printer friendly pagePUBLPOL 268: Global Organizations: Managing Diversity (PUBLPOL 168, 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. This class is associated with a study trip during the Spring Break. Recommended:
PUBLPOL 102, MS&E 180,
SOC 160,
ECON 149, or
MGTECON 330.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Meyersson Milgrom, E. (PI)
PUBLPOL 294: Technology Policy (PUBLPOL 194)
How the U.S. federal government promotes, uses, and regulates new technologies; tensions between representative governance and the need for elite expertise in policymaking; contemporary debates over international security, energy, health, information technology, and economic competitiveness. Recommended:
POLISCI 2.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Slayton, R. (PI)
PUBLPOL 298: Directed Readings in Public Policy
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors:
Ardoin, N. (PI)
;
Bonica, A. (PI)
;
Boyd, S. (PI)
...
more instructors for PUBLPOL 298 »
Instructors:
Ardoin, N. (PI)
;
Bonica, A. (PI)
;
Boyd, S. (PI)
;
Brest, P. (PI)
;
Bundorf, M. (PI)
;
Chen, L. (PI)
;
Cogan, J. (PI)
;
Frisby, T. (PI)
;
Gould, A. (PI)
;
Higgins, M. (PI)
;
Hilton, S. (PI)
;
Koudijs, P. (PI)
;
Lewis, C. (PI)
;
Miller, G. (PI)
;
Nation, J. (PI)
;
Petersilia, J. (PI)
;
Slayton, R. (PI)
;
Sprague, M. (PI)
;
Stoner, K. (PI)
;
Weyant, J. (PI)
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. Prerequisites:
ECON 50 and
MATH 51 or equiv.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Bulow, J. (PI)
;
Madsen, E. (TA)
PUBLPOL 301B: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Evaluation (IPS 204B)
This class provides the economic and institutional background necessary to use "cost-benefit analysis" or CBA to evaluate public policy. We will examine the economic justification for government intervention and apply these concepts in different policy contexts. We will also examine the theoretical foundations and the practical challenges of implementing CBA. The goal of the course is to provide you with the conceptual foundations and practical skills you will need to be thoughtful consumers or producers of CBA.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Bundorf, M. (PI)
;
Chee, C. (PI)
PUBLPOL 302A: Introduction to American Law (AMSTUD 179, POLISCI 122)
For undergraduates. The structure of the American legal system including the courts; American legal culture; the legal profession and its social role; the scope and reach of the legal system; the background and impact of legal regulation; criminal justice; civil rights and civil liberties; and the relationship between the American legal system and American society in general.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Friedman, L. (PI)
PUBLPOL 302B: Economic Analysis of Law
(Same as
LAW 528 .) This course will provide a broad overview of the scholarly field known as "law and economics." The focus will be on how legal rules and institutions can correct market failures. We will discuss the economic function of contracts and, when contracts fail or are not feasible, the role of legal remedies to resolve disputes. We will also discuss at some length the choice between encouraging private parties to initiate legal actions to correct externalities and governmental actors, such as regulatory authorities. Extensive attention will be given to the economics of litigation, and to how private incentives to bring lawsuits differs from the social value of litigation. The economic motive to commit crimes, and the optimal governmental response to crime, will be studied in depth. Specific topics within the preceding broad themes 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. Because this course is taught jointly with
Law 528 in the Law School, it will not be mathematically oriented; there are no prerequisites to take the course.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Polinsky, A. (PI)
;
Dagenais, G. (TA)
PUBLPOL 303B: Political Methodology II (POLISCI 350B)
Understanding and using the linear regression model in a social-science context: properties of the least squares estimator; inference and hypothesis testing; assessing model fit; presenting results for publication; consequences and diagnosis of departures from model assumptions; outliers and influential observations, graphical techniques for model fitting and checking; interactions among exploratory variables; pooling data; extensions for binary responses.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Jackman, S. (PI)
PUBLPOL 303D: Applied Econometrics for Public Policy
This course aims to present the theory and practice of empirical research in economics with particular emphasis on topics relating to public policy questions. We will start with a quick re-cap of basic probability theory and statistics, then move on to basic regression analysis and introduce the statistical software STATA. The course will put a substantial amount of effort on work with STATA in analyzing actual data sets, reproducing and criticizing results in scientific research and learning the actual practice of econometrics. The final part of the course will focus on the identification of causal effects and the various econometric techniques available to learn about causality. While this is primarily a methodology module, most examples and applications will be drawn from the area of public policy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Seiler, S. (PI)
PUBLPOL 304A: Collective Action: Ethics and Policy (ETHICSOC 180M, PHIL 73)
Individually rational actions can give rise to results that are collectively irrational. For example, the collective result of our consumption decisions is to warm the planet, destroy the world's fisheries, and increase reliance on factory farming; at the same time, the decisions of a single individual seem to have no tangible effect on such things. In light of this, what (if anything) are you as an individual required to do in these and other collective action situations, especially when others are not doing their part to prevent things from getting out of control? For example, are you required to reduce your carbon footprint and avoid products that are produced in ethically objectionable ways? Do you have a duty to vote? Is free-riding always ethically objectionable? Can you be required to 'cooperate' in a situation where you know that most others will 'defect'? Finally, from a real-world policy perspective, how can we bring about the best solutions to these and other collective action problems? Is the best policy response always a straightforward function of the variable features of each case? Interdisciplinary readings from authors in philosophy, politics, economics, and law such as Elinor Ostrom, Peter Singer, and Cass Sunstein. No background will be assumed and no mathematical work will be required. The course will include a module led by an award-winning designer in which students will design table top games that can be used to teach the dynamics of collective action to high school students.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Budolfson, M. (PI)
Filter Results: