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Introductory Courses

Please review the prerequisites for the public policy minor.

PBPL 5 / GOVT 25: Introduction to Public Policy (Gateway Course in Public Policy)

This course is designed as the gateway offering for students beginning to pursue a minor in public policy through the Rockefeller Center. The term will be divided into four main components:

  • The nature of public policy: What is public policy, who makes it, and why study it?
  • Making public policy: The process, structure, and context of policymaking
  • The policy players: Institutional and non-institutional actors
  • The policy game: Rules, strategies, culture, and resources

In the concluding section of the course, we will be pursuing specific policy domains—environmental policy, education policy, health care policy, welfare policy, immigration policy, and defense policy. QDS: Soc; WCult: W.

PBPL 10: Statistical Analysis for Public Policy

This class is a prerequisite option for the public policy minor. One course in quantitative and statistical methods is required for the minor. Other options for this prerequisite include ECON 10, GOVT 10, MATH 10, PSYCH 10, SOCY 10, QSS 15, GEOG 11, GEOG 50, SOCY 11, EDUC 11.

Public policy analysis involves quantitative methods and statistical methods in particular. PBPL 10 introduces students to basic statistical techniques and to a statistical software package, STATA or R, with a heavy emphasis on application, from the initial stages of data exploration to presentation of results. Coursework will involve "real world" policies and problems and will utilize existing datasets from the public policy sphere. The course will also consider research design and the ethics of quantitative policy research. Because of the large overlap in material covered, students may not receive credit for more than one of the following courses: Public Policy 10, Economics 10, Government 10, Mathematics 10, Psychology 10, Quantitative Social Sciences 15, or Sociology 10 except by special petition. Dist: QDS.