Policy Analysis (API-505m)Harvard Kennedy School

Profs. Mary Jo Bane, Jack Donahue, and Dan LevyHarvard University

Policy Analysis (API-505m)

Harvard Kennedy School

Course Syllabus[1]

Third Module Period, Spring 2013

Final Version

course overview

This module—open to first-year and second-year MPPs only—gives students training and practice in the skills of applied policy analysis. It will equip them to define problems systematically, and to select and apply analytical tools, in the service of better policy decisions. Put differently, and more briefly, it aims to inculcate the characteristic MPP habit of mind. Two related conceptual themes underpin the course. The first is the architecture of strategic alignment among mission, capacity, and support. The second is the structured identification and processing of options, generally in the absence of perfect or complete information. These two themes provide the conceptual structure into which many specific analytic tools can be slotted, as the challenges of a particular policy arena require.

The module features a mix of case discussions, short lectures, and electronic tutorials accessed outside of class time. In addition, students—working both individually and in groups—will apply the tools of policy analysis to real-world, real-time policy issues of their choosing.

class meetings

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:40– 4:00, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer Building)

Contact Information

Faculty / Office / Email
Mary Jo Bane / Belfer 122 /
Jack Donahue / Littauer 106 /
Dan Levy / Littauer 115 /
Course Assistant / Email
Lara Rosner /
Faculty Assistants[2] / Office / Email
Klara Kabadian (for Bane) / Belfer 117D /
Tamara Tiska (for Donahue) / Littauer 302 /
Mae Klinger (for Levy) / Littauer 107B /

target students:

This course is designed for both first and second year studentsin the MPP program. It will aim to integrate, both prospectively and retrospectively, what students learn in the core courses in the MPP program. The ultimate aim is to provide a broad framework that can facilitate integration of the different disciplines taught in the core in the interest of effectively addressing public policy problems.

prerequisites:

Significant interest in policy issues, positive attitude toward an analytic approach to policy issues, an inquiring mind, and willingness to work hard under tight deadlines.

grading:

The class grade will be based on the following criteria:

40% - Assignments

30% - Class participation and engagement

30% - Final Exercise

Assignments (40%)

There will be 4 assignments in this course. Assignments 1 and 3 will build towards the final exercise. Assignments 2 and 4 will give you practice with the tools and skills we expect you to develop in the course.

Under the Kennedy School Academic Code, all assignments except #3 are “Type II” assignments. You are encouraged to work in a study group, but your submitted assignments must be reflective of your own work. The Kennedy School Academic Code is available at:

Assignment Due Dates

Assignment / Due Date
Assignment 1 / Tuesday, Feb 5 at 9:00 am
Assignment 2
2A - Draft memo / Tuesday, Feb 12 at 9:00 am
2B - Final Memo / Tuesday, Feb 19 at 9:00 am
Assignment 3 / Friday, Feb 15, at 5:00 pm[3]
Assignment 4 / Tuesday, Feb 26, at 9:00 am

IMPORTANT: Assignments not received by the deadline will be considered late. There will be no credit for late assignments.

Instructions for submitting assignments:

  • Submit them electronically through the course website
  • Indicate on cover page the names of the classmates you worked with.

Class participation and engagement (30%)

We strongly believe that your participation and engagement during class is a critical component of the learning experience for both the students and the instructors. In this spirit, class participation is strongly encouraged. Effective class participation requires that you read the assigned readings before coming to class. You are encouraged to ask questions and to share with the class any relevant insights you may have from your work experience or from previous exposure to these topics. We only ask that the questions and comments be brief and related to the topic at hand. In the interest of managing time effectively, we will sometimes need to defer questions for a future class or office hours.

For 6of the classes (see last page of syllabus for details), we will ask that you post on the class website comments or answers to some questions related to these classes. These postings are about the assigned reading(s) or case and are due by 4:00 AM the morning of class. Comments should be posted on the class website and we encourage you to build on one another’s comments. You are expected to post comments for at least 5 of the 6 classes.

The class participation and engagement grade will depend on three things: (1) your participation in class, (2) your engagement with the course outside class, and (3) your postings on the course website. For all of these, both quantity and quality will count.

Final Exercise (30%)

The final exercise will require applying the frameworks and tools learned in class to tackle a real world policy problem. It is due on March 7th at 9:00 AM. Assignments #1 and #3 will help you move forward with the final exercise. We will assign you to a team during the second week of classes. During one of the last two classes, your team will be asked to present your final exercise, and this presentation will form part of your final exercise grade. More details will be provided later in the course.

Letter Grades

Grades for each exam and for each component of the course will be standardized (i.e. curved) and then an overall score for the course will be calculated for each student. This overall score will be translated into a final course letter grade using the Dean’s Recommended Grade Distribution (available at

Course Materials:

Required:

  • Textbook:A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to more effective problem solving” by Eugene Bardach, Fourth Edition, 2012.
  • Readings: A course packet with required readings that are not available electronicallyshould be purchased at CMO.The rest of the required readings are available on the course website, and as a second CMO course packet (optional, for those who want to have all the readings printed).

Optional:

We are aware that this module’s exercises, case studies, policy-analysis projects and other central requirements involve a fair amount of work. For this reason we have tried to keep to a bare minimum the number and length of mandatory readings. Required readings are limited to the Bardach book, the cases, and several short texts or excerpts from longer ones. There are a few other readings, however, that we consider particularly useful for reinforcing the themes of API-505m. While we do not hold you responsible for the content of these readings we expect you will find them valuable for deepening your understanding of policy analysis if you are able to read them either during or after the module. Several copies of the optional books (in paperback where possible) are available on the API-505m shelf at the Coop.

  • Stokey and Zeckhauser, A Primer for Policy Analysis, written by two Kennedy School luminaries, and the foundation for much subsequent work in the field of policy analysis. A copy of this book will be available at CMO as an additional (optional) course packet.
  • Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow.Just about every MPP would benefit from reading this book at some point. If you have already read it, Kahneman’s “slow thinking” is an excellent shorthand term for policy analysis. If you haven’t read it, and have a little time during the module to sample the book, Chapter 1 gives you the basic concepts and terminology, and Chapter 29 (with its clear explanation of the difference between expected outcomes and expected utility) provides a valuable supplement to other material on decision analysis.
  • We recommend two fine supplements to the main reading on collecting and using evidence, Part II of the Bardach book. These are Nate Silver, The Signal and the Noise, Chapter 8, “Less and Less Wrong” and Harry G. Frankfurter, On Bullshit, pages 48-67. (The page count for the Frankfurter book is somewhat misleading. The book, published by Princeton University Press in 2005, is a slight expansion published in very small format of an earlier Atlantic Monthly piece. The suggested excerpt will take less than an hour, even read slowly and with care.)
  • Christopher Robert and Richard J. Zeckhauser, “The Methodology of Normative Policy Analysis,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management Volume 30, No. 3, 2011 Both of this article’s authors have contributed to the development of API-505m, and we consider this especially valuable as background for the King County case on climate change. It is too long and subtle to require it, but we recommend it with enthusiasm.
  • We wouldn’t dare to require a book by even the world’s most eminent student of myrmecology (the study of ants.) But E. O. Wilson’s Consilience is an amazingly ambitious book about intellectual integration, and thus speaks to the mindset required for cross-disciplinary analysis in general and policy analysis in particular. We especially recommend Chapter 1 (“The Great Branches of Learning”) and Chapter 9 (“The Social Sciences”).

REQUIRED READINGS

Cases (see next page for details)

Dixit and Nalebuff, The Art of Strategy, Chapter 1, "Ten Tales of Strategy"

Donahue, The Privatization Decision (Basic, 1991), Chapter 3, “Organizational Form and Function”

Gupta, Analyzing Public Policy, Concepts, Tools and Techniques, 2nd Edition, Chapter 14,"Choosing the Best Alternative: Cost-Benefit Analysis"

Grindle and Thomas, Public Choices and Policy Change: The Political Economy of Reform in Developing Countries (Johns Hopkins Press, 1991), Chapter 6, “Implementing Reform: Arenas, Stakes, and Resources"

Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa, Smart Choices, Chapter 6, "Tradeoffs"

Herman B. Leonard, “A Short Note on Public Sector Strategy-Building,” May 2002

Stokey and Zeckhauser, A Primer for Policy Analysis, Chapter 12, "Decision Analysis"*

Weimer and Vining, Policy Analysis, 5th Edition, Taxing Alcohol to Save Lives (pp. 411-423)*

*: In the CMO course packet. The rest of the readings are available on the course website.

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Policy Analysis (API-505m)Harvard Kennedy School

Profs. Mary Jo Bane, Jack Donahue, and Dan LevyHarvard University

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Day / Date / Session / Frameworks / Tools / Assignment* / Assigned Reading
Tuesday / 29-Jan-13 / 1 / Introduction to Frameworks
Thursday / 31-Jan-13 / 2 / Strategic Alignment and Bardach Policy Analysis Frameworks / WP / Leonard (2002); Bardach (2012)- Introduction
Tuesday / 5-Feb-13 / 3 / Students work on projects / Assignment #1 (Policy Goal - Individual Projects) / Bardach (2012)-Part I (pages 1-70)
Thursday / 7-Feb-13 / 4 / Use of Evidence; Cost-Effectiveness / WP / WIC case; Gupta (2011); Weimer and Vining (2011)
Tuesday / 12-Feb-13 / 5 / Strategic Alignment; Political Stakeholder Analysis / Assignment #2A (draft memo WIC) / TBA
Thursday / 14-Feb-13 / 6 / Generating alternatives; Making Tradeoffs / WP / Oprah case; Bardach (2012) - Part II (pages 79-107)
Friday / 15-Feb-13 / - / - / Assignment #3 (Group Project) / -
Tuesday / 19-Feb-13 / 7 / Decision-making under Uncertainty; Making Tradeoffs / Assignment #2B (final memo WIC) / Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2002); Online Module Decision Analysis
Thursday / 21-Feb-13 / 8 / Agency Theory; Contracting / WP / Verma case; Donahue (1991)
Tuesday / 26-Feb-13 / 9 / Game Theory; Making Tradeoffs; Sensitivity Analysis / Assignment #4 (Uncertainty) / Dixit and Nalebuff (2008)
Thursday / 28-Feb-13 / 10 / Cost-Benefit Analysis; time preferences; Political Analysis / WP / King County case; Grindle and Thomas (1991)
Tuesday / 5-Mar-13 / 11 / TBA / WP / TBA Case
Thursday / 7-Mar-13 / 12 / Student Presentations / Final Exercise / --
Tuesday / 12-Mar-13 / 13 / Student Presentations / --

*: WP = Web posting; due at 4:00 AM. Assignments 1, 2 and 4 are due at 9:00 AM. Assignment #3 is due on Friday, Feb 15, at 5:00 PM. Final Exercise is due at 9:00 AM.

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[1] In addition to the three actual instructors of the inaugural iteration of this module, Suzanne Cooper, Deb Isaacson, and Chris Robert have also been full partners in its development. A range of other faculty—especially José Antonio Gomez-Ibañez, Mark Moore, Jeffrey Seglin, Julie Wilson, and Richard J. Zeckhauser—have made important contributions to aspects of the module.

[2] For general administrative questions about the course, please contact Mae Klinger. For matters related to a specific faculty member, please contact the relevant faculty assistant.

[3]Notice this is due on a Friday, at 5:00 PM, and before assignment 2B is due.