Spring 2006 Graduate Courses
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T. Christensen
Syllabus
This course will review and analyze the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the present. It will examine Beijing's relations with the Soviet Union, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Third World during the Cold War, and will discuss the future of Chinese foreign policy in light of the end of the cold War, changes in the Chinese economy, and the post-Tiananmen legitimacy crisis in Beijing. Graduate students will be expected to explore the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.
502: Psychology for Policy Analysis and Implementation
D. Oppenheimer, E. Shafir, A. Todorov
Syllabus
This course covers basic concepts and experimental findings of psychology that contribute to an understanding of the effects of policy on human behavior and well-being. Also covered are psychological factors that affect the formulation, communication, and execution of policy. Topics include a descriptive analysis of boundedly rational judgment and decision making, a consideration of social motives and attitudes, and an introduction to the ways in which agents influence and negotiate with one another, including an examination of the psychological roots of conflict.
505: Financial Management in the Corporate and Public Sectors
U. Reinhardt
Syllabus
An analysis of the investment, valuation, and financing of the corporation, focusing on the application of economic theory and analytic tools to the solution of financial problems. The interrelations between investment and financing policies and their dependence on security valuations are stressed.
508b: Econometrics and Public Policy: Basic
B. Morgan
Syllabus
Provides a thorough examination of statistical methods employed in public policy analysis, with a particular emphasis on regression methods which are frequently employed in research across the social sciences.This course emphasizes intuitive understanding of the central concepts, and develops in students the ability to choose and employ the appropriate tool for a particular research problem, and understand the limitations of the techniques.Prerequisite: 507b.
508c: Econometrics and Public Policy: Advanced
J. Londregan
Syllabus
Discusses the main tools of econometric analysis, and the way in which they are applied to a range of problems in social science.Emphasis is on using techniques, and on understanding and critically assessing others' use of them.There is a great deal of practical work on the computer using a range of data from around the world.Topics include regression analysis, with a focus on regression as a tool for analyzing non-experimental data, discrete choice, and an introduction to time-series analysis.There are applications from macroeconomics, policy evaluation, and economic development. Prerequisite: grounding in topics covered in 507c.
512b: Macroeconomic Analysis: Basic
E. Rossi-Hansberg
Syllabus
Covers the theory of modern macroeconomics in detail.Focus is on the determination of macroeconomic variables - such as output, employment, prices, and the interest rate - in the short, medium, and long run, and addresses a number of policy issues. Discusses several examples of macroeconomic phenomena in the real world. A central theme will be to understand the powers and limitations of macroeconomic policy in stabilizing the business cycle and promoting growth.
512c: Macroeconomic Analysis: Advanced
R. Benabou
Syllabus
Courses 511 and 512 provide systematic exposition of principles and techniques of economic theory that are most useful in analyzing economic aspects of public affairs. The courses are divided into separate sections according to a student's previous experience with economics and the students level of mathematical sophistication. The basic level assumes a fluency in algebra as a minimum, while the advanced level assumes a fluency in calculus as a minimum.
515b: Program & Policy Evaluation
J. Grossman
Syllabus
This course introduces students to evaluation. It explores ways: to develop and implement research-based program improvement strategies and program accountability systems; to judge the effects of policies and programs; and to assess the benefits and costs of policy or program changes. Students study a wide range of evaluation tools; read and discuss both domestic and international evaluation examples and apply this knowledge by designing several different types of evaluations on programs of their choosing. Prerequisite: 507b/c or instructor permission.
516a: Topics in Law & Public Policy: The Law of the Political Process
R. Briffault
Syllabus
The course will examine the legal rules that structure the political process, and the political theories they reflect. Among the topics considered will be: the right to vote; legislative apportionment, including the representation of racial minorities and partisan gerrymandering; the regulation of political parties; and campaign finance reform. The readings will consist primarily of legal materials, including constitutional provisions, key federal statutes, and judicial decisions.
516b: Topics in Law: Anti-Terrorism, Intelligience and the Law
F. Hitz
Syllabus
Examines U.S. intelligence community's performance up to 9/11; in the Afghan & Iraqi wars; pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and issues of intelligence failures. Studies Intelligence Reform Bill and other proposals for change.Explores impact of 9/11 on U.S. law: criminal, immigration and Constitutional; designations of "unlawful" or "enemy" combatant; military tribunals; Patriot Act; closed immigration proceedings; Odah, Padilla, Hamdi & Hamdan, Moussaoui and Lindh trials.Attempts to define a meaningful role for law enforcement and intelligence faced with threat on U.S. soil, and dealing with war against an "ism".
522: Microeconomic Analysis of Domestic Policy: Basic
M. Lopez
Syllabus
Examines a series of major issues of policy designed to illustrate and develop skills in particularly important applications of microeconomics. Topics will include education and training, the minimum wage, mandated benefits, affirmative action, the theory of public goods and externalities, and the basic theory of taxation. Prerequisite: 511b.
523: Legal and Regulatory Policy Towards Markets
A. Craft
Syllabus
This course employs the methods of microeconomics, industrial organization and law and economics to study circumstances where market failures warrant government intervention with policies implemented through the law or regulatory agencies. Topics include antitrust policy toward business practices and vertical and horizontal combinations; policy approaches toward R&D and intellectual property; reliance on tort law, disclosure law, and regulatory standards to mitigate information and externality problems pertaining to health, safety, and performance risks; and the implications for pricing, entry, and investment of different forms of public utility regulation, with examples drawn from energy, telecommunications, and transportation sectors. Prerequisite: 511c.
528a: Domestic Policy Analysis:Land Use Policy and Planning
D. Kinsey
Syllabus
Examines theory and practice of land use policy and planning in the US. Explores concepts of sprawl and smart growth, then examines land use plan making, law, and regulation. Analyzes land use programs and issues at diverse levels of government, including state smart growth programs, regional agencies, fair share and inclusionary housing programs, open space conservation , and big city planning and redevelopment. Also analyzes the roles and interactions of executive agencies, courts, experts, advocates, property owners, profit-oriented and nonprofit developers, and citizens in land use issues. (Fulfills the URP WWS534 requirement.)
528c: Domestic Policy Analysis: Inequality & Urban Poverty: Social Issues, Policy Options
K. Newman, A. Shorris
Syllabus
This course focuses on the sociological and economic aspects of urban poverty, as well as the policy remedies that have been attempted to alleviate its most devastating manifestations.After situating the problem of urban poverty in the context of rising inequality since the mid-1970s, the course moves to consider concrete problems that have developed in the wake of these trends, including racial segregation, unemployment and working poverty, the burdens faced by poor immigrants, and educational inequality. The course will review both what the scholarly literature tells us about these questions and what we know about the policy remedies, institutions and actors who have stepped in to implement them.Students will choose a city to study and, through a series of data gathering exercises and memos, build a briefing book for the mayor in which they argue for a particular policy remedy.
528d: Domestic Policy Analysis: Congress and Foreign Policy
C. Kojm
Syllabus
An examination of the role of Congress in the making of American foreign policy, with a focus on recent case studies. The role of Committees, individual leadership, interaction with the Executive branch, and outside interest groups will be examined. The emphasis of the course will be on the practical: from the Congressional perspective, what strategies and activities are effective in shaping foreign policy outcomes?
528e: Domestic Policy Analysis: Leadership
N. Keohane
Syllabus
What do leaders actually do? what kinds of traits are important for successful leadership? how do followers influence the behavior of leaders? and what impact does exercising power have on your personality? We will draw from classical political theory (including Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Max Weber), current "leadership literature," biographies and memoirs of leaders, and case studies of decision-making. Among the topics are expertise and collaboration, responsibility and accountability, women and leadership, and leadership in various kinds of organizations.
528f: Information Technology and Public Policy (Also COS 598e)
E. Felten
Syllabus
Information technology plays an ever-growing role in our lives, our economy, and our government, putting pressure on existing policy arrangements and raising entirely new policy issues. This course will examine a range of infotech policy issues, including privacy, intellectual property, free speech, competition, regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications, cross-border and jurisdictional questions, broadband policy, spectrum policy, management of the Internet, computer security, education and workforce development, and research funding. Assignments will consist of weekly reading, weekly writing assignments, and a final project. This course is suitable for students without any special technical background.
535: Planning Methods
A. Haughwout
Syllabus
Introduces a set of concepts and tools that are widely used in the practice of urban and regional planning. The focus is on developing an operational understanding of the models, techniques and data used in such applications as regional economic and demographic projections, cost-benefit analysis, and land use analysis. Emphasis is also placed on the limitations of the methods.
538: Politics and Policy Making in Metropolitan Areas
J. Trounstine
Syllabus
Analyzes political life in urban areas. Considers institutional arrangements of city politics, the role played by diverse communities in governance, and the intersection of local, state, and national governments in the policy process. Specific attention is given to several issue areas: economic development, fiscal management, welfare, culture politics, and education.
542: International Economics
S. Weyerbrock
Syllabus
Survey course in international economics for non-specialists. The first half covers microeconomic topics such as trade theory and policy, multilateral trade negotiations and regional economic integration. The second half addresses macroeconomic topics such as current account imbalances, exchange rates, and international financial crises. The course stresses concepts and real-world applications rather than formal models. Prerequisite: 511b and 512b (concurrently).
543: International Trade Policy
P. Krugman
Syllabus
Evaluates arguments for and against protection and adjustment assistance and considers topics chosen from the following: nontariff barriers,dumping, embargo threats and trade warfare, and the political economy of trade policy formation. Special attention is given to trade problems of the less-developed countries, including North-South trade relations and commodity price stabilization. Prerequisite: 511c.
547: The Conduct of International Diplomacy
R. Hutchings
Syllabus
Offers a comparative look at the making and implementation of policy in the international arena. It explores key concepts and theories concerning national interest, negotiation, strategies of action and influence, crisis management and conflict resolution, and it applies those concepts via case studies and simulations in diplomacy, counter-terrorism, foreign assistance, and security policy.
556a: Topics in IR: Designing International Institutions
R. Keohane, A. Slaughter
Syllabus
This course will seek to apply the insights generated by political science research on int'l regimes to the actual design of existing and new int'l institutions. Begins with the basics of regime theory, with a particular focus on the fit between different types of cooperation and coordination problems and the type of regime established. Secondly, examines a range of formal and informal regimes, including transgovernmental networks and broader policy networks including corporate and civic actors in the global arena. Thirdly, develops normative criteria for judging the success of specific regimes. In the second half of the course we will ask individual students/groups of students to focus on actual regimes in different areas of int'l politics - the environment, human rights, trade, humanitarian intervention, etc.- and present papers on how the design of these regimes could be improved. These presentations will form the basis of final papers in the course. MPA-JD students are particularly encouraged to take the course.
556b: Topics in IR: The Atlantic Partnership & the Management of the World Order
M. Zucconi
Syllabus
Vital, irrelevant or taken for granted? Both in the US and in Europe opinions greatly diverge on the post-Cold War importance of the almost six decades old transatlantic partnership. In recent times, especially the quarrel over Iraq has raised serious questions about the enduring relevance and solidity of the partnership. The course analyzes the evolution of this partnership from a primarily security community into a condition of tightly intertwined economies and societies and of a common normative environment. It looks at the strong gravitational power exerted by the United States and Europe as the greatest force conditioning and shaping global relations in the post-Cold War era.The course also explains the reasons why, in contrast with such a capability to project rules and values, and to enlarge the "zone of peace" around themselves, the transatlantic partners continue to find it difficult to shape a new arrangement among them for dealing with failed and difficult states, and for confronting international terrorism.
556c: Topics in IR: International Strategy (Also POL580)
T. Christensen
Syllabus
Analyzes and compares national security strategies, military doctrine, alliance policies, and foreign economic policy. Examines how international structure, domestic politics, leadership psychology, etc. contribute to policy outcomes. Studies how strategies act as stabilizing or destabilizing influences in the international system. Topics include great power strategies before the two World Wars, American Cold War containment strategy, China's Cold War strategies, and factors for stability and instability since the end of the Cold War.
556d: Topics in IR: Protection Against Weapons of Mass Destruction
F. Von Hippel
Syllabus
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the only significant security threats to the U.S. and its allies have been from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Historically, the US focus has oscillated between protection via nonproliferation and disarmament agreements, and via civil and missile defense. The course assesses the threats, both approaches to protection, and linkages made between policies on WMD and perceptions of "conventional" military threats.
556e: Topics in IR: Truth & Reconciliation Commissions
C. Degregori
Syllabus
Several new democracies have attempted to address past human rights violations by forming Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs). These Commissions have attempted to gather information about the scope and types of violations that have occurred. By giving voice to experiences that had previously been silenced, there is the hope that TRCs will promote some combination of truth seeking, reconciliation, and perhaps justice. However the mandate and analysis of TRCs has varied across countries. This course will evaluate the goals of TRCs against their actual impact. Theoretical readings about TRCS (memory, truth, transitional justice, reconciliation) will be balanced against important case studies that include South Africa, Chile, Guatemala, and Peru. If adequate literature becomes available, references to Morocco, East Timor, and Sierra Leone might also be included. In analyzing TRCs, the course will also problematize the intersection of violence, inequality, race, ethnicity, gender, and citizenship - particularly in multicultural societies.
556f: Topics in IR: Democratic Legitimacy, Constitutionalism & Global Governance
A. Moravcsik, J. Mueller
Syllabus
This course is in three parts. It examines three polar positions in current normative debates on global governance (sovereigntism, liberal nationalism, and cosmopolitanism). It evaluates four strategies to strike a philosophically coherent normative balance among them (post-national constitutionalism, democratic experimentalism, Rawlsianism, and republicanism/output-legitimated republicanism). And it then assesses social science and policy analysis that bear on the realization and implementation of these normative ideals through the constitutional design of international organizations dealing with public participation, delegation, civil society, legitimation, and identity--including literature on the EU, global trade and finance institutions, and the Kyoto Protocol.
556g: Topics in IR: Promoting Democracy, Countering Terrorism in the Middle East
E. Hull
Syllabus
This course will address two of the highest priorities of the Bush Administration: how can the U.S. promote democracy in the Middle East and simultaneously how can the U.S. construct effective partnerships with Middle East governments to fight Al Qa'ida-associated terrorism aimed at American interests. The class will focus largely on the interagency process in Washington and in American embassies. Students will be expected to participate in practical exercises simulating the policymaking and implementation process. Selected students may travel to Washington to participate in a similar exercise at the National Defense University. Students will be expected to write short practical policy papers -- e.g. briefing memos, talking points, press guidances, cables -- with realistic formats and constraints. The material will focus particularly on Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Yemen.
562b: Economic Analysis of Development: Basic
C. Paxson
Syllabus
Introduction to the processes of economic growth and development. The course examines various theories of development; poverty and inequality measurement; and the role of markets for credit, labor and land, as well as education and health, in development. The role of public policy will be considered within each of these topics. The course may also cover topics such as foreign aid, commodity pricing, and tax policy. Prerequisite: 511b. (WWS 512b can be taken concurrently.)
562c: Economic Analysis of Development: Advanced
A. Case
Syllabus
This course considers theories and evidence to explain processes of economic development. The course examines theories of economic growth, and the two-way links between development and poverty, inequality, social institutions, and the family. We will also examine policy debates on education, health, and social policy, and governmental and international aid. Prerequisite: 511c.
565: State, Society and Development (Also POL527)
L. White
Syllabus
Explores the relation of development to regime types, authority, culture, and social integration. The syllabus includes recent sources, as well as long-standing texts in social theory by such authors as Madison, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Polanyi, Schattschneider, Huntington, Geertz, W.A. Lewis, and Hirschman.
582b: Topics in Econ: Environmental & Natural Resource Economics
S. Brunnermeier
Syllabus
This course introduces the use of economics in thinking about environmental and natural resource issues. It explores the concepts of market and policy failure, property rights, social cost-benefit analysis and sustainable development, and applies these concepts to problems related to local and transboundary pollution, natural resource management, sustainable development, population policy, and trade and the environment.
584: The Use of Science in Environmental Policy
D. Mauzerall
Syllabus
This course is designed to improve students' skill, confidence and judgment in use of science in policy applications. Using case studies, real-world examples, and in-class exercises, the emphasis is on preparing both non-scientists and scientists to use, understand, and critique science in environmental policy applications. Exercises and exams are scaled to the student's background.
586a: Topics in STEP: Biotechnology Policy (Also MOL586a)
L. Silver
Syllabus
This course provides in-depth analysis of selected topics in biotechnology that are currently the focus of intense debate in the public and policy arenas. Topics include genetic modification of plants and animals, genetic testing in human populations, stem cells, cloning, and advanced reproductive technologies. Each topic is examined from the perspective of potential commercial applications, risk/benefit analysis, impact on individuals and society, the viewpoints of supporters and detractors, and the political response in the U.S. and other countries. Open to UG students with instructor's permission.
586b: Topics in STEP: Conservation of Endangered Species and Ecosystems (Also EEB516)
D. Wilcove
Syllabus
This course examines the ways in which science has influenced public policy with respect to both endangered species and ecosystems. Important case studies from different regions of the United States are examined in detail, emphasizing the key scientific studies and how they affected decision-making. Topics include the northern spotted owl and the Clinton Administration's Northwest forest plan, the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park, and the conservation of endangered species on private lands.
586e: Topics in STEP: Risk Policy and Regulation
A. Finkel
Syllabus
Federal and state government, and the U.S. public, are increasingly turning to quantitative risk assessment (QRA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to help set standards and make research decisions affecting health, safety, and environmental protection. However, the supply of high-quality risk and cost-benefit analyses is falling behind the demand for them, and failing to keep up with the explosion in knowledge about gene-environment interactions. This course prepares students to critically evaluate risk and cost-benefit analyses against cutting-edge information about their validity, in order to help make environmental decisions that are responsive to science, economics, and public values. Students will analyze recent and pending decisions by EPA, OSHA, and other agencies, to explore how analysis has informed or obscured important controversies. We also discuss the art of crafting cost-effective controls, considering both traditional rulemaking and innovative proposals for new policy instruments. ( Prerequisite: 511c)
594b: Policy Analysis: Nuclear No Korea & the US Policy Response (Session II)
C. Chyba
Syllabus
This course briefly situates the current negotiations over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) nuclear weapons program in the context of the past half century, and provides a technical understanding, at a level accessible to the non-scientist, of the DPRK's plutonium and putative uranium nuclear weapons programs. Plausible future trajectories for these programs are also discussed. The policy responses of the Clinton and Bush administrations to the DPRK program and negotiating approach will be examined, in addition to those of the Republic of Korea (ROK), China, Japan, and Russia. The class will examine a range of possible future options, from bilateral and multilateral negotiation to military action to U.S. withdrawal and encouragement of ROK and Japanese independent nuclear deterrents. Students will each write a paper analyzing one of these options. Depending on class size, we will break into two to four groups, modeled after President Eisenhower's "solarium project" approach to devising a Cold War strategy, to present and critique the various approaches in a mock National Security Council Principals meeting.
594c: Policy Analysis: Military Force Planning & Decision Making (Session I)
M. Meese
Syllabus
This course introduces important issues of conventional force planning and military decision making. It includes discussion of service cultures, doctrines, capabilities, and limitations. The course broadly covers strategy, planning, readiness, force projection, employment, and logistics throughout the spectrum of conflict, including conventional war, the global war on terrorism and peacekeeping operations. Through theoretical and doctrinal readings and examination of selected case studies, the course provides background essential for those involved in the study and practice of national security decision making.
594d: Policy Analysis: Family Law and Social Policy (Session II)
E. Donahue
Syllabus
A Future of Children seminar. This course will cover the different ways that children's policy is affected--through research and evaluation, advocacy, law--and will be offered in conjunction with The Future of Children (FOC) journal. A leading publication on children's policy, the journal is produced by the Woodrow Wilson School in partnership with the Brookings Institution. As part of the course, students will focus on a particular area of children's policy and actively participate in a Future of Children conference on that issue. Possible topics include social mobility, marriage and family formation, childhood obesity and child welfare.
594e: Policy Analysis: International Migration and Public Policy (Session I)
D. Massey
Syllabus
This course examines the theoretical models put forth to account for international migration, reviews the empirical evidence on hypotheses derived from these theories in different world regions, develops a synthetic framework for understanding immigration in the contemporary world, and uses this framework to analyze immigration policies in the United States and other migrant-receiving nations.
594f: Policy Analysis: Immigration, Ethnicity and Public Policy (Session II)
A. Portes
Syllabus
This course examines recent theories and research on the process of immigrant adaptation, the uses of immigrant workers in the receiving labor markets, and the challenges faced by the second generation as it seeks to integrate successfully. We will devote primary attention to the experience of immigrants in the United States, especially in the contemporary period. European case studies and literature will be brought to bear for comparative purposes at selected points in the course. Students will be responsible for a class presentation and a term paper. The course will be based on a combination of lectures and seminar-type discussion.
594g: Policy Analysis: Why Does Religion Promote Cooperation, Altruism, Conflict & War (Session I)
D. Johnson
Syllabus
Religion is and always has been a central component of motivations and justifications for conflict across the globe. On the other hand, religion is and always has been an unparralleled promoter of unity, charity and cooperation. Even in our scientific age, religion continues to pervade politics and foreign policy in the United States as much as anywhere else. This course will examine recent research on the psychology and social dynamics of religion, which sheds new light on how and why religion can promote the contradictory outcomes of cooperation, altruism, conflict and war. We will read from theoretical literature and case studies, and integrate these to ask how religion can be better channelled to achieve conflict resolution.
594h: Policy Analysis: Healthcare in Developing Countries (Session II)
V. Gauri
Syllabus
This course examines the process of formulating health policies in developing countries by looking at both theory and practical experience. Topics include: the health sector reform process and implementation, the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development plan of action and its implementation, and the experience of setting policies for specific health issues. Case studies from several developing countries highlighting their experience in implementing various health policies will be presented.
594i: Policy Analysis: Public Health and Public Policy (Session I)
E. Armstrong
Syllabus
The philosophy, practice and politics of public health in the U.S. Considers the principles of epidemiology and social, political and institutional forces that shape public health policy; the determinants of health; government's role in minimizing risks and maximizing well-being; major organizational structures responsible for monitoring, protecting and promoting public health. Topics include environmental and occupational health; emerging infections; food safety; violence; tobacco control; immunization policy and promoting healthy living.
594j: Policy Analysis: Domestic Policy Analysis Using GIS (Session II)
J. Seley
Syllabus
This course is designed as a practical introduction to the use of computer mapping (Geographic Information systems) for policy analysis and decision-making. Students learn MapInfo through examples of map applications. Students are expected to complete exercises and a final project applying GIS to a policy issue.
594k: Policy Analysis: The Development Challenge of HIV/AIDS (Session I)
K. Hansen
Syllabus
Analyzes the HIV/AIDS pandemic as both a cause and consequence of particular development patterns in Africa.
594l: Policy Analysis: Reforming International Financial Institutions (Session II)
P. Kenen
Syllabus
The tasks, governance, financial structure, and actual activities of the two main multilateral institutions: the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. Evaluating their performance and proposals for reform, including those made by their own internal evaluation units. Assessing the potential benefits and costs of granting debt relief to the heavily indebted clients of the Fund and Bank. Attention will also be paid to the work of informal bodies, such as the Group of 7, concerned with the oversight of the Fund and Bank and with the management of international monetary and financial problems. Readings will include selections from Fund and Bank documents and from the writings of outsiders, including leading critics of the institutions.
594m: Mental Health (Session I)
B. Singer
Syllabus
International comparative and historical overview of concepts of mental illness and well-being. Evolution of diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses. History of psychiatry and psychoanalysis and the influence of neuroscience on them. Neurobiology of depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and narcotics addiction. Public perceptions of mental illness and their implications for policies pertaining to treatment and prevention programs: cross-national comparisons. Recent discoveries about neurogenesis and their implications for positive mental health and the future of psychiatry. Pharmacological interventions and the tensions between the pharmaceutical industry, the public interest, and government regulation.
594n: Policy Analysis: Globalization & Infectious Disease (Session II)
B. Singer
Syllabus
The purpose of this course is to investigate the interrelationships between macro-level political, social, and economic forces and the health of populations. The British and French colonial experiences in Asia and Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries and their implications for human health: case studies of South Africa, the Colonial Malay States, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Evolutionary origins of bacteria, viruses, and parasites and the influence of ecosystem transformations on the transmission of tuberculosis, malaria, yellow fever, syphillus, gonorrhea, HIV, and a diversity of other infectious diseases. The 1918 influenza pandemic and its lessons for health and social policies today. The impact of contemporary multi-national corporations on the health of local populations. Case studies in Chad, Brazil, Russia, and Tanzania. Tradeoffs and conflicts between disease-specific campaigns and systemic support of health systems.
594o: Election Strategies: How to Win Elections (Session I)
M. Edwards
Syllabus
The most important decisions of American democracy--whether to go to war, how much each citizen will be taxed, the extent to which government will regulate private behavior, who will sit on the Supreme Court, how much support the government will provide to its neediest citizens--have one thing in common: all of those decisions will be made, ultimately, by those relatively few men and women who have and been elected to public office. Policy analysts and advisors play an important role in shaping the public debate, but in the end, it is those whom the voters have selected who will decide.This is a course for those who want to win one of those important decision-making positions, or who want to learn how to elect others who share their perspectives and their priorities. It is an applied course with the simple goal of teaching students how to conduct winning campaigns for public office. Students will study real campaigns and discuss (sometimes heatedly) the ethics of campaign fundraising, negative advertising, etc., but most of the course will be concerned with learning the fundamentals of raising money, organizing precincts, framing campaign messages, getting voters to the polls, etc. The course will be taught by an experienced practitioner who used these techniques in eight successful Congressional campaigns.
Mickey Edwards served as a Member of Congress from the 5th district of Oklahoma from 1976 to 1992.
594p: Applied Statistical Decision Theory (Session II)
Adam Finkel
Syllabus
This course will focus on three aspects of decision making under uncertainty: 1. techniques to quantify uncertainty using Bayesian methods for discrete and continuous prior distributions; 2. techniques to combine uncertainties from multiple sources using Monte Carlo simulation; and 3. methods for estimating the value of new information. These subjects will be discussed primarily in the context of their use, nonuse and misuse by federal and international institutions that use cost-benefit analysis to regulate risks to health, safety, the environment and welfare. Examples will include both prospective analyses and retrospective program evaluation of interventions.
598: Epidemiology (Also POP508)
D. Fisman
Syllabus
Areas of focus include measurement of health status, illness occurrence, mortality and impact of associated risk factors; techniques for design, analysis and interpretation of epidemiologic research studies; sources of bias and confounding; and causal inference. Also includes foundations of modern epidemiology, the epidemiologic transition, reemergence of infectious disease, social inequalities in health, and ethical issues. Examines the bridging of "individual-centered" epidemiology and "macro-epidemiology" to recognize social, economic and cultural context, assess impacts on populations, and provides important inputs for public health and health policy. Prerequisite: 507b/c or advanced statistics.
750: Work Study: Domestic
B. Canes-Wrone
Syllabus
Opportunities to integrate formal education with professional practice by working for a public affairs organization. Under the supervision of an official of the organization, the student normally devotes about one day per week to a specific work assignment, assisting in the development of public policy, or in running a government agency. A study component includes 4 to 5 class meetings during the semester and preparation of a research paper under the supervision of the work-study instructor. (Spring term only.)
751: Work Study: International
J. Londregan
Syllabus
Opportunities to integrate formal education with professional practice by working for a public affairs organization. Under the supervision of an official of the organization, the student normally devotes about one day per week to a specific work assignment, assisting in the development of public policy, or in running a government agency. A study component includes 4 to 5 class meetings during the semester and preparation of a research paper under the supervision of the work-study instructor. (Spring term only.)