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What causes financial crises? What are the keys to anticipating, preventing, and managing disruptions in the global financial system? This course prepares students to navigate future episodes as policymakers, finance professionals, and citizens by going inside the practical decisions made in an unfolding crisis, from the U.S. government and IMF to the boardroom and trading floor. Students will learn warning signs of distress; market structures that govern crisis dynamics; strategic interactions among the key actors; and lessons learned for creating a more resilient system. Concepts will be applied to real-world experiences in emerging market crises, the U.S. housing and global financial crisis, the European sovereign crisis, and as well the extraordinary fiscal and central bank responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

This course introduces the theories of consumers, producers, and markets, and uses these concepts to understand how people make complex economic decisions in the real world. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with core microeconomic models and be able to use them with real-world applications related to government spending, taxation, and welfare programs. The goal of the course is for students to learn how microeconomists think and approach economic problems. Prerequisites: ECON 1 and MATH 20 or equivalent. PUBLPOL 50 was numbered PUBLPOL 51 prior to the 2023-2024 Academic Year.

This seminar/practicum will invite students to roll up our sleeves and deliver concrete recommendations for making ethical decision-making accessible to ordinary citizens rather than just determined by corporate giants, law makers or academic experts. We will explore practical approaches to the following questions: How can we make ethical decision-making accessible to ordinary citizens in a complex world of technology, biology and even space exploration? How can we incentivize citizens to care about integrating ethics into their decision-making? How do we each have ethical power in society even where economic and technological control lie with tech giants and lodged in the brains of experts? What, if anything, is different about citizens' sense of moral responsibility in society today (and how has technology contributed to shifting views)? How can we develop an ethics barometer soliciting the views, and facilitating the influence of, ordinary citizens on key ethical questions outside of normal channels like voting and individual engagement with social media? The course will consider a number of cutting-edge topics from Covid-19 and gene editing and long-standing challenges such as racism. Highly interactive course. Very short papers and teamwork along the way in lieu of final paper or exam. 3 credits (option C/NC for students not wishing WAYS credit).

This course is designed to give Stanford undergraduates an introduction to civil-military relations, leadership development, and operational aspects of American foreign policy. Admitted undergraduates will be mentored by a distinguished leader from the Air Force, Army, CIA, Coast Guard, FBI, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force, or State Department for the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters of the 2023-24 academic year. Participation in all three quarters is required. These military leaders, diplomats, and intelligence professionals are part of the Hoover Institution's National Security Affairs Fellows program. The scheduled class time will be used for group activities, lectures from the National Security Affairs Fellows on their experiences in the U.S. government, small group meetings with mentees and mentors, and special sessions with senior American foreign policy leaders. At the end of each quarter, students write short reflection papers. No expertise in international affairs is necessary to apply and all majors are welcome. Selection is based on academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, and interest in international affairs. The program is directed by Dr. Amy Zegart. To apply, send a cover letter and resume to hoovernsaf@stanford.edu by August 30, 2024.

This course will explore changing notions of truth in a world in which technology, global risks, and societal developments are blurring the boundaries of humanity and boring through traditional notions of nation states, institutions, and human identity. It will also offer a parallel journey to consider truth in your own life and how truth contributes to your own resilience in the face of life challenges. We will ask one over-arching question: Does truth matter anymore? If so, why and how? If not, why not? Either way, how does truth relate to ethical decision-making by individuals and institutions and to an ethical society? How does truth relate to a life well lived? Seven themes will organize our exploration of more specific topics: science and subjectivity; identity; memory; authenticity; artificial intelligence; imagination; and a life well-lived. Examples of topics to be explored include, among others: truth and technology (from ChatGPT to home devices); white supremacy; DNA testing and the 'identify as' movement, and identity; University history (Rhodes, Georgetown slavery, Yale Calhoun College, Junipero Serra...); the connections among truth, memory, and history; new questions in gender and racial identity; Chinese beautifying app Meitu and other social media "truth modifiers"; the sharing economy; the impact of AI and DNA testing sites on legal truth. We will consider how we determine and verify the truth; how we "do" truth; the role of truth in ethical decision-making; the importance of truth to effective ethical policy; and the relationship of the truth to a life well lived. An analytically rigorous short final paper in lieu of exam. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduates will not be at a disadvantage. Everyone will be challenged. Distinguished Career Institute Fellows are welcome and should contact Dr. Susan Liautaud directly at susanliautaud@googlemail.com. Students wishing to take the course who are unable to sign up within the enrollment limit should contact Dr. Susan Liautaud at susanliautaud@googlemail.com. *Public Policy majors taking the course to complete the core requirements and students taking the course for Ways credit must obtain a letter grade. Other students may take the course for a letter grade or C/NC. To satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for 3 units.*

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. Prerequisites: PUBLPOL 50 or ECON 50. Students are also strongly encouraged to either complete ECON 102B prior to taking this course or take ECON 102B concurrently with this course. Undergraduate Public Policy students are required to take this class for a letter grade and enroll in this class for five units.

Methods of empirical analysis and applications in public policy. Emphasis on causal inference and program evaluation. Public policy applications include health, labor and saving. Assignments include hands-on data analysis, evaluation of existing literature, and a final research project. Objective is to obtain tools to 1) critically evaluate evidence used to make policy decisions and 2) perform empirical analysis to answer questions in public policy. Prerequisite: ECON 102B. Public Policy students must take the course for a letter grade. Priority for enrollment will be given to Public Policy students. Non-Public Policy majors must receive instructor permission to enroll.

This course will divided into three sections that when combined provide 1) the overall narrative of the precedents and adverse impacts of the worldwide, US west coast and California housing crises and the frameworks for California to create a balanced housing market without causing extreme displacement; 2) an overview of the planning, regulatory and development environments in California along with an opportunities/threats analysis to illuminate current opportunities to achieve a balanced housing market; and 3) an overview of the federal, state, regional and local housing policy environments and areas of policy work addressing and responding to the California housing crisis.

Overview of the most pressing biosecurity issues facing the world today. Critical examination of ways of enhancing biosecurity and pandemic resilience. Examination of how the US and the world are able to withstand a pandemic or a bioterrorism attack, how the medical/healthcare field, government, and technology sectors are involved in biosecurity and pandemic or bioterrorism preparedness and response and how they interface; the rise of synthetic biology with its promises and threats; global bio-surveillance; effectiveness of various containment and mitigation measures; hospital surge capacity; medical challenges; development, production, and distribution of countermeasures such as vaccines and drugs; supply chain challenges; public health and policy aspects of pandemic preparedness and response; administrative and engineering controls to enhance pandemic resilience; testing approaches and challenges; promising technologies for pandemic response and resilience, communication in a crisis; and other relevant topics. Guest lecturers have included former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Special Assistant on BioSecurity to Presidents Clinton and Bush Jr. Dr. Ken Bernard, former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Robert Kadlec, eminent scientists, public health leaders, innovators and physicians in the field, and leaders of relevant technology companies. Open to medical, graduate, and undergraduate students. No prior background in biology necessary. Must be taken for at least 4 units to get WAYs credit. Students also have an option to take the class for 2 units as a speaker series/seminar where they attend half the class sessions (or more) and complete short weekly assignments. In-person or asynchronous online instruction are available. First day of class is the Wednesday of the first week of class.