Best Graduate Programs in Public Policy Analysis - Updated 2021

Field III emphasizes the students.S. domestic policy, with the American political system as the backdrop. Field IV stresses both the analysis of economic problems that prompt public policy decisions and the study of the economic effects of various policies.

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) offer a joint degree program in public policy and urban planning. The joint degree program permits students to pursue a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree at HKS and a Master in Urban Planning (MUP) degree at the GSD and to complete both degrees in three years, rather than the four years that would be required if the two degrees were pursued independently. Students in the joint degree program must complete all of the basic requirements for both the MPP and MUP degrees.

The two-year MPP is a professional degree program designed to develop leaders who put evidence first. In course work, students will build critical thinking and analytical skills in the core curriculum that teach them to make data-driven decisions now and throughout their career. Through applied experiences in Chicago and beyond, students will meet face-to-face with professionals in the field to analyze urgent policy problems and design solutions that work, using the latest science and technology.

The Columbia School of Social Work’s Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program has produced many of the world’s most influential leaders in social work and social welfare scholarship since its inception in 1950. The program is offered by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and administered by the School of Social Work. It prepares candidates for careers as researchers, scholars and educators.

The coterminal M.A. in Public Policy is a degree program designed to impart the basic analytical tools of public policy analysis, or to permit Public Policy majors to specialize in an applied field of policy analysis. Most students complete their M.A. in a fifth year at Stanford; occasionally, students may be able to complete both their B.A. and coterminal M.A. in the fourth year.

This course applies microeconomic theory to analysis of public policy. It builds from the microeconomic model of consumer behavior and extends to operation of single and multiple markets and analysis of why markets sometimes fail. We will study empirical examples to evaluate theory, focusing on the casual effects of policy interventions on economic outcomes. Topics include minimum wages and employment, food stamps and consumer welfare, economics of risk and safety regulation, the value of education, and gains from international trade.

The Ph.D. in Public Policy is an interdisciplinary social science degree. Graduates of the program are prepared for academic positions in public policy, public administration, policy-oriented schools, social science departments, and for professional positions in domestic and international public agencies and research organizations. The program aims to matriculate 6-8 students per year, enabling each student to receive individual faculty attention in courses and in research.

The Master of Science in Social Policy (MSSP) is a rigorous, eleven-month, ten-course program that prepares professionals with knowledge and skills to use policy to increase equity, promote justice, and forge social change. In a world experiencing seismic political economic shifts, we are in need of socially-minded and justice-oriented policy professionals able to instill effective, positive change. Policymakers are currently grappling with the dominance of a gaze toward markets for addressing social inequalities and inequities; increasing economic inequality due to the accumulation and movement of global capital; the intensifying rigidity of migration across borders and manufactured fears of those bodies across the border; the continued practices of extraction that is most consequential to natural ecologies, indigenous communities, and the racialized other; growing racial, ethnic, and religious tensions; rapidly shifting social lives due to emergent visual technologies of surveillance; increasing precarity of labor due to automation; and the uncertain shaping of social futures as a result of a global pandemic.

The MSPH program in Health Policy combines academic coursework in health policy at a world-class institution with nine months of professional health policy work experience. The proximity of Johns Hopkins to our nation's capital and the engagement of our faculty in Washington make the program ideal for those interested in pursuing careers in health policy.

Northwestern’s MPPA curriculum offers a unique and comprehensive opportunity to delve into both the administrative and analytical sides of policy. This holistic approach is grounded in the perspective that policy challenges are fluid, interconnected, and global. This perspective gives graduates the tools needed to rise in the field and drive change at the local, national, and international levels.