PUBLPOL 53SI:
Creating and Analyzing Public Policy: The Roosevelt Institution
How to get your work into the public discourse. Students work in groups to draft policy recommendations for local policymakers serving as project sponsors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
| Repeatable
for credit
PUBLPOL 101:
Politics and Public Policy (POLISCI 123, PUBLPOL 201)
How policies come to be formed. How interests compete within public institutions to turn ideas into policies. Examples of this process from contemporary policy areas, including tax, social welfare, and environmental policy; results evaluated using equity and efficiency criteria. Prerequisite: POLISCI 2 (or equivalent for Public Policy majors).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 102:
Organizations and Public Policy (PUBLPOL 202)
Analysis of organizational processes emphasizing organizations that operate in a non-market environment. Prerequisite: ECON 1A.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
PUBLPOL 103A:
Introduction to Political Philosophy (ETHICSOC 30, PHIL 30, POLISCI 3)
State authority, justice, liberty, and equality through major works in political philosophy. Topics include human nature and citizenship, the obligation to obey the law, democracy and economic inequality, equality of opportunity and affirmative action, religion, and politics.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas
PUBLPOL 103B:
Ethics and Public Policy (MS&E 197, STS 110)
Ethical issues in science- and technology-related public policy conflicts. Focus is on complex, value-laden policy disputes. Topics: the nature of ethics and morality; rationales for liberty, justice, and human rights; and the use and abuse of these concepts in policy disputes. Case studies from biomedicine, environmental affairs, technical professions, communications, and international relations.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PUBLPOL 103C:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include protecting religious liberty, financing schools and elections, regulating markets, assuring access to health care, and providing affirmative action and group rights. Issues of global justice including human rights and global inequality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PUBLPOL 103D:
Ethics and Politics of Public Service (ETHICSOC 133, PHIL 175A, PHIL 275A, POLISCI 133)
Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
PUBLPOL 104:
Economic Policy Analysis (ECON 150, PUBLPOL 204)
The relationship between microeconomic analysis and public policy making. How economic policy analysis is done and why political leaders regard it as useful but not definitive in making policy decisions. Economic rationales for policy interventions, methods of policy evaluation and the role of benefit-cost analysis, economic models of politics and their application to policy making, and the relationship of income distribution to policy choice. Theoretical foundations of policy making and analysis, and applications to program adoption and implementation. Prerequisite: ECON 50.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
PUBLPOL 105:
Quantitative Methods and Their Applications to Public Policy
Reviews material covered in prerequisites with applications of qualitative independent variable techniques to labor market data. Maximum likelihood estimation and qualitative dependent variable models with an application to voting models. Final papers estimate influence of quantitative and qualitative independent variables on Congressional voting probabilities. Prerequisites: ECON 102A,B.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
PUBLPOL 106:
Economics of Legal Rules and Institutions (ECON 154, PUBLPOL 206)
Design and consequences of laws, given alternative policy objectives. Welfarist approach to legal policy; deontological perspectives including Kant, Locke, Mill, and Rawls. Economic efficiency and agent rationality, law as mitigation of market and cognitive failures, effects of law on expectations and incentives, balancing costs of type I and type II legal errors. Empirical studies of law's effects. Applications: property, tort, contract, antitrust, discrimination, crime, legal procedure. Examples chiefly from U.S. law, but analytical tools of general applicability. Prerequisite: ECON 50.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 107:
Public Finance and Fiscal Policy (ECON 141)
What role should and does government play in the economy? What are the effects of government expenditure, borrowing, and taxation? Policy topics: budget surpluses/deficits; tax reform; social security, public goods, and externalities; fiscal federalism; public investment; and cost-benefit analysis. Prerequisites: 51, 52.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 119:
Sociology of Terrorism (SOC 109, SOC 209)
Multidisciplinary, including psychology, sociology, political science,and economics. Comparison of terrorist organizations and movements across institutions, places, and times; their motives, tactics, financing, and organization. Guest lecturers. Sources include movies, novels, and research literature.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
PUBLPOL 121:
Policy and Climate Change
Science and economics, including recent findings. History and evolution of local, state, regional, national, and international policy. California's recent landmark climate change bill. Future policy prospects, emphasizing national and international levels.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 125:
Law and Public Policy
How lawyers argue and judges decide cases versus other forms of rhetoric and decision making. Legal reasoning and dispute resolution within Anglo-American common law and in comparative perspective across diverse societies. The relationship between law and public policy on current issues related to culture, technology, race, education, sexuality, abortion, gun control, civil liberties, national security and the environment. Sources include judicial opinions, interdisciplinary legal scholarship, ethnography, literature, and film.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
PUBLPOL 130:
Path Dependence in Private Action and Public Policy: Decision Making in the Shadow of History (ECON 151)
The historically contingent development of economic, social, and political behaviors at micro and macro levels. History's role in individual and organizational decision making. When can extraneous events have persisting effects upon public institutions, private organizations, and government agencies? Science and technology policy making; precedent-based judicial and administrative proceedings; and institutional reforms and regulatory initiatives illustrate positive feedback dynamics; self-organization and emergent properties in complex systems; conditions of lock-in to and escapes from sub-optimal equilibria in economic and social arrangements. Prerequisite: ECON 50, 51. Recommended: Completion of at least one upper level economics course.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
PUBLPOL 135:
Regional Politics and Decision Making in Silicon Valley
Dynamics of regional leadership and decision making in Silicon Valley, a complex region composed of 40 cities and four counties without any overarching framework for governance. Formal and informal institutions shaping outcomes in the region. Case studies include transportation, workforce development, housing and land use, and climate change.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 154:
Politics and Policy in California
State politics and policy making, including the role of the legislature, legislative leadership, the governor, special interests, campaign finance, the public, ballot initiatives, the state constitution, the media, and the role of research organizations. Case studies include pension reform, health care, term limits and other political reform measures, open primaries, infrastructure improvements, and the budget. Changes in constitutional and in state statutes that can improve policy making in California.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 168:
Global Organizations: Managing Diversity (SOC 168, SOC 268)
Analytical tools derived from the social sciences to analyze global organizations and projects, and applied to the tradeoffs between different designs of teams and organizations. Focus is on tribal mentality and how to design effective organizations and projects for policy implementation within and across institutional settings. Recommended: 102, MS&E 180, or SOC 160.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP
PUBLPOL 172:
Psychology and Public Policy (PSYCH 119)
Applications of psychology to public and social policy. Factors that affect the influence of psychological research and individual psychology on the creation of policy, and the influence of policy on attitudes and behavior at the personal and societal levels. Topics include education, health care, and criminal justice.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 183:
Philanthropy and Social Innovation
Philanthropy's role in modern society and the translation of its vision and capital into social action. Topics: individual giving; philanthropic landscape and models; foundation mission and infrastructure; philanthropic strategy and grantmaking; accountability and knowledge management; global and corporate philanthropy; and public policy engagement. Readings: business school cases and industry articles. Guest speakers include individual donors and foundation presidents. Mandatory discussion section. Enrollment limited.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
PUBLPOL 184:
Poverty and Policies in Developing Economies
Economic models of growth and poverty, differences in growth rates among countries, and the persistence of poverty. Models of physical and human capital accumulation, and recent theories of the importance of institutions, social capital, and political factors. The effectiveness of social policies in developing countries, emphasizing India, in the light of theories of growth and poverty, and in terms of immediate goals and long-term consequences. Policies include schooling and health, anti-poverty, banking, and political decentralization. Prerequisites: ECON 1A,B.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 194:
Technology Policy
How the U.S. federal government promotes, uses, and regulates new technologies; how it decides technology policies; and debates over how to use technology to advance national goals. Topics: American attitudes towards technology; technologies for defense, homeland security, energy, health, and economic competitiveness; and when and how to regulate nanotechnology, stem-cell research, government surveillance, and digital copyright. Recommended: POLISCI 2.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 197:
Junior Honors Seminar (ECON 198)
Primarily for students who expect to write an honors thesis. Weekly sessions discuss writing an honors thesis proposal (prospectus), submitting grant applications, and completing the honors thesis. Readings focus on writing skills and research design. Students select an adviser, outline a program of study for their senior year, and complete a prospectus by the end of the quarter. Enrollment limited to 25.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 198:
Directed Readings in Public Policy
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
PUBLPOL 199:
Senior Research
May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
PUBLPOL 200A:
Senior Seminar
Students conduct original research for oral presentations and a paper on a policy-related topic. Topic and methods of analysis determined by student in consultation with instructor. Goal is to improve analytical, research, writing, and communication skills. Prerequisites: core courses in Public Policy or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 200B:
Senior Seminar: Conducting Policy Analysis for Local Agencies
Students conduct original research for oral presentations and a paper on a policy-related topic. Topic and methods of analysis determined by student in consultation with instructor. Goal is to improve analytical, research, writing, and communication skills. Prerequisites: core courses in Public Policy or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
PUBLPOL 200C:
Senior Seminar
Students conduct original research for oral presentations and a paper on a policy-related topic. Topic and methods of analysis determined by student in consultation with instructor. Goal is to improve analytical, research, writing, and communication skills. Prerequisites: core courses in Public Policy or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 201:
Politics and Public Policy (POLISCI 123, PUBLPOL 101)
How policies come to be formed. How interests compete within public institutions to turn ideas into policies. Examples of this process from contemporary policy areas, including tax, social welfare, and environmental policy; results evaluated using equity and efficiency criteria. Prerequisite: POLISCI 2 (or equivalent for Public Policy majors).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 202:
Organizations and Public Policy (PUBLPOL 102)
Analysis of organizational processes emphasizing organizations that operate in a non-market environment. Prerequisite: ECON 1A.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 204:
Economic Policy Analysis (ECON 150, PUBLPOL 104)
The relationship between microeconomic analysis and public policy making. How economic policy analysis is done and why political leaders regard it as useful but not definitive in making policy decisions. Economic rationales for policy interventions, methods of policy evaluation and the role of benefit-cost analysis, economic models of politics and their application to policy making, and the relationship of income distribution to policy choice. Theoretical foundations of policy making and analysis, and applications to program adoption and implementation. Prerequisite: ECON 50.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 206:
Economics of Legal Rules and Institutions (ECON 154, PUBLPOL 106)
Design and consequences of laws, given alternative policy objectives. Welfarist approach to legal policy; deontological perspectives including Kant, Locke, Mill, and Rawls. Economic efficiency and agent rationality, law as mitigation of market and cognitive failures, effects of law on expectations and incentives, balancing costs of type I and type II legal errors. Empirical studies of law's effects. Applications: property, tort, contract, antitrust, discrimination, crime, legal procedure. Examples chiefly from U.S. law, but analytical tools of general applicability. Prerequisite: ECON 50.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 231:
Health Care Regulation, Finance and Policy (HRP 391)
(SAME AS LAW 348) Provides the legal, institutional, and economic background necessary to understand the financing and production of health services in the U.S. Potential topics include: health reform, health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance, the uninsured), medical malpractice and quality regulation, pharmaceuticals, the corporate practice of medicine, regulation of fraud and abuse, and international comparisons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 301A:
Microeconomics (IPS 204A)
Microeconomic concepts relevant to decision making. Topics include: competitive market clearing, price discrimination; general equilibrium; risk aversion and sharing, capital market theory, Nash equilibrium; welfare analysis; public choice; externalities and public goods; hidden information and market signaling; moral hazard and incentives; auction theory; game theory; oligopoly; reputation and credibility.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 301B:
Cost-Benefit Analysis and Evaluation (IPS 204B)
Ex ante and ex post evaluation of projects and policies, value of life calculations, and welfare evaluation of public and private decisions. Welfare measures; tradeoffs between efficiency and equity. Second best. Statistical decision theory. Use of incentives in implementing policies. Relationship between microeconomic analysis and public policy making. Economic rationales for policy interventions. Economic models of politics and application to policy making. Relationship of income distribution to policy choice.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 302A:
Introduction to Law
Differences between common and civil law systems; judge-made law and judicial process; courts and litigation; legislation and its interpretation; administrative law and regulation. Separation of powers and federalism; constitutional law and civil liberties; criminal justice; empirical studies of the legal profession and legal behavior; social change and its impact on the legal order; law and economic development.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
PUBLPOL 302B:
Economic Analysis of Law
(Same as LAW 277.) How legal rules and institutions can correct market failures.The economic function of contracts; role of legal remedies to resolve disputes when contracts fail. The choice between relying on private parties, through litigation, and governmental agents, through regulation, to correct externalities. Economics of litigation; how private incentives to bring lawsuits differ from the social value of litigation. Economic motives to commit crimes; optimal governmental response to crime. Specific topics include: the Coase Theorem; the tradeoff between the certainty and severity of punishment; the choice between ex ante and ex post sanctions; negligence versus strict liability; property rules; remedies for breach of contract; and the American rule versus the English rule for allocating litigation costs. Prerequisites: intermediate-level microeconomics; some calculus.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 303A:
Foundations Of Statistical Inference (IPS 205A)
(Same as LAW 362.) Statistical background and introduction to regression. Topics include hypothesis testing, linear regression, nearest-neighbors regression, and other statistical concepts. Hands-on empirical analysis using popular statistical packages. Goal is to analyze empirical studies, conduct empirical research, and to crossexamine or work with statistical experts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 303B:
Econometrics (IPS 205B)
(Same as LAW 366.) Descriptive statistics. Regression analysis. Hypothesis testing. Analysis of variance. Heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, errors in variables, simultaneous equations. The construction and use of models for analyzing economic and social phenomena. Bayesian analysis. Univariate and bivariate analysis. Simple regression model. Multiple regression model. Inference and heteroskedasticity. Linear probability model. Instrumental variables. Maximum likelihood methods. Measurement of social and political attitudes and ideologies. Statistical analysis of large data sets.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 303C:
Bayesian Statistics and Econometrics
(Same as LAW 243.) Linear and nonlinear regression, covariance structures, panel data, qualitative variable models, nonparametric and semiparametric methods, time series, Bayesian model averaging and variable selection. Bayesian methodology including Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, hierarchical models, model checking, mixture models, empirical Bayes approaches, approximations, and computational issues and foundations. Prerequisite: graduate-level econometrics or equivalent.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
PUBLPOL 304A:
Politics and Collective Action (IPS 206A, POLISCI 331S)
Classic theories for why collective action problems occur and how they can be solved. Politics of aggregating individual decisions into collective action, including voting, social protest, and competing goals and tactics of officials, bureaucrats, interest groups, and other stakeholders. Economic, distributive, and moral frameworks for evaluating collective action processes and outcomes. Applications to real-world policy problems involving collective action.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 304B:
Organizations (IPS 206B)
Policy reform and organizational resistance. Organizations include government and other bureaucracies such as not-for-profit schools, universities, hospitals, international organizations, political parties, and agencies. Hubris and policy making, including pathologies of decision making and planning, abuse of intelligence, biased information, overselling to publics, lack of knowledge about context, and unintended consequences.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 305A:
Judgment and Decision Making (IPS 207A)
(Same as LAW 333.) Theories and research on heuristics and biases in human inference, judgment, and decision making. Experimental and theoretical work in prospect theory emphasizing loss and risk aversion. Challenges that psychology offers to the rationalist expected utility model; attempts to meet this challenge through integration with modern behavioral economics. Decision making biases and phenomena of special relevance to public policy such as group polarization, group think, and collective action.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 305B:
Public Policy and Social Psychology: Implications and Applications (IPS 207B, PSYCH 216)
Theories, insights, and concerns of social psychology relevant to how people perceive issues, events, and each other, and links between beliefs and individual and collective behavior. Topics include: situationist and subjectivist traditions of applied and theoretical social psychology; social comparison, dissonance, and attribution theories; social identity, stereotyping, racism, and sources of intergroup conflict and misunderstanding; challenges to universality assumptions regarding human motivation, emotion, and perception of self and others; the problem of producing individual and collective changes in norms and behavior.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 306:
Writing and Rhetoric for Policy Audiences
Techniques of effective writing and argument for addressing decision makers, interest groups, and the public. The importance of apparent simplicity; uses and misuses of history and historical analogies; and incentives, cognitive limits, and biases of audiences. Why some arguments become traditional. Sources include historical briefing papers and oral arguments. Students write briefing papers and make oral arguments, individually and in teams. Enrollment limited. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PUBLPOL 307:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include protecting religious liberty, financing schools and elections, regulating markets, assuring access to health care, and providing affirmative action and group rights. Issues of global justice including human rights and global inequality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
PUBLPOL 309:
Practicum (IPS 209)
Applied policy exercises in various fields. Multidisciplinary student teams apply skills to a contemporary problem in a major policy exercise with a public sector client such as a government agency. Problem analysis, interaction with the client and experts, and presentations. Emphasis is on effective written and oral communication to lay audiences of recommendations based on policy analysis.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 1-10
| Repeatable
for credit
PUBLPOL 310:
Master of Arts Thesis
Restricted to students writing a master's thesis in Public Policy. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
1 times
(up to 5 units total)
PUBLPOL 311:
Public Policy Colloquium
Weekly colloquia speaker series required for M.P.P. and M.A. in Public Policy students. Themes vary each quarter.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 4 units total)
PUBLPOL 321:
Sentencing, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Policy
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 112:
Public Leadership in Theory and Practice (POLISCI 225S)
Models from Aristotle to the Harvard School of Business concerning what leaders are supposed to do. Students develop expectations of what interactions between national political leaders would be like under each of these theories and a reasonably large (n=300-800) database of actual interactions between presidents and other leaders in business, unions, congress, and administration, using recorded conversations from Kennedy through Nixon. Students assess their expectations and reach conclusions about the usefulness of these theories of leadership and how leadership in public policy making might differ substantially from leadership in enterprise.
| Units: 5
