Courses

PPHA 30105. Math Methods for Public Policy. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. Math Methods for Public Policy covers the Algebra and Calculus topics foundational for success in intermediate microeconomics. This course focuses on improving students' understanding of mathematics used in Harris core courses and increasing the speed and accuracy with which students perform algebraic calculations. Calculus concepts including derivatives, implicit differentiation, limits, continuity of functions, concavity/convexity, and optimization. This is a non-credit course.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30110. Coding Lab for Public Policy. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. Coding Lab for Public Policy repeats the coding topics and curriculum covered during Harris Coding Camp over the course of five weeks-- foundational statistical methods required for policy students. This course is designed for first year Harris students who were not able to participate in Math & Coding Camp. The course focuses on improving students' understanding of the statistical methods used in Harris core courses and increasing the speed and accuracy with which students perform data analyses using R. This is a non-credit course.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30300. Philosophical Foundations of Public Policy. 100 Units.

Evidence-based policy making" sounds like a slogan everyone can get behind. But its central components, cost-benefit analysis and program evaluation, have each been subject to severe philosophical questioning. Does cost-benefit analysis ignore important ethical concerns? Does program evaluation ignore valuable kinds of knowledge? We will introduce each of these debates, and then take up the question of how evidence-based policy might be reconciled with democratic theory. Class discussion and assignments will consider these topics in the context of specific policy areas, including climate change, discrimination, and education.

Instructor(s): Ashworth, S     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 30521. Sociology of urban planning: cities, territories, environments. 100 Units.

This course provides a high-intensity introduction to the sociology of urban planning practice under modern capitalism. Building upon urban sociology, planning theory and history as well as urban social science and environmental studies, we explore the emergence, development and continual transformation of urban planning in relation to changing configurations of capitalist urbanization, modern state power, sociopolitical insurgency and environmental crisis. Following an initial exploration of divergent conceptualizations of "planning" and "urbanization," we investigate the changing sites and targets of planning; struggles regarding the instruments, goals and constituencies of planning; the contradictory connections between planning and diverse configurations of power in modern society (including class, race, gender and sexuality); and the possibility that new forms of planning might help produce more socially just and environmentally sane forms of urbanization in the future.

Instructor(s): N. Brenner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20521, PLSC 20521, SOCI 20521, CHST 20521, KNOW 30521, CEGU 20521, PBPL 20521, PLSC 30521, ENST 20521, GEOG 20521, SOCI 30521

PPHA 30535. Data and Programming for Public Policy I - R Programming. 100 Units.

This​ ​course​ ​is​ ​the​ ​first​ ​of​ ​a​ ​three-quarter​ data science sequence at ​Harris​​. This​ sequence​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​to​ ​train​ ​you​ ​to​ ​work​ ​in​ ​the​ ​rapidly-expanding​ ​field​ ​of​ ​data​ ​analytics​ ​in the​ ​public​ ​sector​ ​after​ ​graduation.​ ​Although​ ​the​ ​course​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​for​ students pursuing the Master of Public Policy degree,​ other Harris graduate programs, and ​undergraduates are​ ​welcome​ ​to​ ​enroll​ ​as​ ​well. This course will be taught in the R programming language.

PPHA 30536. Data and Programming for Public Policy II - R Programming. 100 Units.

Students must have taken PPHA 30535 Data and Programming for Public Policy I-R or obtain instructor consent to enroll. This​ ​course​ ​is​ ​the​ ​second​ ​of​ ​a​ ​three-quarter​ data science sequence at ​Harris​​. This​ sequence​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​to​ ​train​ ​you​ ​to​ ​work​ ​in​ ​the​ ​rapidly-expanding​ ​field​ ​of​ ​data​ ​analytics​ ​in the​ ​public​ ​sector​ ​after​ ​graduation.​ ​Although​ ​the​ ​course​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​for​ students pursuing the Master of Public Policy degree,​ other Harris graduate programs, and ​undergraduates are​ ​welcome​ ​to​ ​enroll​ ​as​ ​well. This course will be taught in the R programming language.

Instructor(s): Shi, M     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30537. Data and Programming for Public Policy I - Python Programming. 100 Units.

This​ ​course​ ​is​ ​the​ ​first​ ​of​ ​a​ ​three-quarter​ data science sequence at ​Harris​​. This​ sequence​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​to​ ​train​ ​you​ ​to​ ​work​ ​in​ ​the​ ​rapidly-expanding​ ​field​ ​of​ ​data​ ​analytics​ ​in the​ ​public​ ​sector​ ​after​ ​graduation.​ ​Although​ ​the​ ​course​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​for​ students pursuing the Master of Public Policy degree,​ other Harris graduate programs, and ​undergraduates are​ ​welcome​ ​to​ ​enroll​ ​as​ ​well. This course will be taught in the Python programming language.

Instructor(s): Levy, J and Clapp, C     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 30538. Data and Programming for Public Policy II - Python Programming. 100 Units.

Must have taken PPHA 30537 Data and Programming for Public Policy I - Python or obtain instructor consent to enroll. This​ ​course​ ​is​ ​the​ ​second​ ​of​ ​a​ ​three-quarter​ data science sequence at ​Harris​​. This​ sequence​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​to​ ​train​ ​you​ ​to​ ​work​ ​in​ ​the​ ​rapidly-expanding​ ​field​ ​of​ ​data​ ​analytics​ ​in the​ ​public​ ​sector​ ​after​ ​graduation.​ ​Although​ ​the​ ​course​ ​is​ ​designed​ ​for​ students pursuing the Master of Public Policy degree,​ other Harris graduate programs, and ​undergraduates are​ ​welcome​ ​to​ ​enroll​ ​as​ ​well. This course will be taught in the Python programming language.

Instructor(s): Ganong, P     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30545. Machine Learning for Public Policy. 100 Units.

The objective of this course is to train students to be insightful users of modern machine-learning methods. The class covers regularization methods for regression and classification, as well as large-scale approaches to inference and testing. In order to have greater flexibility when analyzing datasets, both frequentist and Bayesian methods are investigated. This class is required for the Data Analytic specialization but is open to all students who have taken the Harris core statistics classes (or the equivalent) and have some exposure to programming.

Instructor(s): Clapp, C and Levy, J     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 30547. Lab: Machine Learning in R. 000 Units.

This is a non-credit discussion for PPHA 30545 Machine Learning for Public Policy. Students are required to register for both a lecture (PPHA 30545) and a discussion (PPHA 30547 or PPHA 30548).

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 30548. Lab: Machine Learning in Python. 000 Units.

This is a non-credit discussion for PPHA 30545 Machine Learning for Public Policy. Students are required to register for both a lecture (PPHA 30545) and a discussion (PPHA 30547 or PPHA 30548).

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 30581. Data Science Clinic I. 100 Units.

In order to enroll in this class, students must first submit an application and be matched with a project. Visit the Data Science Clinic site for application deadlines, how to apply, and information session details: https://github.com/dsi-clinic/the-clinic. The Data Science Clinic partners with public interest organizations to leverage data science research and technology to address pressing social and environmental challenges. The Clinic also provides students with exposure to real-world projects and problems that transcend the conventional classroom experience including: working with imperfect datasets, applying models and algorithms to real-world data, navigating security and privacy issues, communicating results to a diverse set of stakeholders (e.g., industry, public interest, government agencies), and translating information into actionable insights, policy briefs and software prototypes. The Clinic is an experiential project-based course where students work in teams as data scientists with real-world clients under the supervision of instructors. Students will be tasked with producing key deliverables, such as data analysis, open source software, as well as final client presentations, and reports.

Instructor(s): N. Ross     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): DATA 12000, DATA 13600, DATA 21100, DATA 21200, DATA 23100 (or equivalent) and by permission of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): CAPP 30300, MPCS 57300, MACS 30300, DATA 27100

PPHA 30602. Child and Family Policy and Research. 100 Units.

What constitutes high-quality research in child and family policy, and how should research best inform policymakers who want to improve the lives of children and families in their communities? Focusing on child welfare, teen and unintended pregnancy, and comprehensive community human services reform, students will learn how to assess the quality of individual program evaluations; synthesize research results to extract and highlight principal themes; and apply research findings to real-world policy and program decisions.

Instructor(s): Stagner, M     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30800. Analytical Politics I: Strategic Foundation. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. This course is designed to serve three interrelated goals. It is an introduction to core concepts in the study of political economy. These concepts include collective action, coordination, and commitment problems; externalities and other forms of market failure; principal-agent relationships; problems of preference aggregation; and agenda setting and voting. The course also introduces basic concepts in game theory, including Nash equilibrium, subgame Perfection, and repeated games. It is not, however, a suitable substitute for a game theory course for doctoral students in the social sciences. Finally, the course provides an overview of some of the key insights from the field of political economy on how institutions shape and constrain the making of public policy, with special attention to various ways in which governments can and cannot be held accountable to their citizens.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 30802. TA Session: Analytical Politics I. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for Analytical Politics I. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 31002. Statistics for Data Analysis I. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. 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.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 31004. TA Session: Statistics for Data Analysis I. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for Statistics for Data Analysis I. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 31102. Statistics for Data Analysis II: Regressions. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. This course is a continuation of PPHA 31002, focusing 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.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 31104. TA Session: Statistics for Data Analysis II: Regressions. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for Statistics for Data Analysis II: Regressions. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 31202. Advanced Statistics for Data Analysis I. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. 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 statistical sophistication on the part of students than is assumed in PPHA 31002.

Instructor(s): Black, D     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 31302. Advanced Statistics for Data Analysis II. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. A continuation of PPHA 31202, 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 statistical sophistication on the part of students than is assumed in PPHA 31102.

Instructor(s): Meyer, B     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 31610. Analytical Politics II: Political Institutions. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. This course is intended to introduce students to a set of analytical tools and concepts for understanding how political institutions and political agents generate public policy, and to apply these tools in examining the major institutions of democracy and non-democracy throughout the world. Lessons about political institutions and the policy making process will be understood from the perspective of a policy entrepreneur

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 31612. TA Session: Analytical Politics II: Political Institutions. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for Analytical Politics II: Political Institutions. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 31720. The Science of Elections and Campaigns. 100 Units.

This course will provide students with an introduction to the science of political campaigns. What works, what doesn't, and how can we develop and evaluate better techniques in the future. The course will discuss traditional campaigning techniques along with new techniques that rely on big data, social networking, new technologies, etc., and we will attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of these different approaches. The course will be targeted at students who may be interested in conducting or working on political campaigns as a practitioner. However, the course should also be of interest to students who simply want to learn more about campaigns, elections, or how to apply scientific thinking to politically-important or policy-relevant questions. The course will focus primarily on electoral campaigns, although many of the lessons will be applicable to other kinds of political campaigns (e.g., lobbying, issue advocacy). All non-MPP students should seek permission from the instructor before enrolling.

Instructor(s): Fouirnaies, A     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 31850. Legislative Politics. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to the policymaking process and politics of legislatures. We will study legislative institutions; the decision-making processes of individual legislators; and the role of outside advocates and interests. Our goal is to understand how legislatures work - in terms of producing policy that incorporates expertise and responds to policy demands from the public - and why they often don't.

Instructor(s): Zelizer, A     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 21850

PPHA 31941. Behavioral Science and Public Policy. 100 Units.

Many policies are aimed at influencing people's behavior. The most well-intentioned policies can fail, however, if they are not designed to be compatible with the way people actually think and make decisions. This course will draw from the fields of cognitive, social, and environmental psychology to (1) examine the ways in which human behavior deviates from the standard rational actor model typically assumed by economics, and (2) provide strategies for improving the design, implementation, and evaluation of public-facing policies. The basic premise of this course is that a foundational understanding of human behavior can lead not only to more effective policies, but enhanced decision-making and well-being.

Instructor(s): Wolske, K     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 32100. State and Local Public Finance. 100 Units.

This course uses basic microeconomic theory to analyze the taxing, spending, and programmatic choices of state and local governments in the United States, relying on the median voter and Tiebout models. On the revenue side, the course treats property, sales, and income taxation, as well as nontax revenue sources such as lotteries and user fees. On the spending side, the course covers several topics, including privatization, Medicaid, education finance, capital projects and debt finance, and, time permitting, local economic development tools used by state and local governments.

Instructor(s): Worthington, P     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 32150. Transportation Policy. 100 Units.

This class will use applied tools of microeconomics and simple data analysis to analyze transportation policy choices, past and future, in the United States. We will consider surface transportation (roads, bridges, tunnels); airports and other aviation facilities; water transport (via inland waterways and coastal ports and harbors); intercity rail and bus; and public transit facilities. We will focus on policy impacts on efficiency (e.g., travel times, congestion, reliability), equity (e.g., fairness of service provision, funding), safety (e.g., injuries, fatalities, property damage), and the environment (e.g., carbon emissions). Class sessions will include lectures, small group activities, and discussions.

Instructor(s): Worthington, P     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 32220. Public Economics. 100 Units.

Public Economics is the study of the role that the government plays in the economy, including both the theoretical rationale for government intervention, and the efficiency and equity consequences of its actions. In this course, we will study four broad themes related to the role of the government: (1) public goods and externalities, including education, infrastructure and the environment, (2) redistribution and social insurance, including health insurance, social security, and cash transfer programs, (3) taxation, and (4) policies to promote economic growth. For each thematic area, we will study the economic theory, and read and evaluate the empirical evidence regarding the impacts of government intervention. As part of this course, we will consider government programs in policies in both higher- and lower-income countries.

Instructor(s): Barker, N     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 32250. Public Budgeting and Financial Management. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to how government and non-profit organizations collect, spend, borrow and invest public money. It covers the fundamentals of government and non-profit accounting; public sector cost accounting; capital budgeting and debt management for public organizations; and the processes and politics of public budgeting. Students will learn tools and techniques to analyze financial statements, prepare cost estimates, benchmark public organizations' financial performance, and inform management and policy decision-making. Class exercises and assignments focus on applying tools and concepts through case studies and analysis of current events. This course is an opportunity for students to apply and extend many skills developed in the core curriculum, including data analysis, benefit-cost analysis, and program evaluation.

Instructor(s): Marlowe, J     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 32300. Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy I. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy serves as the first course in a two-quarter sequence in microeconomic theory. This course does not require prior training in economics, although prior courses will be helpful. This course provides a careful and rigorous presentation of the foundations of microeconomics. Applications will be discussed in tandem with the course material (examples might be discussion of minimum wages, labor supply and taxes, fixed costs and licensing restrictions with taxis and Uber) but the primary focus is on the tools and techniques of microeconomics and price 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.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 32302. TA Session: Principles of Microeconomics for Public Policy I. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for Principles of Microeconomics for Public Policy I. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 32310. Advanced Microeconomics for Public Policy I. 100 Units.

PPHA 32310 Advanced Microeconomics and Public Policy I serves as the first course in a two-quarter sequence. This course is for students who want to leverage their mathematical background to learn to think the way an economist thinks, and who want extensive practice in problem-solving. It is designed to support those goals through careful attention to formal definitions and arguments along with a partially flipped classroom with lots of in-class group work. The substantive focus for this quarter is on monopolistic and competitive markets. Roughly speaking, the first half of the course is about why economists are traditionally skeptical of monopoly and the second half is about why economists are traditionally fans of competition. Attention will be paid to both the descriptive economics of these situations and the normative presuppositions that go into the evaluations. Along the way, classical theories of the firm and the consumer will be studied as needed to analyze markets. Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent.

Instructor(s): Ashworth, S     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 32400. Principles of Microeconomics for Public Policy II. 100 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent. A continuation of PPHA 32300, 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 governments 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.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 32402. TA Session: Principles of Microeconomics for Public Policy II. 000 Units.

Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. This is a non-credit discussion for PPHA 32400 Principles of Microeconomics for Public Policy II. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for the course.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 32410. Advanced Microeconomics for Public Policy II. 100 Units.

It is highly recommended that all students have completed PPHA 32310 Advanced Microeconomics for Public Policy I prior to enrolling. This class builds on some of the concepts learned in Adv Micro I to study at a deeper level a variety of topics relevant to students of public policy. The class will build foundations for understanding risk, uncertainty, and market failures in the provision of public goods, externalities, and due to information asymmetries. Throughout the course, examples of how policy makers grapple with the theoretical issues will be discussed. Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent.

Instructor(s): Gallen, Y     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 32530. Fundamentals of Municipal Bonds. 100 Units.

This course will provide students with an overview of the municipal bond market and how it facilitates the development of infrastructure needed for economic development and the provision of public services. There are close to $2.6 trillion dollars in outstanding bonds in this market. Of 87,500 state and local governments in the U.S., 55,000 have bonds outstanding. Each year 10,000 new issues of municipal bonds come to market valued on average at $350 billion a year. All of this helps states, cities, counties, and not for profit organizations such as universities and hospitals fund capital assets including roads, bridges, water and sewer plants, airports, and school buildings. Students will come to understand: the continuum of a bond sale from government to end investor; who the key players are in the process; how credit ratings and credit analysis is performed; the public policy drivers of capital investment; the regulatory policy framework relating to the bond industry; and what sort of career opportunities are available for Public Policy Graduate Students. The course will have a text book supplemented by articles and industry reports. Attendance will be critical. The course will have a mid-term and final oriented toward providing a work product that would actually be utilized in the municipal bond industry. Guest speakers will also be utilized from time to time.

Instructor(s): Marlowe, J     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 32740. Order and Violence. 100 Units.

Most countries in the world have been independent for about 50 years. Some are peaceful and have prospered, while some remain poor, war-torn, or both. What explains why some countries have succeeded while others remain poor, violent, and unequal? Moreover, fifty years on, a lot of smart people are genuinely surprised that these countries' leaders have not been able to make more progress in implementing good policies. If there are good examples to follow, why haven't more countries followed these examples into peace and prosperity? Finally, we see poverty and violence despite 50 years of outside intervention. Shouldn't foreign aid, democracy promotion, peacekeeping, and maybe even military intervention have promoted order and growth? If not why not, and what should we do about it as citizens? This class is going to try to demystify what's going on. There are good explanations for violence and disorder. There are some good reasons leaders don't make headway, bureaucrats seem slothful, and programs get perverted. The idea is to talk about the political, economic, and natural logics that lead to function and dysfunction.

Instructor(s): Blattman, C     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 32740

PPHA 32750. Hydropolitics: Water Policy and Conflict. 100 Units.

Water resources are increasingly contested in nearly all parts of the world. Available freshwater supplies have declined nearly 40% since 1970, and the UN predicts that, by 2025, 1.8 billion people will not have sufficient water to meet all of their daily needs. Water conflict is essentially a political problem because it reflects normative disagreements about who has the authority to define its value and appropriate uses. This course examines conflict over water and policy efforts to deal with inter-sectoral competition, international allocation, and the diplomatic and economic consequences of water resource depletion. The course begins with a discussion of water's status as an object of policy-as property, a commodity, entitlement, and natural good. It then turns to a series of policy challenges in context including agricultural water use, allocation treaties, development disputes, and preventing humanitarian crises. No knowledge of water policy is presumed, and students will leave the course with the issue background necessary to pursue more focused research projects in water policy topics.

Instructor(s): Tiboris, M     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 32760. Global Development and Social Welfare. 100 Units.

The persistence of disparities in social development across countries is one of the major problems societies struggle to understand and address. This course will critically examine the major theories of global development along with contemporary debates relating to international social welfare. Students will assess how political, economic, historical, and environmental factors influence different nations' development trajectories, and compare how alternative models of service delivery and social intervention serve or fail to serve their intended populations. The geographic focus of the course will be Latin America and Africa, though case studies may also be drawn from other regions of the world. The course will be useful for both students who have had previous international experience as well as students who are interested in international social work and/or development practice.

Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 62912

PPHA 33230. Inequality: Theory, Methods and Evidence. 100 Units.

This course will explore the theory, methodology and evidence of economic inequality.

Instructor(s): Durlauf, S     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 34930

PPHA 33420. Contemporary US Intelligence. 100 Units.

The course examines the U.S. Intelligence Community and its role in national security. It will analyze the intelligence cycle including planning and direction, collection, processing, analysis and dissemination. It will also focus on topics such as warning and surprise, denial and deception, covert action, oversight and the role of policy makers, civil liberties, ethics and accountability and intelligence reform. The course will also compare the organization and activities of foreign intelligence agencies with the U.S. model. Many of these topics will be analyzed in the context of current events including the congressional investigation into Russia's interference with the 2016 presidential election. The course will also feature high ranking current and former intelligence officials as guest speakers.

Instructor(s): Quigley, M     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 33430. Contemporary US Intelligence II: US Threat Assessments - Domestic & International. 100 Units.

This course examines the major threats facing the United States through the lens of the US Intelligence Community (IC), both domestically and internationally. Through a series of lectures and guest speakers, students will gain a deeper understanding of the most pressing and pertinent threats to US national security. From a domestic perspective, the course will address threats facing the homeland in regards to domestic terrorism, climate change, political polarization, political extremism and paralysis, and cybersecurity. From an international perspective, the course will address threats faced from our current adversaries, namely, China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, and other hostile states. Students will leave the course with a more thorough understanding of the current threats facing the homeland and how the US can best position itself to address those threats. Additionally, students will more fully comprehend the effects that current public policy has on the United States' ability to defend itself, both from domestic and international threats. PPHA 33420 Contemporary US Intelligence is not a pre-requisite for this class.

Instructor(s): Quigley, M     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 33510. Nuclear Policy. 100 Units.

While issues arising from technologies that have both military and civilian applications are not new, the nearly incomprehensible destruction from exploding nuclear weapons focuses the mind as few other dual-use technologies can. This course will examine the development of national policies and the international regimes on the uses of nuclear energy. We will review military doctrine and the plans for nuclear war-fighting as well as the effects on societies of developing and using nuclear weapons. We will review the history of international proliferation of nuclear technology and fissile material and examine efforts to curtail the spread of weapons. In the second part of the course, we will focus on the development of civilian nuclear power and on current policy to prevent accidents and dispose of nuclear waste materials. Political leaders often face policy dilemmas because nuclear technology and materials offer great benefit, as well as presenting great danger. We will explore these dilemmas throughout the course.

Instructor(s): Benedict, K     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 33620. Leading with Innovation. 100 Units.

This course will train students in how to initiate strategic innovation within large organizations (especially nonprofits and government). It is intended for students who want to build a career in organizational strategy and innovation in any sector, but specifically within an existing organization (not as founder of a new one). This course will teach a skillset, mindset, and team-based model for evolving and deploying innovation approaches within social sector organizations. Having learned this approach, students will address challenges in Chicago in a fast-paced, rotating team structure. Demands for out of class work will be high. Throughout the course, students will engage in strategic conversations on themes surrounding innovation including: the inclusion of data and AI systems, public-private partnerships, technology modernizations, and disruptive service contexts (healthcare, education, security, etc). We'll discuss how each of these conditions requires adapting the deployment of innovation practices and how to adapt strategies within such contexts.

Instructor(s): Gossin, W     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 33660. Government Program Oversight and Accountability. 100 Units.

This course surveys the role and function of inspection and oversight in the public sector (and related private contractor and not-for-profit sectors). It introduces the democratic theories of government accountability functions - investigative, audit, and evaluations/inspections. It also introduces techniques of investigation, policy oversight, and operational auditing, as well as fraud vulnerability and prevention and the performance auditor-agency relationship. It will examine historically evolving roles and functions of inspectors general at all levels of government - federal, state and local - in the identification and prevention of fraud, (including public corruption), waste, and inefficiencies. The efficacy of the inspector general public findings and recommendations modality in the promotion of economy, effectiveness, efficiency and integrity in public administration, and related impacts to the making of policy and regulation will also be explored.

Instructor(s): Ferguson, J     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 33670. Government Performance Assessment. 100 Units.

This course provides an understanding of the principles and practices involved in evaluating public sector institutions, equipping students with knowledge and tools critical to organizational performance and accountability efforts. The class will examine the critical planning and design stages of an evaluation, exploring the trade-offs encountered in the work to determine the researchable questions, scope, and methodologies that ensure the best use of resources. Discussion will include the assessment of the sufficiency evidence against explicit criteria, as well as the importance of independence, objectivity, and the ethical considerations of conducting this work from inside and outside of an organization. Students will engage in classroom discussion, prepare assessments relevant to real world policy issues, and present on the benefits and limitations of their planning.

Instructor(s): Williams, C     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 33820. Democracy Hacked: Cyber Threats to Modern Governments n the Digital Age. 100 Units.

This course is designed to offer students an overview of the current cybersecurity landscape and the corresponding human rights implications. Students will hear first-hand insider perspectives from public and private sector cyber professionals and international experts across the cybersecurity and human rights fields. Divided into 3 parts, students will gain insight on Cyber Security Technology, Protecting Citizens From Governments Online, and Combating Cyber Predators.

Instructor(s): Braun, J and Praetz, N     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 33840. Managing Chaos: Competing Strategies in a Disordered World. 100 Units.

This course was previously named "The Changing Character of Conflict: Conflict in the Gray Zone". Conflict has been a constant companion in human experience from time immemorial. Some argue that conflict is inherent in the human condition, or in human nature. Yet today something is different; something has changed. Conflict seems more omnipresent, more intractable, and more dangerous. This class examines the various new domains of conflict and the way they affect global power dynamics, showing that while conflict is a permanent feature of human society, it has evolved to occupy new spaces using a new toolbox. Paraphrasing Clausewitz, the nature of conflict remains constant, yet its character is eternally changing. The prevailing conflict paradigm continues to emphasize the familiar military or kinetic domain often neglecting other segments of the conflict spectrum. The unprecedented acceleration of digital and other technologies threatens a future evolution of conflict likely to outpace state capacity to mitigate and manage conflict. Conflict today and in the indefinite future is likely to be asymmetric, hybrid, and full-spectrum. The course is divided into five segments; 1) Introduction and context of contemporary conflict; 2) Differing world views as they relate to conflict; 3) New conflict domains and media; 4) Implications for national and multi-lateral policy; and 5) Projecting future conflict domains.

Instructor(s): Miklaucic, M     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 34241. Household Finance: Theory and Applications. 100 Units.

This course will examine the choices households make about important financial decisions and how these individual choices can impact the aggregate economy. Each week, basic predictions from economic theory will be discussed and compared with empirical findings. Topics will include: asset market participation and household portfolio choice; human capital and student loans; housing and mortgages; retirement planning; credit card debt; payday loans; and the gig/sharing economy. Focus will also be placed on government policies affecting these topics, including so-called household financial engineering, the creation of Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) like "Fannie" and "Freddie," and regulatory agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Students are expected to read assigned papers. Additional assignments include problem sets, an in-class presentation, and a replication and extension exercise of a published paper. These assignments will require students to work in R, Stata or other statistical package of the student's choice.

Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Koustas, D

PPHA 34410. Corporate Finance. 100 Units.

This course presents an introduction to the principles of corporate finance and its applications. These principles are critical to understanding the nature of how corporations and many government entities present their financial condition, finance themselves and manage their financial risks. The course will examine corporate structure, evaluation of new projects, financial planning and governance. There will be considerable attention to the analysis of financial statements and understanding free cash flow. The role of interest rates and the time value of money will be presented with many applications project evaluation and financing alternatives. The Modigliani and Miller theorems will be presented with their application to common corporate finance problems. The role of equity, bonds and loans in the capital structure will then be discussed. Finally, the course will introduce the role of corporate governance regarding financial matters.

Instructor(s): Schabes, D      Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 34500. Macroeconomics for Public Policy. 100 Units.

This course examines the working of the aggregate economy. It aims to understand the key determinants of business cycle fluctuations and of 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.

Instructor(s): Sullivan, D     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 34600. Program Evaluation. 100 Units.

Students must have completed PPHA 31102 Statistics for Data Analysis II or equivalent to enroll. The goal of the class is to familiarize students with principles and methods of program evaluation. The lectures will cover a mix of theory and applications; the problem sets will involve extensive data analysis and a fair bit of coding. The objective is for students to be able to evaluate program evaluation reports written by others and carry out basic program evaluations themselves.

Instructor(s): Burlig, F and Kelley, E     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 34601. TA Session: Program Evaluation. 000 Units.

This is a non-credit discussion for PPHA 34600 Program Evaluation. Students must register for a lecture and a discussion for this course.

Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 34610. Advanced Program Evaluation. 100 Units.

This section is particularly coding-intensive and intended for students in the CAPP program. The goal of the class is to familiarize students with principles and methods of program evaluation. The lectures will cover a mix of theory and applications; the problem sets will involve extensive data analysis and coding. The objective is for students to be able to evaluate program evaluation reports written by others and carry out program evaluations themselves.

Instructor(s): Grogger, J     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 35240. Education, Inequality, and Economic Development. 100 Units.

Previously named Education in Developing Contexts. This course covers policy issues related to education, inequality, and economic development. We will analyze education policies and reforms from an economic perspective, review relevant research on each topic, and examine implications of the findings to policy and practice. Topics include understanding factors that influence educational decisions, provision of basic needs in schools, teacher pay and incentives, school choice, early childhood education, and education in emergency settings. Students must have completed PPHA 31102 Statistics for Data Analysis II as well as PPHA 32400 Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy II or equivalent to enroll. It is also recommended that students have completed PPHA 34600 Program Evaluation.

Instructor(s): Adukia, A     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): EDSO 35240

PPHA 35310. International Trade, Banking and Capital Markets. 100 Units.

Over the past 50 years, the markets for goods and services have become dramatically globalized. The internationalization of financial markets and the liberalization of trade have been critical to this growth. In contrast to a few decades ago, today's companies manage global supply chains and investment capital moves quickly from market to market. International Trade, Banking and Capital Markets is an introduction to the drivers of and issues behind these changes.This co does not assume an extensive knowledge of economics. Topics covered begin with the gains from trade, the domestic instruments of trade policy such as tariffs and treaties, as well as international trade bodies including the World Trade Organization. The course will then move on to how trade is conducted between companies in different countries, covering topics such as foreign exchange, trade documentation and instruments used to guarantee payment. The course will then cover aspects of international banking, including the cross-border provision of corporate and investment banking, as well as investment management services. The growth of international banking out of trade finance and the international expansion of domestic businesses will be presented along with the issues these developments created.

Instructor(s): Schabes, D     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 35530. Critical Development Theories and Approaches. 100 Units.

This course provides an introductory overview of Critical Development Studies (CDS), covering the main critical historical, philosophical and theoretical undercurrents that shape and inform the field of global development. In the first part of the course we delve into key philosophical concepts and major theoretical frameworks and trends of international development from the post-World War II era to the present. Students will explore the underlying assumptions and modalities of modernization theory, dependency and world-systems theory, post-colonial and post-development thought and the contemporary articulation of decoloniality by Latin American and African scholars. The latter part of the course delves into major trends, approaches, and best practices of CDS. This course is designed to be a theory-intensive reading course, appropriate for students interested in the theoretical debates and the ethico-political tensions that continue to shape and inform the field and practice of global development.

Instructor(s): Chishti, M     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 35540. How to Change the World: Science of Policymaking in International Policy and Development. 100 Units.

So you want to make the world a better place, but how? So much policy fails. So many good intentions go awry. Why? What makes for good policy? What makes it bad? This is a class on the social science of policy-making---the lessons from economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology, plus the practical experiences of practitioners. We will focus on policy-making in a global context, especially international policy and development. While we will look at international organizations, the focus is on national and local development strategies and domestic policymakers and institutions. This is also a course about learning to read and write well. Readings each week will be heavy and difficult, but rewarding. There will be also weekly writing assignments that involve critical reviews of books, papers, and ideas. There are no requirements for the class. Any Masters student or advanced undergraduate is welcome to join the class. A class on economic development is recommended.

Instructor(s): Blattman, C     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 35550. Economic Development and Policy. 100 Units.

The course will introduce students to the main concepts in development economics, such as modern growth theories and their relevance for low-income countries, and major topics in policy and research within the field. In the first part of the course, we will concentrate on the development facts, the main explanations highlighted in the field of economics for differences in growth and income levels between rich and poor countries, and the concept and measurement of poverty. In the second part of the course we will study microeconomic fundamentals of economic development. We will concentrate on topics such as fertility, nutrition and health, education, labor markets, intra-household allocation of resources and infrastructure and the relation among them. Empirical evidence from developing economies will be employed extensively paying special attention to the methods used. Students who have previously taken PBPL 25550 may not enroll in this course for credit.

Instructor(s): Menendez, A and Montero, E     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 35556. Power and Development. 100 Units.

This course offers a perspective on the role of power in the evolution of societies. First, we will study narratives of political economy of development, dominant until recently, which draw on explanations for what made Europe, and parts of North America, exceptional, such as their innovation, trade, culture, or institutions. Second, we will explore research by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists that challenged these narratives on the grounds that they silenced the role played by European military domination over the rest of the world in the rise of Europe; the rise of the "West" coincides with the exceptional use of power at a global scale to expropriate, enslave, and even replace other societies whose welfare is not even part of current GDP calculations. Third, we will explore institutions, historical processes, worldviews, socio-political traditions, and ideas in societies outside the so-called West, and how those have contributed to the history of human societies but also to the set of possible ideas and models for "development." One ambitious aim of the course is to make sense of how we got into the world of today while navigating this epistemic imbalance, beyond "us" vs. "them," and through research and policies that do not carry the presumption of pitying, saving, or fixing as the main starting point. This course was previously name Political Economics of Developing Countries offered as PBPL 28776.

Instructor(s): Sanchez de la Sierra, R     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 25595

PPHA 35560. Translating Evidence for Behavioral Policy Design. 100 Units.

The demand for the use of evidence in international development programs and policy continues to grow. However, policy makers' often have questions about how to interpret and use evidence generated. How generalizable are these results? How to interpret null results? Mixed outcomes? Short and long term effects? Are these results scalable? Additionally, what are the political barriers to using evidence? In this course, we will explore how to think about these issues and others in relation to designing policies and programs in the international development sphere. We will examine these questions through various development sectors: economic development, governance, food security, refugees, education and peacebuilding. It is recommended that students have completed PPHA 34600 Program Evaluation or equivalent to enroll.

Instructor(s): Wolfe, R     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 35561. The Practicalities of Running Randomized Control Trials. 100 Units.

This course is designed for those who plan to run a randomized control trial. It provides practical advice about the trade-offs researchers face when selecting topics to study, the type of randomization technique to use, the content of a survey instruments, analytical techniques and much more. How do you choose the right minimum detectable effect size for estimating the sample size needed to run a high quality RCT? How do you quantify difficult to measure outcomes such as women's empowerment or ensure people are providing truthful answers when you are asking questions on sensitive topics like sexual health? When should you tie your hands by pre-committing to your analysis plan in advance, and when is a pre-analysis plan not a good idea? This course will draw on lots of examples from RCTs around the world, most (though not all) from a development context. Alongside field tips, it will also cover the concepts and theory behind the tradeoffs researchers face running RCTs. The course is designed for PhD students but given its practical nature is open to and accessible to masters students who plan to work on RCTs.

Instructor(s): Glennerster, Rachel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ECMA 35550, ECON 35550

PPHA 35570. Conflict and Humanitarian Intervention: Blurring Humanitarian, Development, and Security Policy. 100 Units.

Humanitarian principles were instituted to ensure aid was used for life saving purposes, and not to support governments or a country's foreign policy goals. While there was always some blurring, the lines between humanitarian, development and security policy began to blur to a greater degree during the Balkan wars; after 9/11, the lines became ever more faint, creating significant debates about civilian-military relations. Post-Syria there are questions if there are even lines anymore. In this course, we will examine this evolution, where aid, both humanitarian and development, is used to a greater and greater degree in support of a country's security policy. We will examine how this has changed the nature of these programs, how it effects the ability of governments and INGOs to operate in these environments, and the moral and ethical dilemmas that arise.

Instructor(s): Wolfe, R     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 35575. Behavioral Experiments in International Development: From Theory to Practice. 100 Units.

Evidence-based policy is only as good as the data that underpins the evidence. However, current approaches to data-gathering often contribute to systematic exclusion and perpetuate existing power relationships in international development. Exclusive data can render whole groups of people-for example, women or minorities-invisible for the policy process. This is particularly true for so-called 'hard-to-reach' populations who are supposed to benefit most from international development. Identifying how unrepresenatitve and flawed data leads to exclusive policies requires data literacy that foregrounds a justice-based approach in data collection and analysis. This course offers students theoretical and hands-on practical learning to understand what is required to make data inclusive, how to engage with those whose data is collected in ethical ways and through what mechanisms inclusive data can create policies that support diversity and inclusion. The course is taught as a lab in collaboration with researchers and data scientists from the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Kenya and India.

Instructor(s): Shomerus, M     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 35577. Big Data and Development. 100 Units.

Big Data and Development is a seminar course focused on the use of innovative data capture and analysis techniques to investigate topics related to economic and political development. Microlevel data is increasingly used to target and evaluate development interventions. In this course, students will engage with cutting-edge theoretical and quantitative research, drawing on readings in economics, political science, and data science. The course is organized around a set of core topics, including political and economic development, community-driven aid interventions, causes and consequences of conflict, and climate change. Course assessments will include three short research briefs and a final paper.

Instructor(s): Wright, A     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 35578. Qualitative Methods for International Development Policy. 100 Units.

Qualitative research offers policy makers multifaceted, nuanced and rich insight into the issues they are seeking to impactfully address with their policies. A qualitative perspective helps to draw out complexities and connections that help identifying the trade-offs that come with all policy choices. Practical knowledge on how to conduct qualitative research, to evaluate it for its rigor, to assess what it can contribute to policy debates, and to package it for highest impact and evidence uptake are crucial skills in the policy sphere.

Instructor(s): Schomerus, M     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 35585. The Chinese Economy. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of the Chinese economy, with two main focuses. First, we will review the significant reforms that happened in China in the past four decades, which fundamentally reshaped the modern China as we see today. Second, we will discuss some of China's key political and economic institutions, and their implications on China and the rest of the world. Throughout the course, special emphasis will be given to the role of the state in China's growth experience, at both the central- and local-levels.

Instructor(s): Wang, S     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 22030, PBPL 25585

PPHA 35588. Political Economy of China in the Global Era. 100 Units.

China's rapid rise to the center of the global stage has generated much global attention. This course is designed to survey the basics of Chinese institutions, their role in the rise of China, and their interaction with the world. The course begins with a basic introduction of the political and economic institutions of China and its major features. Next we examine how these institutions have shaped China's rise as a global power. Finally we examine how the Chinese institutions interact with the world in the modern era of globalization, and how China navigates the challenges that arise with its increasing global status. This course will introduce basic theories of non-democratic politics and international politics, both qualitative and quantitative, when necessary. However the focus of the course is not the theories themselves. We will use these theories to facilitate the discussions of various topics around China.

Instructor(s): Ruan, Z     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 35720. Higher Education Policy. 100 Units.

This course will examine major policy issues in higher education in both the United States and abroad. Topics covered will include models of individuals' educational investment decisions, rationale for government involvement in higher education markets, the effects of higher education on long-term social and economic outcomes, and the behavior of institutions that produce higher education. Students will use economic models and interpret experts' empirical findings to analyze current issues in higher education policy such as free community college, financial aid and student loans, affirmative action, higher education accountability, and student debt relief.

Instructor(s): Turner, L     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): EDSO 35720

PPHA 35900. Constitutional Law VII: Parent, Child, and the State. 100 Units.

This course considers the role that constitutional law plays in shaping children's development. Among the topics discussed are children's and parent's rights of expression and religious exercise; parental identity rights including rights associated with paternity claims, termination proceedings, assisted reproduction, and adoption; the scope of the state's authority to intervene to protect children, to regulate their conduct, or to influence their upbringing; and the role of race and culture in defining the family.

Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 67101

PPHA 36002. Urban Design Studio: Reconstructing Chicago's Lost Neighborhoods Using Machine Learning. 100 Units.

This course offers a hands-on learning experience in which students will digitally recreate the "lost neighborhoods" of Chicago using machine learning techniques. Students will be guided through the process of turning historical Sanborn maps into 3D models of historic urban neighborhoods. The creation of these historic urban models will be contextualized through archival research at the Chicago History Museum, as well as readings and lectures designed to advance student understanding of urban development within the historical context of U.S. cities in the 20th century, and Chicago specifically. Programming experience is helpful, but not required.

Instructor(s): Talen, E     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GEOG 24200, CHST 26002, PBPL 26002, SOSC 26002, ENST 26002

PPHA 36101. Financial Investments for Public Policy. 100 Units.

Central banks, Treasury departments, the IMF, and sovereign wealth funds use financial data and tools to inform their decisions. This class covers the main concepts of finance theory for stocks, bonds, and investment portfolios and applies them in the public policy context. Topics covered include the following: present value, real and nominal interest rates, optimal portfolio choice, Value-at-Risk and Growth-at-Risk, risk and return, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, performance evaluation, market efficiency, and return predictability. It is not suggested that students take this course and PPHA 42510 Applied Financial Management.

Instructor(s): Pflueger, C     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 36150. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Impact Investing. 100 Units.

This course provides the principles and techniques that underpin various models of ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) investing and impact investing from the investor perspective. Students will come away from the course with a broad understanding of strategies to generate positive, measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. In addition to discussing these theories and strategies, the lectures will address the rapidly changing role of the corporation and recent shifts in the US and international regulatory environment. Furthermore, there will be discussion on the increasingly influential role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the industry on a variety of issues ranging from climate change to human rights.

Instructor(s): Oxtoby, J and Laing, N     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 36160. Sustainability Principles, ESG Risk, and Value Creation in Organizations. 100 Units.

This course examines principles of organizational sustainability and introduces the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues that influence our understanding of firm performance. We will explore the ESG data sets that measure those principles and develop a perspective on the potential of sustainability strategy to help reduce risk, create durable competitive advantage, expand notions of governance, and respond to quick shifts in public culture and global markets. The class combines lecture and class discussion; coursework is primarily focused on introducing and building technical skills that practitioners use to respond to multiple stakeholders, including investors, regulators, employees and markets.

Instructor(s): Presler, G     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 36170. Advanced Topics in ESG. 100 Units.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance) refers to a set of issues that should be taken into consideration to gain a better understanding of the risks and opportunities for investors and corporate management, and the potential policy responses. In the two decades since the concept was first articulated, ESG has grown exponentially in the investment world, as it has, more recently, in corporate management. The growth of ESG has prompted policy responses from regulators across the world and debate about its effectiveness as a way to improve investing, corporate management, and global capitalism itself. This course takes students who have been introduced to the topic on a deeper dive into ESG concepts, data, and analytics, addressing the most pertinent questions and controversies surrounding ESG today. In the process, students will consider policy responses to ESG, encounter the academic literature on ESG, and hone their analytical skills by working with prominent ESG databases to complete course assignments. The course assumes students have had an introductory course on ESG or a related topic.

Instructor(s): Hale, J     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 36410. Epidemiology and Population Health. 100 Units.

Epidemiology is the basic science of public health. It is the study of how diseases are distributed across populations and how one designs population-based studies to learn about disease causes, with the object of identifying preventive strategies. Epidemiology is a quantitative field and draws on biostatistical methods. Historically, epidemiology's roots were in the investigation of infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics. Since the mid-twentieth century, the scope of epidemiologic investigations has expanded to a fuller range non-infectious diseases and health problems. This course will introduce classic studies, study designs and analytic methods, with a focus on global health problems.

Instructor(s): D. Lauderdale     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): STAT 22000 or other introductory statistics highly desirable. For BIOS students-completion of the first three quarters of a Biological Sciences Fundamentals sequence.
Equivalent Course(s): STAT 22810, BIOS 27810, PBHS 30910, ENST 27400, HLTH 20910

PPHA 36620. Applied Policy Communications Lab. 100 Units.

To succeed in the field of public policy, it's not enough for a practitioner to design sound, data-driven strategies. Successful public policy professionals also must convince others-elected officials, peer staffers and constituents-that their position is right, using communications to justify policy outcomes mathematically, economically and morally. In this lab-based course, students will work for a client, and, in small groups, simulate an policy office culture. Students will design and execute upon a strategic communications plan, write a speech and/or Op-Ed for a principal, draft a press release, draft policy briefs and create social media copy. Students will also work on traditional media pitches, learning the basics of how to interact with reporters and then doing so with the support of the instructor, a veteran policy journalism and communications professional. The course will include conversations with outside communications experts based in Chicago and Washington D.C., as well as policy reporters based in both cities to better understand how to write in a way that breaks through with media. At the end of the quarter, the goal for each student in this class is to feel better prepared to enter the real world of public policy, emerging with written portfolio items and practical experience that can help them ace job interviews with potential employers, from public affairs consulting firms to members of the U.S. Congress.

Instructor(s): Shiner, M     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 36630. Trauma-Informed Policy Communication: Writing Effectively about War, Catastrophe & Crisis. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to the special challenges and responsibilities of writing about trauma in public policy, from man-made and natural disasters to domestic gun violence and foreign wars. We will discuss the most effective strategies to communicate accurately and persuasively about social justice, genocide, the effects of climate change, famine, disease, violence against women, extreme poverty, gun violence, war, natural disasters, and other forms of catastrophe and crisis. Our primary concerns during these discussions will include: The ethical treatment of victims and survivors, the impact-both positive and negative-writing about trauma has on readers, how to work within the confines of survivor testimony and memory, how to conduct accurate and complete research and communicate its implications effectively under stress, how to write about trauma in a way that leads to connection and understanding, understanding and addressing the psychological hazards that come with researching and writing about trauma. While traumatic and catastrophic events and topics are inherently worthy of research and discussion, policy analysts can't necessarily make what they find "good," the world peaceful, or the public happy, but we can control how well we write about trauma and catastrophe. This course will explore how to do just that.

Instructor(s): Chrisinger, D     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 36650. Persuasive Communication for Public Policy Professionals. 100 Units.

This writing-intensive course introduces students to evidence-based communication tools, frameworks and strategies they can use to craft persuasive policy narratives for audiences that need to be targeted and reached by policy professionals. Each week, students will have ample class time to experiment with and receive extensive feedback on their writing to ensure they are able to communicate public policy as clearly, concisely and compellingly as possible.

Terms Offered: Spring Winter

PPHA 36925. Utilities and Electricity Markets: Regulation in the United States. 100 Units.

In many other countries, government owns and operates utilities as a public service. The United States largely has chosen a different path, especially with respect to energy utilities: permitting private companies to provide these essential services, subject to extensive regulation. For many decades, exclusive monopolies dominated the space. The last several decades have seen the rise of competition in both the wholesale and retail space. But this shift has taken hold in only parts of the United States, while in other jurisdictions consumers still do not have the right to choose their supplier and the transmission and even the generation of power remains largely monopolized. The result has been a patchwork that evinces little uniform national policy, and still is largely regulated by state governments despite the regional, interstate characteristics of energy. This course explores the forms and institutions of utility regulation in the United States, with a focus on electricity. It provides a critical introduction to the design of electricity markets that were created in the twentieth century and iterated upon ever since. Along the way, students will hear first hand from practitioners and experts as guest lecturers, while learning how a once mundane field has become the cutting edge of emergent technologies and social mandates like decarbonization.

Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Chandler, K

PPHA 36930. Environmental Economics: Theory and Applications. 100 Units.

​This course presents a broad-based treatment of the theory and application of environmental economics. Topics are introduced in the context of real-world environmental policy questions (with special emphasis on energy policy), then translated into microeconomic theory to highlight the salient constraints and fundamental trade-offs faced by policymakers. Topics include property rights, externalities, Pigouvian taxes, command-and-control regulation, cap-and-trade, valuation of environmental quality, cost-benefit analysis, policymaking under uncertainty, and inter-regional competition. Students who have previously taken PBPL 28525 should not enroll in this course.

Instructor(s): Wang, S     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 26930

PPHA 36935. The Intended and Unintended Market Implications of Environmental Regulations. 100 Units.

Environmental policy, like all policy enactments, can lead to unintended market consequences. This course will focus on several iterations of Illinois's energy efficiency policies, examining both the intended and unintended consequences of the enacted laws. We will also explore how federal and local incentives impact the market. The course will be taught from the perspective of a company navigating this marketplace, founded and operated by a Harris alumnus who has grown a business in this space. We will analyze how the marketplace has changed during the enactments of different laws over the years. While most of the market has seen the desired outcomes of the laws, there are also "bad actors" and unintended consequences that develop in various ways.

Instructor(s): Johnson, J     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 37040. Economic Growth and Development: Theory and Policy. 100 Units.

This is a capstone course that enables students to deploy a variety of analytical tools to process and interpret available data and formulate a coherent diagnostic that can make sense of simultaneous observations about growth and social outcomes within a particular context. It covers the theory and practice of the Economic Complexity and Growth Diagnostics frameworks, drawing on empirical research, case studies, and real world-data to map opportunities for productive diversification, identify the most binding constraints preventing them from materializing, and formulating data-driven productive development policies (PDPs) to overcome them.

Instructor(s): Santos, M     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 37103. Crime Prevention. 100 Units.

The goals of this course are to introduce students to some key concepts in crime policy and help develop their policy analysis skills, including the ability to frame problems and policy alternatives, think critically about empirical evidence, use cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis to compare policy alternatives, and write effective policy memos. The course seeks to develop these skills by considering the relative efficacy of different policy approaches to controlling crime including imprisonment, policing, drug regulation, and gun-oriented regulation or enforcement, as well as education, social programs, and active labor market policies that may influence people's propensity to commit crime or be victims of crime. While policy choices about punishment and crime prevention involve a range of legal and normative considerations, the focus in this class will be mostly on answering positive (factual) questions about the consequences of different policies.

Instructor(s): Ludwig, J     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 37105. Criminal Conflict, Criminal Governance. 100 Units.

Scholars of civil war emphasize the importance, and perhaps primacy, of criminal profits for insurgencies, especially in the post-cold war era. But theories of civil war generally rest on an assumption that insurgents aim to replace state power. This seminar approaches the issue from the other end of the spectrum: armed conflict between states and "purely" criminal groups--particularly drug cartels. Cartel-state conflict poses a fundamental puzzle: Why attack the state if you seek neither to topple nor secede from it? After a brief survey of the literature on civil war and organized crime, we will study recent work on criminal conflict, particularly in Latin America. We also consider the related topics of prison-based criminal networks and paramilitaries, and explore how crime and political insurgency interact in places like West Africa and Afghanistan. Throughout, we evaluate the concepts, questions and designs underpinning current research.

Instructor(s): B. Lessing     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 48700, PLSC 48700

PPHA 37106. Police Reform and Police Legitimacy. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to the concept of legitimacy in policing, the related reform efforts implemented in police departments throughout the United States in recent years, and the challenges to reform from activist movements to defund or abolish the police. Policing in the United States is in crisis. Ubiquitous video records of police-civilian interactions have changed the relationships among the police, the public, local political authorities, and the media. At the same time, policing itself is changing in profound ways. New technological capabilities have increased public expectations of transparency and efficiency in policing while raising concerns about privacy and due process rights. Local police have taken on an expanding portfolio of responsibilities, including presence in public schools, mental health crisis response, and counter-terrorism. This course will equip students to understand the issues at stake in the contemporary policy debates surrounding policing and the foundational scholarly knowledge underpinning those debates. Course topics include: the organizational structure of policing, its functional purpose, the normative expectations of citizens and communities that rely on the police for protection and how police performance is measured.

Instructor(s): Owens, R     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 27106

PPHA 37110. Competition Policy: Theory and Practice. 100 Units.

This course presents an economic analysis of monopoly power and efforts to limit monopoly power through competition policy. The course will focus on helping students understand the theoretical rationale for competition policy and on providing students with an understanding of the practice of competition policy by examining recent prominent public and private antitrust actions. The first part of the course is devoted to an economic analysis of the welfare implications of monopoly power. The second part provides an overview of the legal and institutional framework of competition policy enforcement with particular emphasis on how the framework differs between the US and the EU and other countries. The final part of the course will address three types of anticompetitive conduct that represent the bulk of competition policy enforcement: collusion, vertical contracting practices, and horizontal and vertical mergers. This section will present detailed studies of recent antitrust actions in the US including the enforcement actions against Apple, Google, and Facebook.

Instructor(s): Durkin, S     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 37120. Crime and Public Policy. 100 Units.

This course will cover issues in crime prevention, policing, incarceration, and the judicial system in the US, with a focus on understanding public debates and academic research.

Instructor(s): Kumar, N     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 37302. Key Issues in Healthcare: An Interdisciplinary Case Studies Approach. 100 Units.

This is a capstone course for the graduate program in health administration and policy. The course will explore how to approach persistent administrative and policy problems from an interdisciplinary approach. It will draw from the disciplinary skills and knowledge of students in the course and challenge students to use that knowledge in collaborative and creative ways to solve real-world problems. Students will take on an administrative, strategy, or policy problem in interdisciplinary teams. Building on each disciplinary strength--social welfare frameworks, policy analysis, and business (management, financial, etc.) strategy--students will provide an action plan and set of recommendations to approach the health problem. Topics will be chosen by students, but provided by instructor. Course will examine numerous case studies of interdisciplinary projects and consider how common challenges and pitfalls can be avoided.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 46622

PPHA 37411. Management Matters: Leadership, Strategy, and Getting Things Done. 100 Units.

More than ever before, the central role of a leader is to formulate objectives, organize to achieve those objectives, and convey such in a form attractive to employees and other stakeholders, whether investors, donors, customers, partners, or politicians. The leader and leadership team have point responsibility, but middle managers too are expected to play a role, and most certainly expected to shape their personal business responsibilities to broad organizational strategy. Leaders are less often trained to perform these responsibilities than they are simply expected to meet them. This course is about bringing people together to create and deliver value. It is about identifying opportunities, mobilizing resources around opportunities, and organizing to deliver on opportunities. In short: this course is about getting things done.

Instructor(s): Burrows, J

PPHA 37520. U.S. Health System & Policy. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to contemporary issues in U.S. healthcare financing and delivery, providing historical perspective on emergence of these issues and implications for the future. These policy issues include approaches for improving population health and eliminating health inequalities, expanding affordable health coverage, improving quality of care provided and the provision of services for behavioral health, chronic conditions and long-term care needs. We will consider major public programs-Medicare and Medicaid-as well as private and community-based initiatives and how structural racism is embedded in these programs as currently designed. Through the application of diverse and often conflicting perspectives, we will critique private and public sector approaches (or more often the combination of the two) to improve health care access and quality, and lower health care costs according to the values most people care about (though to varying degrees): equity, efficiency, efficacy (quality & value), choice, democratic inclusion and voice.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 47522

PPHA 37820. Health Care Markets and Regulation. 100 Units.

This course analyzes the economics of health care markets and the way regulations impact those markets. We will study the unique institutional arrangements found in the health care sector (primarily, though not exclusively, in the United States) and examine how market forces manifest themselves in this setting. We will consider the behavior of health care providers, insurers' roles both as intermediaries and risk managers, patients' health care demand, and geographic differences in medicine. The study of government regulations, including their theoretical and empirical impacts on health care markets, will be integrated throughout these topics.

Instructor(s): Gottlieb, J     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 17710, PBPL 28335

PPHA 37910. Race and Ethnic Differences in Health: Epidemiology, Behavior and Policy. 100 Units.

The course highlights the nature and extent of racial/ethnic disparities in health, how to place these disparities in a conceptual context, and it reviews representative descriptive and causal studies of possible explanations of disparities.The course will focus on health disparities between three racial/ethnic groups in the USA: non-Hispanic Black people, non-Hispanic white people and Hispanic people. These categories are imperfect and imprecise, and obscure important variation within each group, but are widely used by government statisticians, academic researchers and policymakers. The course will begin with a review of the human capital model of demand for health and healthcare over the life course. Conceptual models used by sociologists will also be reviewed and integrated into the human capital model. The course will review the extent and magnitude of health disparities by race and ethnicity, and how those disparities evolve over the life course from birth to old-age. The course will review and assess research intended to explain (identify causes of) racial and ethnic disparities at each age. Some major government interventions to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health at each age will be reviewed and assessed in terms of efficacy. It is recommended that students have taken PPHA 38300 Health Economics and Public Policy prior to enrolling.

Instructor(s): Kaestner, R     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 38050. Issues in Health Policy. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to contemporary issues in health care policy. Topics will fall into three broad groups: (1) corporatization of health care providers and its effects on patients; (2) health insurance reform; and (3) government policy towards public health and disease, including HIV/AIDS, obesity, and mental health. Students will develop the ability to assess empirical evidence and use it to inform recommendations for potential corrective policy.

Instructor(s): Brot-Goldberg, Z     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 17720, PBPL 25510

PPHA 38290. Economic Analysis of Health Policies. 100 Units.

This course covers the foundations of the economics of health care as applied to current issues of health care policy. Content includes demand for health, medical care, and insurance; supply of medical care and behavior of health care practitioners; and economic perspectives on measurement in health care research. Using a combination of lectures, readings, problem sets, and discussion of newspaper and journal articles, the goal is for students to acquire a basic understanding of economic knowledge and thinking and to be able to apply that knowledge in analyzing policies. The course is open to graduate students and a limited number of undergraduates. A prior course in microeconomics is recommended; for those students without this preparation, the beginning of the course will include a short primer on key concepts in microeconomics.

Instructor(s): E. Cliff     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Microeconomics course recommended
Note(s): Consent of instructor for undergrads.
Equivalent Course(s): PBHS 38010, HLTH 28010

PPHA 38300. Health Economics and Public Policy. 100 Units.

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. Must have completed PPHA 32300 Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy I or equivalent to enroll.

Instructor(s): Meltzer, D     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CCTS 38300, PBPL 28300, ECON 27700

PPHA 38320. Health System Transformation. 100 Units.

The U.S. health care system is characterized by unsustainable costs, inconsistent quality, and unequal access. Health care leaders, managers and policy-makers must understand how to improve systems of care in a complex health care environment. This course will provoke critical thinking and address contemporary approaches to health care system change. Articles and case studies will be provided to illustrate how health care organizations improve quality, equity, and cost, and how policy incentivizes or hinders constructive system change. Examples will mainly be drawn from the health care field; however, system transformation knowledge is important for the business, non-profit, government, and social services sectors as well, and students from these disciplines may apply concepts taught in class to their sector interests. Students will reflect on their professional experience and internships and consider how systems around them can be improved. Students will review literature from a variety of academic and professional disciplines relating to health care quality, health equity, science of improvement, and transformation, and apply this knowledge to local, state, and national settings. Prerequisite - preferred but not required: The U.S. Health Care System, PPHA 37510/ SSAD 47512/HSTD 35411.

Instructor(s): Botwinick, L     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Recommended: PPHA 37510/ SSAD 47512/HSTD 35411

PPHA 38520. GIS Applications in the Social Sciences. 100 Units.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) refers to tools and techniques for handling, analyzing, and presenting spatial data. GIS has become a powerful tool for social sciences applications over the past thirty years, permitting lines of scientific inquiry that would not otherwise be possible. This course provides an introduction to GIS with a focus on how it may be applied to common needs in the social sciences, such as economics, sociology, and urban geography, as distinct from physical or environmental sciences. Students will learn basic GIS concepts as applied to specific research questions through lectures, lab exercises, and in-class demonstrations. Examples of the kinds of topics we will pursue include how we can use GIS to understand population trends, crime patterns, asthma incidence, and segregation in Chicago.

Instructor(s): English, N     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 38705. The Future of Downtowns. 100 Units.

Around the U.S. and the globe, downtowns are in crisis. The changing nature of work and lifestyles growing out of the pandemic have posed challenges for traditional models of the central business district. This course will draw on scholarship from economics, political science, urban planning, and related disciplines to help students understand the origins and functions of downtowns, the challenges they are currently facing, and potential models for future revitalization. The course will draw broadly on theorical and empirical literatures related to downtowns and consider the case of Chicago specifically. The course is open to all students, but students participating in the 2024-25 Harris Policy Innovation Challenge, Creating a Thriving Downtown Chicago, are encouraged to enroll. For students enrolled in the Policy Challenge, your policy proposal may serve as your final project for this course.

Instructor(s): Berry, C     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 38710. The Modern Urban Economic Development Playbook. 100 Units.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, city leaders from across the world faced unprecedented challenges - economic shutdowns, social unrest, rising crime, inflation, budgetary shortfalls, and shifts in working norms destabilizing the real estate market - just to name a few. The enduring vibrancy of cities has very much been in question. As the former Deputy Mayor of Chicago before, during and after the pandemic, the lecturer will share a framework for how urban leaders can generate inclusive development, create excitement, and pave the way for continued urban vitality for the next generation.

Instructor(s): Mayekar, S     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 38712. Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction and overview of how spatial thinking is translated into specific methods to handle geographic information and the statistical analysis of such information. This is not a course to learn a specific GIS software program, but the goal is to learn how to think about spatial aspects of research questions, as they pertain to how the data are collected, organized and transformed, and how these spatial aspects affect statistical methods. The focus is on research questions relevant in the social sciences, which inspires the selection of the particular methods that are covered. Examples include spatial data integration (spatial join), transformations between different spatial scales (overlay), the computation of "spatial" variables (distance, buffer, shortest path), geovisualization, visual analytics, and the assessment of spatial autocorrelation (the lack of independence among spatial variables). The methods will be illustrated by means of open source software such as QGIS and R.

Instructor(s): Crystal Bae     Terms Offered: Spring Summer. Offered 2024–25
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 38702, CEGU 28702, ARCH 28702, ENST 28702, SOCI 30283, GISC 28702, SOCI 20283

PPHA 38715. Housing Policy in the United States. 100 Units.

This course will situate housing policy within a historical, economic, and political context. The course is designed to build on fundamentals of first year curriculum requirements in economics and political institutions and provide the background necessary to become informed participants in current debates over the future of U.S. housing policy. The first part of the course covers the overarching context for U.S. housing policy, including housing market dynamics, housing finance, taxation, and racial discrimination. The second part traces the evolution of federal, state and local housing programs, with emphasis given to low-income rental housing. The third part will focus on selected topics, including homelessness, evictions and equitable development practices. Throughout the course we will examine the impact of the pandemic and pandemic-era policies.

Instructor(s): Poethig, E     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 38725. Urban Housing: Policy & Practice. 100 Units.

This course is designed to give students a broad, historically-rooted understanding of housing in the U.S., with a particular focus on housing in Chicago. We will review the changing landscape of housing design, planning and regulation, the problems and inequities produced, and the various interventions that have been attempted to redress housing problems.

Instructor(s): Talen, E     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 38740. Conflict and Applied Data Science. 100 Units.

This course will examine why people fight, the effects of fighting, and possible solutions to prevent conflict in the future. The reasons people fight, and the ways in which they fight, depend on economics, politics and psychology; we will draw on all three disciplines throughout the course. Different forms of fighting, whether terrorism or civil wars, have typically been studied separately; we will bridge this divide and study them together, assessing common root causes and approaches for resolving these conflicts.

Instructor(s): Dube, O     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 38740

PPHA 38751. Human Trafficking and the link to Public Corruption. 100 Units.

This course provides a comprehensive, practical introduction to the history and present-day reality of human trafficking both domestically and internationally. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Palermo Protocol, the course will look back on how far individual states have come in their efforts to fulfill their obligations under the Protocol. By reviewing the challenges to criminal prosecution first, the course will explore alternative paths to eradicating this transnational human rights crime that impacts over 40 million individuals annually. Reviewing the array of supply chain laws domestically and internationally first and then exploring industry-wide practices, students will learn to examine solutions from an array of laws that reach beyond merely criminal prosecution. Recognizing that public corruption plays a significant and powerful role in aiding the crime to continue with little societal repercussions, the course will explore ways in which the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the TVPRA have mechanisms to enforce these violations that provide billions of dollars to the traffickers. Taught by federal district court judge, Hon. Virginia M. Kendall.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 38829. Artificial Intelligence for Public Policy. 100 Units.

It is hard to name a sector that will not be dramatically affected by artificial intelligence (or machine learning). There are many excellent courses that teach you the mechanics behind these innovations -- helping you develop an engineering skill set. This course takes a different approach. It is aimed at people who want to deploy these tools, either in business or policy, whether through start-ups or within a large organization. While this requires some knowledge of how these tools work, that is only a small part of the equation, just as knowing how an engine works is a small part of understanding how to drive. What is really needed is an understanding of what these tools do well, and what they do badly. This course focuses on giving you a functional, rather than mechanistic, understanding. By the end, you should be an expert at identifying ideal use-cases and thereby well-placed to create new products, businesses and policies that use artificial intelligence.

Instructor(s): Ludwig, J     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 38850. The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence. 100 Units.

This course observes the emergence of AI ethics in law and public policy, examining the norms, values, and political strategies involved in the consensus-building processes that shape the development and governance of AI systems. Students will engage in critical analysis of AI policy documents and delve into core principles such as fairness, accountability, and transparency, exploring their origins and practical applications. The curriculum centers on a series of design thinking workshops that will challenge students to debate over the responsible use of AI in real-world case studies, ranging from issues of human rights to sustainable development and geopolitics. By exercising analytical and rhetorical excellence while engaging with the regulatory complexities inherent in the development of advanced technologies, this course is considered a bootcamp for transformative leaders capable of governing AI for the public good.

Instructor(s): Uhl, A     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 38870. Sustainable Development in the Digital Age. 100 Units.

This course examines the complex interplay between digital transformation and sustainable development, focusing on how technological innovation can present both opportunities and unintended consequences in addressing global challenges driven by environmental change and socio-economic disparities. Through scholarly research and critical case studies, participants will explore the environmental and socio-economic impacts of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT, and advanced data analytics, and develop strategic frameworks for integrating technological solutions with sustainable development goals. The course equips students with foundational knowledge to evaluate the role of technology in international development, understanding how responsible innovation practices can contribute to more sustainable and resilient societies.

Instructor(s): Uhl, A     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 38900. Environmental Science/Policy. 100 Units.

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.

Instructor(s): Coursey, D     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 39404. Inequality, Household Finance, and Tax Policy. 100 Units.

The first component of this course will feature seminar discussions of inequality in the US, with respect to income, gender and race, and how these interact with US tax policy. We will have a focus on income transfers to low-income households such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. We will also review current policy topics in Household Finance, the study of how households save, borrow, and/or use insurance to overcome unexpected changes in household income. In addition, we will discuss the process of filing tax returns, the prevalence of income tax refunds, and the various industries, both non-profit and for-profit, that have arisen around this phenomenon. Next, students will go into the field, and work as volunteer tax preparers for a local, Chicago non-profit, Ladder Up. Students will be trained as tax preparers (which requires a 3-hour training session), learn how these services are delivered, and will also learn about the various social goals and public benefits that are often coupled with this process. Tax season begins in late January, and the students will volunteer weekly for about 6 weeks, until the end of the quarter. Students are also encouraged, though not required, to continue to volunteer until the end of the tax season, April 15th. Finally, students will produce a final project as a part of a group project. This course counts towards the Finance & Policy Certificate, or the Markets & Regulation Certificate.

Instructor(s): Jones, D     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 39611. Economics of Cultural Policy. 100 Units.

What are the public policy issues facing arts practitioners in the United States in the 21st century? How will the next generation of arts and culture leaders influence and shape policy beyond seeking appropriations of funds? How can the arts operate both as intrinsically valuable and as key creative tools to apply to tough community issues? Through a combination of lecture/discussion, engagement with leading voices from the field, and scholarly research, this course will provide an overview of cultural policy in the US and explore the evolving intersections of public policy and the arts in the current context.

Instructor(s): Coursey, D     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 39750. Politics and Public Policy in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course will cover the politics of policy making in Latin America. The first part will focus on understanding the problems of economic development in the region. It will address how and why Latin America is different by looking at its economic outcomes, economic and social policies and political institutions. It will also look at different examples of how political institutions shape policy outcomes. The second part will ground the distinctiveness of Latin America in its history, and show why understanding this is critical for comprehending why it is so different from the United States. It will explore how these historical factors persist, for example, how the legacy of authoritarianism shapes redistributive policies and how these historical foundations have created the weak Latin American states we see today. The third part of the course will look at how groups such as civil society or violent actors can also shape policymaking and welfare in this region. Finally, it will discuss some perspectives on whether some countries in the region have managed to find ways to change their political institutions and subsequently their social and economic policies with the prospect of creating a more prosperous society. The aim of this course is for students to gain empirical knowledge on the region's politics and policies as well as a practical understanding of political factors that shape policy outcomes.

Instructor(s): Bautista, M     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 39750

PPHA 39925. Energy Policy and Human Behavior. 100 Units.

The success of many environmental and energy-related policies depends on the support and cooperation of the public. This course, drawing from multiple fields of behavioral science, will examine the psychological and social aspects of different energy-related behaviors, ranging from household energy conservation to public support and opposition for emergent energy technologies (e.g., wind farms, fracking, etc.). Through a mix of lecture and discussion, we will explore questions such as: what are potential motivations and barriers - beyond financial considerations - to the uptake of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies? How can policies be designed to enhance adoption? Why is climate change such a divisive issue and what are the psychological barriers that prevent concerned people from acting? Why do people support clean energy broadly but object to developments when proposed in their own communities? By taking a behavioral approach, the course aims to equip students with an enhanced framework for evaluating energy and environmental policies that goes beyond traditional economic and regulatory perspectives. There are no prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Wolske, K     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 39930. International Climate Policy. 100 Units.

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the world's most difficult challenges. Few aspects of society will remain untouched by its effects. A major barrier to making progress is that few people understand all of the disparate pieces of the puzzle - scientists, economists, and policy-makers frequently lack a common language to advance solutions. This interdisciplinary course covers the tools and insights from economics, environmental science, and statistics that inform our understanding of climate change impacts, as well as mitigation and adaptation policy design and implementation. Our focus will be on the impacts of climate change upon society, and the necessity of solutions that deal with the global but unequal nature of the impacts. Students will begin with a grounding in the scientific realities of the future of the planet's climate, and develop a mastery of key conceptual ideas from environmental economics and environmental policy relevant for climate change. They will also acquire tools for conducting analyses of climate impacts and policies that can inform how we face this global challenge. The latter parts of the course will hone students' ability to apply and communicate these insights through practical analysis of national policies and writing op-eds about climate-related issues. The goal is to help students become informed and critically-minded practitioners of climate-informed policy making, able to communicate the urgency to any audience.

Instructor(s): Jina, A     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 40102. Political Economy I: Formal Models of Politics. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of formal models of politics, including models of electoral competition, coalition formation, political agency, and nondemocracy. Students must have completed the three-quarter sequence in Formal Political Theory or analogous coursework in game theory and mathematical methods. Enrollment of master's students is at the discretion of the instructor.

Instructor(s): Gehlbach, S     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 40102, PLSC 41105

PPHA 40103. Political Economy II: Theory and Evidence. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of the methods and substantive findings of credible empirical research in political economy with special attention to the interplay between theory and empirical testing. Students are expected to have taken prior coursework in econometrics or statistical methods. Enrollment of master's students is at the discretion of the instructor.

Prerequisite(s): PECO 40102
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 40103, PLSC 40103

PPHA 40104. Political Economy III: Advanced Topics. 100 Units.

This course provides coverage of advanced topics in political economy. Many students will have already completed Political Economy I and II, which assume substantial coursework in game theory and empirical methods. Those who have not should consult with the instructor before enrolling. Enrollment of master's students is at the discretion of the instructor. In Spring 2024, the course will focus on the health of democracy. Specific topics will include electoral accountability, representation, voter competence, partisanship, polarization, democratic backsliding, public support for democracy, media bias, and campaign finance.

Prerequisite(s): PECO 40102, PECO 40103
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 40104, PECO 40104

PPHA 40110. Formal Political Theory I. 100 Units.

This is the first course in a three-quarter sequence in Formal Political Theory that introduces foundational concepts in decision theory and noncooperative game theory, the key mathematical tools needed for applied theory, and applications from political economy. This quarter focuses primarily on static games of complete and incomplete information and related solution concepts, including (Bayesian) Nash equilibrium and mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium. Students must have recently completed coursework in differential and integral calculus, optimization theory, and methods of mathematical proof. Enrollment of master's students is at the discretion of the instructor.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 40110, PECO 40110

PPHA 40111. Formal Political Theory II. 100 Units.

This course follows on Formal Political Theory I, which it takes as a prerequisite. This quarter focuses on dynamic games of complete information and related solution concepts, including subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium and Markov perfect equilibrium. Applications include folk theorems for repeated games, bargaining models, and moral hazard.

Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 40111, PLSC 40111

PPHA 40112. Formal Political Theory III. 100 Units.

This course follows on Formal Political Theory I and II, which it takes as prerequisite. This quarter focuses primarily on dynamic games of incomplete information and related solution concepts, including weak perfect Bayesian equilibrium and sequential equilibrium. Applications include models of costly signaling and cheap talk.

Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 40112, PECO 40112

PPHA 40700. Early Childhood: Human Capital Development and Public Policy. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the literature on early child development and explore how an understanding of core developmental concepts can inform social policies. Our substantive foci will be on early childhood poverty, the role of parenting and the home environment in shaping children's development, and the evidence base for intervention in early childhood for economically disadvantaged children. The course will cover evidence from neuroscience, psychology, economics, sociology, and public policy as it bears on these questions. In particular, we will explore how the principles of early childhood development can guide the design of policies and practices that enhance the healthy development of young children, particularly for those living in adverse circumstances, and thereby build a strong foundation for promoting equality of opportunity, reducing social class disparities in life outcomes, building human capital, fostering economic prosperity, and generating positive social change. In doing so, we will discuss the evidence on whether the contexts of children's development are amenable to public policy intervention and the costs and benefits of different policy approaches.

Instructor(s): Kalil, A     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 40770, PSYC 40710

PPHA 40815. New Directions in Formal Theory. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will survey recent journal articles that develop formal (mathematical) theories of politics. The range of topics and tools we touch on will be broad. Topics include models of institutions, groups, and behavior, and will span American politics, comparative politics, and international relations. Tools include game theory, network analysis, simulation, axiomatic choice theory, and optimization theory. Our focus will be on what these models are theoretically doing: What they do and do not capture, what makes one mathematical approach more compelling than another, and what we can ultimately learn from a highly stylized (and necessarily incomplete) mathematical representation of politics. The goal of the course is for each participant, including the professor, to emerge with a new research project.

Instructor(s): Luo, Z & Myerson, R
Prerequisite(s): PLSC 30901, PLSC 31000 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 40815, PLSC 20815, PLSC 40815, PBPL 40815

PPHA 41021. Health Impacts of Transportation Policies. 100 Units.

Governments invest in transport infrastructure because it encourages economic growth and mobility of people and goods, which have direct and indirect benefits to health. Yet, an excessive reliance on motorized modes of transport harms population health, the environment and social well-being. The impact on population health is substantial: Globally, road traffic crashes kill over 1.3 million annually. Air pollution, to which transport is an important contributor, kills another 3.2 million people. Motorized modes of transport are also an important contributor to sedentary lifestyles. Physical inactivity is estimated to cause 3.2 million deaths every year, globally. This course will introduce students to thinking about transportation as a technological system that affects human health and well-being through intended and unintended mechanisms. The course will examine the complex relationship between transportation, land use, urban form, and geography, and explore how decisions in other sectors affect transportation systems, and how these in turn affect human health. Students will learn to recognize how the system level properties of a range of transportation systems (such as limited-access highways, urban mass transit, inter-city rail) affect human health.

Instructor(s): Bhalla, K     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 41120. Political Economy of Development. 100 Units.

This course is intended as an introduction for Ph.D. students to the research literature in the political economy of development. Its purpose is to give students both a sense of the frontier research topics and a good command of how social science methodological tools are used in the area. This class is for PhD and Harris MACRM students only, with no exceptions. Must have completed a PhD level Microeconomics course to enroll.

Instructor(s): Montero, E and Sanchez de la Sierra, Raul     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 35570, PLSC 46600

PPHA 41150. Advanced Topics in Political Economy: Comparing Societies. 100 Units.

The course will study the cultural, social, and institutional foundations of contemporary and historical societies around the world. Particular attention will be paid to factors that are typically taken for granted and presumed universal within the economics discipline. These include perceptions of reality (including birth, death, the afterlife, the spiritual world, nature,and the environment), and moral frameworks (including views about right/wrong, fairness,equality, and community membership). We will consider how these differences then affect and are affected by resulting cultural values, social structures, and formal political and legal institutions. The course is targeted to advanced (second-year or later) Ph.D. students with an interest in economic development, political economy, cultural economics, and/or economic history. Must be a PhD student to enroll.

Instructor(s): Robinson, J     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 41150, ECON 42200

PPHA 41210. Science and Technology for Future Policy Wonks. 100 Units.

We will cover the broad range of physics and technology topics that are at the heart of current local and national policy debates. The aim of the course will be to give you the tools for distinguishing between sense and nonsense when confronted by technology-based arguments - it is not to turn you into physicists! The course text - "Physics and Technology for Future Presidents", by Richard A. Muller - was written specifically with this aim in mind, and will be used as a general guide to the subject areas that we will cover. Most of the course topics will revolve around energy - its generation, distribution, use, and abuse - but depending on students' interests, we may also go into other areas, such as transportation and national security.

Instructor(s): Rosner, R     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 41300. Cost-Benefit Analysis. 100 Units.

Must have completed PPHA 32400 Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy II or equivalent to enroll. The goals of this course include learning (1) how to read, or judge, a cost-benefit analysis; (2) how to incorporate elements of cost-benefit analysis into policy work; and (3) when CBA is a good tool to use and when it isn't. This class also presents an opportunity to reflect on big picture issues of how to treat uncertainty and risk; discount costs and benefits received in the future; value lives saved; and manage other difficult matters. In brief, this class offers a comprehensive treatment of the cost benefit analysis methodology, with attention devoted to the microeconomic underpinnings of the technique as well as applications drawn from many areas, including health, the environment, and public goods.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 41350. Global Risk Policy. 100 Units.

This course will provide the tools to analyze and evaluate various areas of public policy - including taxes, financial regulations, social safety nets, disaster preparedness and response, early warning systems, risk communications and education - through a risk management lens. Students will engage with questions including how policies encourage "good" risk taking and encourage "bad" risk-taking, how risk benefits and burdens are shared, and what trade-offs risk-related public policies must weigh. Participants will debate ways in which using a risk lens changes the way governments design policies and how favorably (or not) citizens view those policies. Through comparative analysis, case studies, class participation, and individual and group projects, and readings from practitioner and academic authors, students will gain a new understanding of and ability to discuss key aspects of risk policy issues and systems.

Instructor(s): Wucker, M     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 41400. Applied Regression Analysis. 100 Units.

Students must have completed PPHA 31102 Statistics for Data Analysis II or equivalent, or obtain instructor consent to enroll. 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) review of linear regression; ii) specification and estimation of econometric models for causal inference; iii) model building, selection and cross-validation for prediction; and iv) time series models and forecasting.

Instructor(s): Lo, Sheng-Hao     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 41430. Modern Methods for Applied Regression. 100 Units.

This course explores how modern developments in machine learning, AI and statistical learning may be leveraged in order to improve regression analysis and reduced-form econometrics more generally. For instance, we provide a modern, optimization-conscious treatment of linear regression, quantile regression, instrumental variables, and Fréchet-Hoeffding bounds. Throughout, we make an effort to produce methods that remain valid even when models are --as they always are-- misspecified. To produce such regression methods, we fetch tools and results from fields such as linear programming, optimal transport, numerical linear algebra, deep learning and reinforcement learning.

Instructor(s): Pouliot, G     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ECMA 31110

PPHA 41501. Game Theory. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to games of complete information through solving problem sets. We will cover the concepts of dominant strategies, rationalizable strategies, Nash equilibrium, subgame perfection, backward induction, and imperfect information. The course will be centered around several applications of game theory to politics: electoral competition, agenda control, lobbying, voting in legislatures and coalition games.

Instructor(s): Sonin, K     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 41600. Survey Research Methodology. 100 Units.

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. Students should have taken at least one course in statistics at the level of PPHA 31000 to enroll.

Instructor(s): Bilgen, I and Sterrett, D     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 41720. Discrimination in the Labor Market. 100 Units.

Must have completed PPHA 31102 Statistics for Data Analysis II or equivalent to enroll. In this class, we begin by exploring standard models of discrimination in the labor markets. We then introduce more modern theories of discrimination in the labor market. After presenting these models, we explore racial, ethnic, and sex differences in labor market outcomes. We then show how the empirical literature attempts to detect the presence of labor market discrimination. Discussion session attendance is required for this course.

Instructor(s): Black, D     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 41740. Gender and Policy. 100 Units.

For the past 70 years, women have made remarkable advances in the labor market in the US-the experiences of women in past generations are almost unimaginable in today's labor market. Women are now more educated than men. However, progress has stalled and the lifetime labor market outcomes of women are different from those of men on average. Why? What is the role for policy? In this course we will think about how differences in preferences, norms, and abilities potentially contribute to differences in outcomes by gender. If there are such differences, does policy intervention hurt or help, and whom does policy intervention hurt or help? What should be the aims of policy with respect to gender?

Instructor(s): Gallen, Y     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 41740

PPHA 42000. Applied Econometrics I. 100 Units.

This course is the first in a three part doctoral introduction to econometrics. The focus of this first course is the nature of statistical models of socioeconomic data with a primary focus on linear systems. The course is concerned with the relationship between data and the underlying probability structures from which they are generated and the construction and interpretation of models that study these structures.

Instructor(s): Durlauf, S     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 42000

PPHA 42006. Decision Modeling for Health Economic Evaluation. 100 Units.

This course introduces decision science and economic evaluation that has been increasingly used to inform public health and health care decisions. With a specific focus on the development and application of decision-analytic models, students will learn the state of the current practice of economic evaluation, new tools and methodologies to conduct decision modeling, and emerging areas of research, including the value of information analysis. The course will provide hands-on computer-based learning using the R programming language for data analysis and modeling. A prior experience in R is welcomed, but not required. Applying the concepts and techniques learned in the course, students will undertake a course project of their choice to conduct economic evaluation using decision-analytic models. By the end of this course, students will gain knowledge and practical skills in economic evaluation and decision modeling to help make informed decisions.

Instructor(s): David Kim     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CCTS 22006, PBHS 38120, CCTS 42006, PBPL 22006

PPHA 42100. Applied Econometrics II. 100 Units.

Registration open to Harris PhD and MACRM students only. Must have completed PPHA 42000 Applied Econometrics I to enroll. PPHA 42100, the second in a three-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.

Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 42100

PPHA 42200. Applied Econometrics III. 100 Units.

PPHA 42200, the final course in a three-part sequence, is a basic course in applied econometrics designed to provide students with the tools necessary to evaluate and conduct empirical research. Must have completed PPHA 42100 Applied Econometrics II to enroll.

Instructor(s): Ito, Koichiro     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PECO 42200

PPHA 42510. Applied Financial Management. 100 Units.

This course will cover topics in both corporate finance and investments. The goal is to provide students with the tools to solve problems and the practical knowledge to understand financial decision-making and financial markets. The focus will be resolutely practical - how these tools are actually used in the markets - but is built on solid theory combined with over twenty years of industry experience. Students should not take this course and PPHA 42510 Financial Investments for Public Policy.

Instructor(s): Coleman, T     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 42521. History of Financial Crises. 100 Units.

This course has an ambitious goal - to investigate both the tools of risk management at the firm level through hands-on training and practice, and the lessons of macroeconomic or systemic risk through examination of financial crises throughout history. These lessons are important - whether it is the South Sea Company crisis of 1700s or the mortgage debt crisis in the United States in the 2000s, financial crises have shaped our world. Understanding history is the first step towards intelligent policy. To examine the financial and economic history we will read some of the classic (and also some of the newer) texts in this area: A Monetary History of the United States, 1857-1960 by Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz; Manias, Panics, and Crashes by Charles P. Kindleberger (for a history of financial panics); Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay (for a history of the 18th century South Sea Bubble in Britain and the Sword Blade Bank and Mississippi Company in France); This Time is Different - Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (for why this time is not different - financial folly has a long history); and Fragile by Design by Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber (for a cogent and disciplined analysis of banking systems across time and across countries - US, Canada, UK, Mexico, and Brazil).

Instructor(s): Coleman, T     Terms Offered: Spring

PPHA 42535. Bank Regulation and Management. 100 Units.

This course presents the basics of the banking business and the development of the current financial regulatory environment for the United States, the European Union, the UK, and China, as well as the role of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in setting global standards. Payment systems and bank management of financial risks, including credit, market and others, will be covered. The focus will be on the banking and money markets in each of these countries, with limited discussion of futures and equity exchanges, and unregulated financial activities. The course will provide an overview of the various regulatory bodies, which cover financial services in these countries. Further, the delineation of responsibilities and areas of overlap and potential conflict will be discussed. Major legislation in each country will be presented and some discussion of the underlying legal, economic and financial theories that led to these laws will be discussed.

Instructor(s): Rehwinkel, C     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 42820. Law and Economic Development. 100 Units.

Why do some nations perform better than others, whether measured by income, happiness, health, environmental quality, educational quality, freedom, etc.? We explore the proximate causes of inequality across countries, including the role of human capital, natural resources, technology and market organization. We also explore the root causes of long term differences in welfare. We will consider the role of geography (e.g., location in tropical areas) and technological development (e.g., the impact of plow agriculture) on welfare. We will spend a substantial amount of time on the role of institutions, broadly defined, on development. We will explore the value of state capacity, democracy, and the common law. We will study the impact of disruptions such as the slave trade, colonialism and war. Ultimately, we will try to understand the implications of each explanation for development policy. Time permitting, we will also consider consider optimal, second-best rules for countries with weak state capacity and limited rule of law. Students will be required to complete a review and critical analysis of the literature on a specific topic in development (20-25 pages). The topic must be approved by the professor. (cross-listed as LAWS 43232)

PPHA 44100. PhD Advanced Microeconomics for Policy Analysis I. 100 Units.

Students will learn the neoclassical theories of consumer behavior, production, and competitive equilibrium. Students will also be introduced to the selection problem and basic approaches to solving the selection problem.

Instructor(s): Ashworth, S     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 44200. PhD Advanced Microeconomics for Policy Analysis II. 100 Units.

Registration open to Harris PhD and MACRM students only. Must have completed PPHA 44100 Advanced Microeconomics for Policy Analysis I to enroll. The course provides a rigorous foundation of microeconomics and the mathematical tools necessary for students who want to take graduate level courses in economics and public policy and understand articles in economics journals. It covers classical consumer theory, choice under uncertainty, and theory of production; competitive markets and general equilibrium; and an introduction to game theory with applications to signaling and principle-agent problems. The course is intended for students with a solid understanding of intermediate microeconomics (e.g. PPHA 32300 and PPHA 32400) and facility in (single-variable) calculus. Further mathematical tools will be introduced as needed.

Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 44302. Labor Markets: a Global Perspective. 100 Units.

In this course we will explore standard models that form the core of labor economics including labor supply, labor demand, job search models, wage setting, discrimination, and migration. For each topic we will then examine empirical applications of these models with a focus on middle and low-income countries. We will discuss how these traditional models are useful, or not, in understanding labor market outcomes in these settings and how they can be expanded to better capture relevant features of labor markets outside high-income countries.

Instructor(s): Lane, G     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 14020, PBPL 25640

PPHA 44340. Energy and Environmental Economics III. 100 Units.

Optimal environmental regulation requires an analysis of the trade between market and regulatory imperfections. Market allocations are inefficient in the presence of imperfections such as externalities, market power, and informational asymmetries. On the other hand, government intervention to mitigate these imperfections is not costless, and can even make market performance worse. This course focuses on recent empirical analysis of the costs and benefits of environmental and energy policies, including an introduction to the relevant econometric methodologies such as randomized controlled trials, regression discontinuity designs, bunching analysis, and structural estimation. Topics will include: energy demand and the energy efficiency gap, fuel economy and appliance efficiency standards, non-linear and real-time electricity pricing, wholesale electricity markets, renewable electricity policies, natural gas markets, retail gasoline markets, and technology innovations. Must have completed PPHA 44330 Energy and Environmental Economics II to enroll.

Instructor(s): Ito, K     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 36750

PPHA 44401. Development Economics. 100 Units.

This course covers theoretical models and empirical methods in development economics. Topics include health, education, household economics, small and medium enterprise finance, technology adoption, corruption, and the intersection of behavioral economics and development. The course will also review a range of research designs including experiments, natural experiments, and structural approaches.

Instructor(s): Kremer, Michael      Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 35600

PPHA 44650. Applications of Hierarchical Linear Models. 100 Units.

A number of diverse methodological problems such as correlates of change, analysis of multi-level data, and certain aspects of meta-analysis share a common feature-a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical linear model offers a promising approach to analyzing data in these situations. This course will survey the methodological literature in this area, and demonstrate how the hierarchical linear model can be applied to a range of problems.

Instructor(s): S. Raudenbush     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Applied statistics at a level of multiple regression
Equivalent Course(s): EDSO 30112, SOCI 20112, SOCI 30112

PPHA 44900. Methods of Data Collection: Social Experiments, Quasi-Experiments and Surveys. 100 Units.

The pressure in many fields (notably medicine, health research, politics, and education) for evidence-based results has increased the importance of the design and analysis of social investigations in providing a basis for policy decisions. This course will address: (i) the design of experiments, quasi-experiments, and surveys; and (ii) the use of these social investigations to provide data for generalization. Randomized clinical trials in medicine, field experiments in economics, psychology and political science, tests of quasi-experimental interventions, and national sample surveys will be among the examples. The course will explore the relative relevance of evidence from these different sources in formulating policy. Must have completed PPHA 31002 Statistics for Data Analysis I or equivalent to enroll.

Instructor(s): Omuircheartaigh, C     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 45211. Regional Innovation and Growth. 100 Units.

This applied course will focus on the roles of research and innovation in driving regional economic growth. Learning from the successes of tech‐driven "superstar" cities and the challenges of smaller cities, this course will prepare students to develop realistic, region specific development goals and strategies, whether coming from the private, public, or nonprofit sector perspective. Our discussions will also familiarize students with the critical and rapidly evolving technology market, and the proper role of government in managing that market and protecting citizens.

Instructor(s): Day, T     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 46350. Economics of Regulation. 100 Units.

This course is the required course in the Markets and Regulation track of the Economic Policy certificate at Harris. This course will examine the evaluation and implementation of economic policies. This course also examines the structure and properties of different markets and regulatory schema.

Instructor(s): Ierulli, K     Terms Offered: Winter

PPHA 46610. Workplace and Family Policy. 100 Units.

The topics covered in the course will include: the demographic transition, human capital accumulation, gender wage and employment gaps, discrimination in the workplace, family leave and childcare policies, tax policies including subsidies like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and related welfare policies. We will draw on the theory of static and dynamic labor supply, theories of labor demand, and labor market equilibrium to guide its investigation, and use empirical tools to answer research questions. For each topic covered in this course, I will introduce an elementary treatment of the canonical theoretical model and give examples of its empirical application. In studying empirical applications, we will often draw on analysis from international experience.

Instructor(s): Asai, Y     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 14030

PPHA 47400. Women, Development, and Politics. 100 Units.

This course will explore the dominant and emerging trends and debates in the field of women and international development. The major theoretical perspectives responding to global gender inequities will be explored alongside a wide range of themes impacting majority-world women, such as free market globalization, health and sexuality, race and representation, participatory development, human rights, the environment and participation in politics. Course lectures will integrate policy and practitioner accounts and perspectives to reflect the strong influence development practice has in shaping and informing the field. Course materials will also include anti-racist, postcolonial and post-development interruptions to dominant development discourse, specifically to challenge the underlying biases and assumptions of interventions that are predicated on transforming "them" into "us". The material will also explore the challenges of women participating in politics and what are the consequences when they do or do not.

Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Bautista, M
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 47400

PPHA 47420. Women, Peace and Security. 100 Units.

This course focuses on critical feminist theorizing and scholarship on militarization, war and masculinities, and on feminist articulations of peace and (demilitarized) security. Students will learn about the transnational feminist research, policy and advocacy network known as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, and the important inroads this network has made in establishing international and national policies in the fields of gender, conflict, peace and development. The course highlights the background, history and policy significance of the historic Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, as well as subsequent and related UN resolutions. Students will also learn about alternative feminist approaches and visions for international peace and security, through powerful case study examples of feminist activism, solidarity and diplomacy.

Instructor(s): Maliha Chishti     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): PBPL 28498 Women, Development and Politics (recommended)
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 20115, GNSE 20115, GNSE 40115

PPHA 47900. Fundamentals of Health Services Research: Theory, Methods and Applications. 100 Units.

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the fundamentals of health services research. The basic concepts of health services research will be taught with an emphasis on both their social scientific foundations and the methods needed for their practical application to empirically relevant research. Theoretical foundations will draw on principles from economics, sociology, psychology, and the other social sciences. Methodological topics to be covered will include techniques for data collection and analysis, including outcomes measurement, survey methods, large data set research, population-based study design, community based participatory research, research based in clinical settings, qualitative methods, cost-effectiveness analysis, and tools of economic and sociological analysis. The theoretical and empirical techniques taught will emphasize those relevant to the examination of health care costs, quality, and access. Major applications will include: measurement and improvement of health care quality, analysis of health disparities, analysis of health care technology, and analysis of health care systems and markets. Students prepare a grant proposal as the final assignment for this course.

Instructor(s): D. Meltzer, M. H. Chin     Terms Offered: Summer
Equivalent Course(s): CCTS 45200

PPHA 48050. Economics of Healthcare. 100 Units.

This is a PhD-level course in the economics of healthcare open to PhD students in Economics, Booth, Harris, and MACRM and other students with instructor's consent. The goal is to prepare students to conduct independent research in the field, and to use tools from a variety of fields to study healthcare markets. Topics will include health insurance, the production and supply of healthcare, the economic geography of healthcare, regulations, and labor market connections. We will emphasize bridges to fields including public finance, labor economics, and industrial organization. We will cover econometric techniques, datasets, and institutional knowledge required to develop research ideas in the field, and help students develop such ideas. The course will cover the latest research and benefit from workshops in the field.

Instructor(s): Gottlieb, J     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 37710

PPHA 48403. Optimization-Conscious Econometrics. 100 Units.

This course studies the core optimization concepts underlying econometric estimation and inference. The objective is to both develop a deep understanding of how estimators are computed, and to get a better theoretical and geometrical understanding of classical econometric estimators through the prism of optimization theory. Each optimization concept or method is studied using a well established econometric estimator as the working example: linear programming is taught through the example of quantile regression, duality is taught via nonparametric inference, numerical linear algebra is taught via partial identification questions in OLS, integer programming is taught as a solution method for instrumental variables quantile regression, and so on.

Instructor(s): Pouliot, Guillaume     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 31740

PPHA 50000. Internship: Public Policy. 100 Units.

Elective course credit may be received in conjunction with an internship if the student writes a paper of academic caliber under the supervision of a Harris School faculty advisor. Normally the advisor assigns readings, meets with the student, and conducts the course in the manner of an Individual Reading and Research course. Consent required to enroll.

PPHA 50200. Ph.D. Workshop. 25 Units.

Open to Harris PhD students only.

PPHA 51200. Field Research. 000 Units.

This a non-credit course open only to Harris international students who are pursuing a paid internship via CPT. Permission to be enrolled in this course must be granted by the student's Harris academic advisor. They must complete a 3-4 page reflection paper at the end of the internship, which should be turned into their advisor. The employer will also be asked to complete an evaluation form.

PPHA 51500. Public Policy and Economics Workshop. 000 Units.

This is a workshop; only open to PhD students and is an audit only course.

Equivalent Course(s): ECON 56300

PPHA 52000. Individual Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.

The instructor and the student determine the nature of each Reading and Research Course. It is expected that they meet at least three or four times during the quarter and that the student write a substantial original paper. Consent required to enroll.

PPHA 52500. Apprenticeship: Public Policy. 100 Units.

This course is for Harris MACRM students only. Students work with a faculty member as a research assistant. Students also develop ideas for a research paper and begin writing under the faculty supervisor's direction. Consent required to enroll.

PPHA 56101. Seminar: Political Economy. 000 Units.

This is a PE lunch/workshop; This course provides students with an opportunity to present their research to faculty and other PhD students. Faculty will also present their research. Only open to PhD students and is an audit only course.

Equivalent Course(s): PECO 56101

PPHA 58001. Data Analytics I: Quantitative Analysis. 100 Units.

This course is a required core course for the Evening MA program and will discuss microeconomic and statistical principles required for practitioners in policy making. Harris EMP Students Only.

Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 58002. Data Analytics II: Introduction to Program Evaluation. 100 Units.

Harris EMP Students Only. The goal of this course is to introduce students to program evaluation and provide an overview of current issues and methods in impact evaluation. We will focus on estimating the causal impacts of programs and policy using social experiments, panel data methods, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity designs, and matching techniques.

PPHA 58050. Leadership, Negotiations & Management. 100 Units.

This course is a required core course for the Evening MA program and will discuss leadership principles required for practitioners in policy making. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 58101. Economic Analysis I: Microeconomics. 100 Units.

Harris EMP Students Only. Economic Analysis I: Microeconomics is a policy-oriented introduction to microeconomics. The core learning goals of the course are to: (1) articulate the strengths and shortcomings of markets as a way to allocate goods and services; (2) think critically about incentives and how consumers and firms might respond to incentives in practice; (3) apply micro-economic thinking to policy questions; and (4) analyze potential rationales for government intervention into markets. The course achieves these goals through the study of economic models and discussion of examples of how these models might apply to economic policy problems.

PPHA 58102. Economic Analysis II: Introduction to Cost Benefit Analysis. 100 Units.

Harris EMP Students Only. The goal of Economic Analysis II is to continue the analysis of microeconomics with an emphasis on understanding cost benefit analysis. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is the primary tool used to provide quantitative evidence to inform public policy decisions. Ideally, CBA will improve the efficiency of public policy by identifying public policies/projects that create the most "value" for society. The concept of CBA is easily understood. For any project/policy under consideration (versus current state of the world), do the following: add up all of the current and future monetary costs of the project/policy; add up all of the current and future monetary benefits of the project/policy; and then compare the benefits to costs. If benefits are greater than costs, then the project/policy is candidate to be implemented. Seems straightforward, right? Conceptually it is pretty straightforward, although there are some thorny theoretical and philosophical issues that arise. The conceptual difficulties, while important, are few in comparison, however, to the practical difficulties associated with conducting a CBA. This course will review the theoretical/conceptual foundations of CBA as applied in the public sector. The course will also review some of the philosophical issues central to the validity of CBA and practical difficulties in conducting CBA.

PPHA 58103. Public Finance and Budgeting. 100 Units.

This course is a required core course for the Evening MA program and will discuss public finance principles required for practitioners in policy making. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 58201. Analytical Politics I: Foundations. 100 Units.

This course is a required core course for the Evening MA program and will analyze the policy making principles required for practitioners in policy making. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 58202. Analytical Politics II: Politics and Policy Making. 100 Units.

This course is the second of a two course series required for the Evening MA program. This course will analyze the policy making principles required for practitioners in policy making. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 59100. Current Topics in Public Policy I. 25 Units.

This is the first course in a four-course current topics seminar on contemporary public policy issues for the Harris Evening MA program. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 59200. Current Topics in Public Policy II. 25 Units.

This is the second course in a four-course current topics seminar on contemporary public policy issues for the Harris Evening MA program. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 59300. Current Topics in Public Policy III. 25 Units.

Third course in a four-course current topics seminar on contemporary public policy issues for the Harris Evening MA program. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 59400. Current Topics in Public Policy IV. 25 Units.

This is the fourth course in a four-course current topics seminar on contemporary public policy issues for the Harris Evening MA program. Harris EMP Students Only.

PPHA 60000. Policy Lab. 100 Units.

Consent required to enroll. In Harris Policy Labs, students work under faculty supervision to apply their Harris training to help government agencies and non-profit organizations address public policy challenges. Students effectively serve as policy consultants, working in interdisciplinary teams to conduct research, analyze complex data, and engage with clients and other experts to produce a set of solution-oriented final deliverables. In addition to gaining first-hand experience on a specific policy issue, students hone other skills that prepare them for policy careers such as working with imperfect data, navigating team dynamics, and communicating complex analyses and policy recommendations to a client's leadership. Each Lab will focus on a particular policy area or set of policy tools and engage two or three different client organizations. Clients will range from local to international organizations and are expected to include Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago Park District, Oxfam America, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, Advance Illinois, Illinois Department of Human Services, World Bank, NATO, Forefront, City of Gary, and others. Some projects may be of particular interest to students who are planning to complete Harris certificate programs.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

PPHA 65100. Strategic Communications for Policy Leaders. 000 Units.

This seminar will focus on developing the career communication skills you will need to pair with your academic and analytical skills. Over the course of four weekly sessions, we will cover: the overall importance of communication, communicating with prospective employers, communicating at work with peers, superiors and subordinates, and communicating with the public and networking. It will be a small seminar with a specific focus on participation and discussion - not lectures. The course will especially be relevant to those students who are unsure about their own communication skills and want to find an open forum to practice, interact, and discuss!

Instructor(s): Jacobson, D

PPHA 65501. Education & Society Certificate Seminar. 000 Units.

Consent required to enroll. This course is a non-credit writing seminar for students admitted to the Education and Society Certificate.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

PPHA 65510. Careers in International Development. 000 Units.

This course is designed to provide students interested in a career in international policy and development a structure to learn and explore career paths within the industry while also preparing for internship recruiting. Students who successfully complete this course will have expanded their knowledge of organizations and roles available to conduct this work, prepared an industry resume, practiced for interviews, and had opportunities to network with professionals currently working in the industry. After this course, students will be prepared to take advantage of Harris' international development campus recruiting activities and begin finding a summer internship and thinking about their full-time job search strategy.

Instructor(s): Wolfe, R     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 65511. Careers in Municipal Finance. 000 Units.

This course is designed to provide students interested in a career in public and municipal finance a structure to learn and explore career paths within the industry while also preparing for recruiting.  Students who successfully complete this course will have expanded their knowledge of organizations and roles available to conduct this work, built relevant professional skills, prepared an industry resume, practiced for interviews, and had opportunities to network with professionals currently working in the industry.  After this course, students will be prepared to take advantage of Harris' public and municipal finance campus recruiting activities and begin finding a summer internship and thinking about their full-time job search strategy.

Instructor(s): Marlowe, J     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 65560. Financial Statement Analysis for Governments and Non-Profits. 000 Units.

This is a non-credit course available to Harris students only. This is a course on how to read, analyze, and discuss public sector organizations' financial statements. Financial statement analysis is a valuable skill for students interested in municipal finance and management consulting, but also for those interested in state and local government management, policy analysis, and many other fields. As such, this course is designed with all second year MPP students in mind, but is presented at the level of depth and sophistication that's expected of candidates for analyst roles in the public sector divisions of the credit rating agencies, investment banks, management consulting firms, and similar employers.

Instructor(s): Marlowe, J     Terms Offered: Autumn

PPHA 65570. Measuring Inequality. 000 Units.

In this inequality mini-course we want to share with you four thoughts on inequality, four facts about the US that are not as widely known as they should be. These run somewhat counter to common narratives about inequality, and are all the more important for pushing us to critically examine both the evidence and our pre-conceived notions. This is a non-credit mini-course that will be recorded on your transcript (ungraded). The requirement for completion and entry on your transcript is attendance at all three class sessions, and participation in class discussion. Each class will be 1 hour 20 minutes. This is a non-credit course available to Harris students only.

Instructor(s): Coleman, T     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring

PPHA 70000. Advanced Study: Public Policy Studies. 300.00 Units.

Harris PhD students only. Consent required to enroll.