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policy analysis and evaluation
The concentration in policy analysis and evaluation is designed for students interested in developing analytic skills that can be applied across a broad array of policy topics and arenas. Students will learn about policy development and implementation from both theoretical and practical perspectives, at all levels of government and policymaking. The concentration includes two required courses, Policy Analysis and Economics of the Public Sector and Public Finance, and two electives drawn from a wide range of policy courses.
REQUIRED ELECTIVES
PAF 9133 Economics of the Public Sector and Public Finance
3 hours; 3 credits
This course assesses the role of government in the modern economy. The course examines the reasons for government intervention in the economy, consequences of that intervention, and issues pertaining to the public financing of those interventions. An important part of this class is the study of public finance, tax incidence, and fiscal federalism. The course has two main goals: to build and refine skills of microeconomic policy analysis, and more important, to apply these skills to contemporary policy problems.
Prerequisite: PAF 9130
PAF 9180 Policy Analysis
Overview of the use of analytic techniques in solving public sector problems and designing government programs. Topics include agenda setting, approaches to problem solving, the role of values in policy making and policy analysis, policy-relevant data collection and analysis, principles of benefit-cost analysis, techniques of policy analysis (e.g., queuing, simulations, formal modeling), strategies for policy adoption and implementation, and the politics of policy analysis.
Prerequisite: none
POLICY ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION ELECTIVES (select 2)
PAF 9110 Ethics and Public Decision Making
This course concerns the relationship of ethics and public service. Those in public service face a broad array of ethical problems and dilemmas ranging from simple matters of public trust through the application of ethical reasoning in policymaking. The course examines the limits of self-interest in public service, the differing ethical concerns of elective and appointive officials, the conflict between responsibility to hierarchical authority and personal conceptions of the right, bureaucratic responsibility for the ethical content of public policies, and the possibility of necessary evil. A significant portion of this course focuses on ethical theories that may help resolve these dilemmas.
PAF 9125 Human Resources Policy
Analysis of government policies aimed at altering income levels and life opportunities of individuals. Issues are chosen from the human services area (e.g., education, disability programs, employment and training).
PAF 9137 Telecommunications Policy
This course focuses on the communications industry and government regulation. It examines policy issues including growth of conglomerates, the impact of computers and the Internet, the scope and impact of the digital revolution, new technologies in wired and wireless transmission, allocating the spectrum, and the future of the electronic highway.
PAF 9142 Housing Policy
The course serves as a gateway to the field of housing and community development, giving students the background necessary to become informed participants in policy analysis and debates about the future of housing policy. Topics to be covered include: housing markets and policies; the evolution of federal, state, and local housing programs, with emphasis on low-income rental housing; as well as several longstanding and thorny housing policy topics.
PAF 9145 Social Welfare Policy
This is a course about the poor and anti-poverty programs in the United States. It focuses on measurement, extent, and distribution of poverty; causes of poverty; tradeoffs faced by policy-makers in reducing poverty and economic insecurity; and issues relating to the American underclass.
PAF 9161 Business and Public Policy
Analysis of the interrelations between business and governmental policy making. The focus is on the role played by business interests in specific policy arenas (e.g., defense, energy, trade) as well as the general policy environment.
PAF 9173 Program Auditing and Performance Measurement
This course extends the student's knowledge of financially related decision-making techniques. It provides the student an understanding of management auditing, program auditing, and performance measurement. Key concepts include economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. From the retrospective perspective it examines how to determine whether a program has used its resources effectively and efficiently. From a concurrent perspective, it looks at what should be monitored and how. Prospectively it examines how to prepare an organization for performance measurement and auditing. From a holistic view it examines the decision to measure, monitor, and examine performance.
PAF 9174 Program Evaluation
Examination of the process and techniques of program evaluation and the assessment of effectiveness of public sector policies. Various performance assessment criteria, problems of evaluation research, and the politics of program evaluation are reviewed.
PAF 9177 Advanced Quantitative Methods
Intended for students interested in advanced quantitative research methods used in policy analysis, this course focuses on causal effects, especially of programs or policies. Topics include random assignment, multiple regression, instrumental variables, and difference-in-differences estimation. Students learn these approaches and techniques through hands-on projects and exercises on contemporary policy problems using real data and statistical software.
Prerequisite: PAF 9170 and PAF 9172, or with permission of instructor
PAF 9185 Environmental Policy
This course introduces students to the major features and debates in environmental policy, focusing primarily on the metropolitan environment in the United States. Students are introduced to environmental issues with respect to both the human and physical environments; the major interests groups that affect environmental policy; and the regulatory procedures under which environmental policy is implemented, particularly environmental impact analysis under NEPA and state and local environmental reviews.
PAF 9186 Map Making for Public Policy
The course provides an introduction to basic map making skills and the use of maps and spatial data in policy applications. Students will learn how to create and interpret thematic maps, by hands-on experience with mapping software. Advanced topics will include spatial construction of data, and use spatial data in quantitative applications.
Prerequisite or corequisite: PAF 9170
PAF 9318 Educational Policy
This course is designed for MPA and MSED students interested in learning more about educational policy at the local, state, and federal levels. Students in this course will critically examine the social, political, and economic theories behind current educational policies and policy initiatives, and evaluate their consequences and effects on U.S. public schooling.
PAF 9338 Higher Education, Politics and Public Policy
This course provides an in-depth examination of public policymaking for higher education in the United States. It emphasizes state-level policymaking for higher education but also surveys the role of federal and local governments. It explores the implications of the political setting of higher education for institutional leadership.
PAF 9699 Selected Topics in Public Policy
Focuses on major substantive areas of public policy. Topics vary from offering to offering and could include such policy issues as transportation, environmental protection, housing and urban policy, urban development, health and labor.
PAF 9715 Health Care Policy
The purpose of this course is to examine policy issues relevant to four overarching concerns within health care: health status; access to health care; health care quality; and health care costs; in so doing, provide an understanding of various methods used to analyze health care policy issues and options.
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