. This course serves as the required gateway for all students entering the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
- SPI 555D: Topics in IR: Military Policy and PlanningThis course provides an overview of the uses of the military as an instrument of national power in the US, including an understanding of the size, scope, organization, function, and resources of the Department of Defense (DoD), the relationship between DoD and other Cabinet agencies in formulating and executing US policy, the defense budgeting process, and civil-military relations. It also reviews the trade-offs and planning considerations that affect the range and scope of operations the US military is postured to conduct, as well as factors that go into the determination of how many and what types of forces make up the US military.
- SPI 556E: Topics in IR: Strategic Intelligence and National Security PolicyThis seminar examines the role of strategic intelligence in the making and implementation of national security policy, chiefly but not exclusively in the United States. The course is divided into four sections: strategy, intelligence, national security, and policy. We review the classic literature in this field, look at the evolution of the principal national security agencies, focus on the role of strategic intelligence, and explore relevant case studies. The final paper assignment is a case study in strategic intelligence or a scenario analysis of the kind pioneered in the National Intelligence Council's 'Global Trends' series.
- SPI 561/POL 523: The Comparative Political Economy of DevelopmentAnalysis of political change and the operation of political institutions in the development process, with emphasis on the interaction of political and economic factors. Various definitions and theories of political development are examined and tested against different economic, ethnic, geographic, and social contexts.
- SPI 562B: Economic Analysis of DevelopmentIntroduction to the processes of economic growth and development. The course examines various theories of development; poverty and inequality measurement; and the role of markets for credit, labor and land, as well as education and health, in development. The role of public policy is considered within each of these topics. The course may also cover topics such as foreign aid, commodity pricing, and tax policy.
- SPI 562C: Economic Analysis of Development (Advanced)Considers theories and evidence to explain processes of economic development; examines theories of economic growth, and the two-way links between development and poverty, inequality, social institutions, and the family. Policy debates on education, health, and social policy, and governmental and international aid are also covered.
- SPI 564/POP 564: Poverty, Inequality and Health in the WorldAbout well-being throughout the world, with focus on income and health. Explores what happened to poverty, inequality, and health, in the US, and internationally. Discusses conceptual foundations of national and global measures of inequality, poverty, and health; construction of measures, and extent to which they can be trusted; relationship between globalization, poverty, and health, historically and currently. Examines links between health and income, why poor people are less healthy and live less long than rich people.
- SPI 571C: Topics in Development: Political Risk AnalysisWe explore the impact of international, national and subnational political institutions on firms' and investors' strategies. Political institutions, including trade and investment agreements; democratic or non-democratic governance structures; and national labor and environmental regulations affect business strategy decisions. Political events, especially elections and mass protest and demonstrations, also can heighten political risk. We draw on research to consider how business leaders assess risk at the firm- and country-level, and to evaluate how governments that want to attract or retain investment seek to ameliorate political risk.
- SPI 581C: Topics in Economics: Energy EconomicsExamines the economics behind many issues related to energy use, including the investment and use of renewable and non-renewable resources, energy conservation, deregulation of energy markets, transportation, and energy independence. Current policy options will be discussed.
- SPI 582C: Topics in Economics: Growth, International Finance & CrisesThis is a macro, international finance-oriented development course, which will focus on the political economy of policy decisions. It will cover the following themes: 1. GDP growth and volatility; 2. the size, composition, and influence of international capital flows; 3. sudden stops in capital flows and financial crises; 4. the domestic and multilateral response to crises, including the role of fiscal adjustment, external financing, and debt restructuring; 5. We will draw on several country case-studies and students will be encouraged to undertake short research assignments to deepen their own policy interests.
- SPI 590A: Economic Perspectives on Inequality (Half Term)Economics is centrally concerned with models of human capital development, educational attainment, labor market dynamics, unemployment, labor turnover, job duration, wage setting institutions, the role of unions, human capital formation, the relationship between economic status and other aspects of well-being (including health). Economists are essential partners in the behavioral study of preferences and decision making, mobility and redistribution, and the institutions of industrial relations that govern the labor market.
- SPI 590D/PSY 590: Psychological Studies of Inequality (Half-Term)A course required for and limited to students in the Joint Degree program in Social Policy. Two major areas of psychology make important contributions to the study of social policy and inequality. The first is social psychology, which focuses on inter-group relations, interpersonal perception, stereotyping, racism, aggression, justice and fairness. The second domain involves the fields of social-cognition, judgment and decision making, areas of research that study human information processing in a way that is not about individual differences, and often not social.
- SPI 590S: Workshop in Social PolicyA course required for and limited to students in the Joint Degree program in Social Policy. Papers drafted in the year-long course SPI 590a,b,c,d must be revised and submitted to the workshop leader by August 20. Papers will be provided to an expert reader outside of the Princeton faculty, who is invited to join the seminar for sessions devoted to each student paper. Each student will present his/her own paper and simultaneously contribute written critiques of one another's papers. By the end of the term, students will be required to submit their papers for publication to a leading journal.
- SPI 591A: Policy Workshop: Narrowing Wealth Gaps through Homeownership OpportunitiesThe assignment for the Policy Workshop is to analyze and recommend how NJHMFA can and should structure and target its Down Payment Assistance Program, paired in particular with its new Foreclosure Prevention Program, to: (a) best promote wealth creation, (b) target neighborhoods for stabilization, (c) support anti-gentrification efforts, and (d) narrow the racial wealth gap among New Jersey households.
- SPI 591B: Policy Workshop: Mitigating the Effects of Vaccine HesitancyThe World Bank's Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) is conducting behavioral science research and experiments to design country tailored social media communication campaigns to support COVID-19 vaccination plans. This workshop provides support to eMBeD in its efforts to mitigate the effects of vaccine hesitancy in the MENA region.
- SPI 591C: Policy Workshop: Diplomacy and Protracted ConflictsThe Workshop studies a protracted conflict (to be determined in consultation with the enrolled students), analyzes diplomatic efforts to deal with the conflict, assesses lessons learned, and develops policy ideas on how to make diplomacy more effective. The students present their findings to American policy officials.
- SPI 591D: Policy Workshop: Puerto Rico's Debt RestructuringThis workshop enlists students to evaluate the debt restructuring process that Puerto Rico has followed since 2017, and to work as a team to formulate recommendations to complete it. The first six weeks of the workshop focuses on both the policy decisions that prompted Puerto Rico to file for bankruptcy and the urgent need for then President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to step-in and legislate the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016 (PROMESA).
- SPI 591E: Policy Workshop: Affordable Care ActThe ACA workshop focuses on the policy, operational and political challenges that continue to face policymakers related to the Affordable Care Act. Efforts continue across the country to address coverage, delivery system reforms and other innovations resulting from the ACA and its substantial impact on our health care system. A change in federal administration combined with the pandemic pose particular challenges and opportunities for public officials. The workshop client is a state addressing a unique aspect of the ACA or related health care policy.
- SPI 591F: Policy Workshop: Global Supply Chains and Geopolitical RisksThe COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption of global supply chains has put a spotlight on how a few geographic regions can be so central to the international economy, and particularly as it relates to the semiconductor industry. Bottlenecks in the manufacturing process have triggered a global chip shortage impacting everything from the production of smartphones to automobiles. What lessons can be learned from Taiwan and other countries? What can the United States do to change this state of affairs? What are the different interests and considerations policymakers will have to navigate if they are to create any lasting change?
- SPI 591G: Policy Workshop: Climate Adaptation and the Coasts: Managed TransitionWe look also at examples of natural hazards mitigation programs for extreme winds and earthquakes as possible models. Is it best to effect transition and transformation by using financial incentives or regulations and if both what is the best combination? Clearly the right approach allows for a staged transition from status quo to better and the challenge is to find the right approach to achieve this. We engage with existing contacts and actors in this work including committees of the US Congress, federal and local agencies and NGOs.
- SPI 591H: Policy Workshop: Managing Transformational Change in K-12 EducationThe objective of the full-semester interdisciplinary program is to bring together upper-level graduate students in law, business, education and policy from universities across the nation to immerse themselves in: The study of emerging and competing strategies for K-12 and allied institutional reform; Structured, team-based problem-solving skills that effective public organizations use to address the most difficult challenges in education and related domains; and High-priority multi-dimensional consulting projects on behalf of public- and social-sector organizations serving the educational and related needs of children.
- SPI 593A: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Global Systemic RiskThis course explores the emergence and consequences of global systemic risk, particularly in the governance of global flows of money, goods, and people. We focus on networks and complex adaptive systems as useful frames for studying globalization. We discuss standard theories of globalization and how these miss critical systemic attributes. We translate much of the debate about globalization into a broad map of interconnected networks. Case studies include the networked structure of global supply chains, the epidemiological considerations that emerge from increased international migration, and the global problems of climate change.
- SPI 593B: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Evolution and Global Diffusion of Macroeconomic IdeasThis course discusses how economic trends and politics have shaped macroeconomic thinking in the postwar years. Given the nature of how ideas originate and travel, the course traces the evolution of economic policy in the advanced countries, but we also focus on the osmosis of these ideas to and experience with them in developing/emerging economies.
- SPI 593E/SOC 585: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Surveys, Polls and Public PolicyCourse aims to improve students' abilities to understand and critically evaluate public opinion polls and surveys, particularly as they are used to influence public policy. Course begins with an overview of contrasting perspectives on the role of public opinion in politics, then examines the evolution of public opinion polling in the US and other countries. Class visits a major polling operation to get a firsthand look at procedures used for designing representative samples and conducting surveys by telephone, mail and Internet.
- SPI 593G: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Bridging the Digital DivideThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought the inequity of the digital divide into sharp relief. There is a broad understanding that policymakers need to invest in broadband access technology, home computing equipment, and educational training if they hope to make a difference. But there are open questions about what are effective strategies to pursue and how should governments measure impact. This seminar takes a deep dive into these pressing issues of equity and aims to have students develop actionable recommendations to share with policymakers.
- SPI 593K: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): State and Local FinanceExamines budgeting and finance at the state and local level of government. Topics include: budget structure and process; decision makers within the political and economic environment; debt, capital planning and bond financing; revenue structures supporting expenditures. Tax policy and associated tradeoffs between tax equity and efficiency and spending and program needs are also examined. Two case studies are utilized---one related to state and local tax policy and one related to budgetary decision-making.
- SPI 593L: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Legal Skills for PolicymakersThis half-term course provides students with some of the basics of a legal education, focusing on the most relevant areas for public policy work. Topics include constitutional law, administrative law (with a focus on agency rulemaking), and statutory interpretation. Course is not open to students who are pursuing or already have a J.D.
- SPI 593M: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Machine Learning for Policy decisionsMachine learning is a field at the intersection of statistics and computer science that uses algorithms to extract information and knowledge from data. Its applications increasingly find their way into social science problems and policy decisions. This course offers a brief introduction into this vast toolbox, illustrates its current uses in the social sciences and policy realm, and discusses the question of fairness and bias that algorithmic decision-making inevitably raises.
- SPI 593N: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): GIS for Public PolicyThis course is designed as a practical introduction to the use of computer mapping (Geographic Information systems) for policy analysis and decision-making. Students learn ArcGIS through examples of map applications. Students are expected to complete exercises and a final project applying GIS to a policy issue.
- SPI 593Q: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Impact Evaluation ToolsThis course focuses on tools that practitioners regularly use for designing, implementing, and analyzing impact evaluations, including the limitations usually met in conducting real-world studies. Students practice addressing relevant issues through a series of analytic exercises of recent evaluations of domestic and international social programs and policy decisions.
- SPI 594C/POP 594C: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Reproductive Justice and Public PolicyThis course uses the lens of reproductive justice to examine policy and politics around reproduction and family formation in the United States. The course explores the social, historical and cultural forces that shape reproduction, focusing on how inequalities based on gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, and citizenship structure and influence reproductive opportunities and experiences. Topics include contraception and abortion, childbirth and maternity care, adoption and family policy, reproductive technology, eugenics, the maternal mortality crisis, and the role of law, medicine and activism in shaping contemporary reproduction.
- SPI 594S: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Climate Change: Science, Policy and MitigationDesigned to improve students' skill, confidence and judgment in use of science in policy applications. Using case studies, real-world examples, and in-class exercises, in the areas of atmospheric and energy policy, the emphasis is on preparing both non-scientists and scientists to use, understand, and critique science in environmental policy applications. Exercises are scaled to the student's background.