Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

Courses are taught by multiple instructors and may not be offered each semester. The syllabi listed below are just one sample. Check the faculty pages for more specific syllabi.

34:833:510. Public Policy Formation (3)
Formulation and implementation of public policy, with emphasis on federal policy making, models for policy choice, and intergovernmental policy problems. Analysis of the formulation and implementation of a governmental program. Syllabus

34:833:520. Legislative Policy Making (3)
Exploration of legislatures as political institutions responsible for policy making in the American states. Consideration of the role of legislators, lobbyists, governors, and the media. Syllabus

34:833:521. Mass Media, Public Opinion, and Public Policy (3)
Role and impact of the mass media, the nature and expression of public opinion, and how these feed into the development and implementation of public policy in the American political system. Syllabus

34:833:522. Public Policy Advocacy (3)
Role and process of organized advocacy by private interests in the formation and implementation of public policy. Strategies and methods used to influence the policy process. Syllabus

34:833:524. Ethics in Public Policy (3)
Examines issues in the ethics of policy professionals, focusing on the normative and conceptual aspects of problems that arise for individuals and institutions within a constitutional democracy. Syllabus

34:833:525. Decision Making for Public Policy (3)
Changes in policy making over the last several decades. Examples include the environment, welfare reform, law enforcement, and health care. The budget as a policy making “engine” at both the federal and state levels. Syllabus

34:833:530. Policy Methods I (4)

Scientific method of study, the processes of conceptualization and measurement, and “experimental design,” or how social programs are structured so they may be effectively studied. Syllabus

34:833: 540. State and Local Public Finance (3)
Theory and practice of state-local public finance; link between regional economy and subnational governments; fiscal federalism; major state-local spending programs; revenues, including property, sales, and income taxes and gambling; intergovernmental grants. Syllabus

34:833:543. Economics and Public Policy (3)
Basic microeconomic analysis with applications to current policy issues. Models of consumer and firm behavior applied to issues such as assistance programs for low-income individuals, tax incentives for firms and workers, and environmental regulation. Public goods, externalities, and the role of government in economic markets. Syllabus

34:833:550. Education Policy and Policy Making: The Federal and State Levels (3)
Development, implementation, and effects of federal and state education policy; key policy issues as cases for the exploration of political, policy design, and implementation issues. Syllabus

34:833:551. Issues in Education Finance (3)
Legal, political, economic, and equity issues in public school finance. Topics include sources of revenue, school finance formulas, the allocation of education resources, the equity and adequacy of school finance systems, school finance litigation, and the politics of school finance reform.

34:833:555. Labor Market Policy (3)
Examination of labor markets and policies. Topics include wage inequality, discrimination, unions, and employment and training programs. Syllabus

34:833:565. Politics and Regulation (3)
Studies the role that executives, legislators, bureaucrats, courts, and others play in policies for regulating the environment, privacy, worker safety, and other areas. Syllabus

34:833:567. Budget Analysis (3)
Using cases and current financial statements, students will learn to prepare budgets and basic financial statements, analyze financial reports and performance, and advise on potential to achieve organizational goals. The course is not an in-depth study of accounting principles, but rather will prepare students to read and understand information available in standard accounting format with sufficient confidence to make informed decisions. This course is taught once a year by a practitioner.

34:833:570. Management of Nonprofit Organizations (3)
Applies management concepts to nonprofit organizations, emphasizing the challenges faced by managers under resource scarcity and uncertain boundaries among public, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors. Syllabus

34:833:571. Public Management (3)
Fundamental tasks and responsibilities of management in the public sector, with an emphasis on the external and internal environments in which managers implement public policy. Syllabus

34:833:572. Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (3)
Nonadversarial concepts and techniques of conflict resolution—negotiation, mediation, consensus-building dialogues—considered in public contexts, from courts, prisons, and schools to other institutional and noninstitutional settings. Issues include controversial subjects such as siting resource recovery plants, implementing economic redevelopment plans, enacting environmental protection measures, and devising grievance mechanisms. Syllabus

34:833:580. Health Care Policy (3)
Current issues in U.S. health care policy with in-depth cases examples from New Jersey policy. Provides an overview of the financing, regulation and delivery of health care in the US, with discussion of current policy topics including health insurance coverage, quality of care, and racial/ethnic disparities in care. Syllabus

34:833:585. American Social Policy (3)
Focuses on the development of social welfare politics in the United States . Places the American case within the larger international and historical context, explores the major dilemmas in contemporary social policy making including agenda setting, institutional choice, and implementation design. Examines dilemmas in greater depth by analyzing specific policy issues, such as child support enforcement, nutrition programs, and medical care. Syllabus

34:833:591. Gender, the Family, and Public Policy (3)
Examines the welfare state through the lens of gender. Two additional electives provide additional depth of coverage according to the student's interest. Syllabus

34:833:610. Macroeconomics and Public Policy. (3)

This course examines the relationship between public policy and macroeconomic conditions. The goal is to achieve a sophisticated understanding of economic indicators, how they are measured, their interpretation, and their integration into the theoretical model of the macro economy. Syllabus

34:833:619. Environmental Economics and Public Policy (3)

This course provides an economic understanding of environmental deterioration and protection, the effects of environmental deterioration and protection on the performance of the economy, including efficiency and equity outcomes, and evaluates the efficacy and equity of alternative public policies to improve environmental quality. Syllabus

34:833:628. Advanced Qualitative Methods (3)
Students apply techniques of qualitative research, including interviewing, ethnography, and phenomenology to help them gain an understanding of which techniques are appropriate for what specific research needs. Syllabus

34:833:630. Policy Methods II (3)

Prerequisites: 34:833:530 or a basic social science statistics course and instructor's consent. Mastery of statistical techniques employed to analyze public policy programs and problems, including simple and general linear regression modeling, use of intercept-dummy variables and interaction variables, linear probability model and the probit model of discrete choice, and simultaneous equation models. Syllabus

34:833:632. Cost Benefit Analysis (3)
Students are taught to conceptualize the costs and benefits of public policy decisions and to effectively critique professional cost-benefit analyses. Emphasis is on: cost and benefit identification, discounting, dealing with uncertainty, valuing health and human life and comparisons with cost-effectiveness analysis. The course is applied and uses didactic and case studies to evaluate cost benefit analysis and show how these analyses inform policy decisions. Syllabus

34:833:635. Survey Research (3)
How to conduct, analyze, and evaluate surveys. Topics covered include problem formation, sample design and selection, questionnaire wording and layout, modes of survey administration, field procedures, data reduction, and data analysis. Syllabus

34:833:640. Policy Practicum II (3)

Policy Research SeminarPracticum II (3) Participation in a directed, client-focused research project that applies analytical techniques of policy analysis and evaluation or survey research to public policy problems.

34:833:670. Independent Study in Public Policy (3)

34:833:671. Internship in Public Policy (3)

34:833:672. Independent Study: Policy Practicum I (3)

Participation in a directed, client-focused research project that applies analytical techniques of policy analysis to public policy problems.

34:833:673. Applied Field Experience (6)
Designed specifically for and required of students enrolled in the two-year (M.P.P.) degree program; allows students to gain practical experience in a public policy setting and relate it to an academic perspective. Students work in a professional setting for approximately 20 hours per week for 14 weeks and complete writing assignments synthesizing their experience within an academic framework under the regular supervision of the faculty member in charge.

34:833:681. Managing People and Organizations (3)
This course explores the various aspects of managing and interacting with people. It reviews psychological theories as well as the more applied management literature to enhance students’ understanding of the effects of their actions and prepare them to be more effective managers of interpersonal relationships. Syllabus

34:833:683. Law and Public Policy (3)
This course critically examines the role of courts, primarily the United States Supreme Court, in the public policy process. Students study important principles, doctrines, and processes that influence judicial policy making. Readings will be drawn from legal decisions, and normative and empirical secondary literature. Syllabus

34:833:682. Planning, Policy and Race (3)
This course explores the dynamics of race, planning and public policy in America dating from the growth of urban communities. The readings and discussions will focus on theoretical and applied conceptions of planning and public policy (as disciplines) and how these conceptions explain unequal spatial patterns and public policy. Syllabus

34:833:685. Environmental Conflict and Cooperation (3)

This course will explore the nature of conflicts over environmental problems and approaches to cooperation. It probes cases ranging from climate change to remediation of Department of Energy facilities and uses a variety of perspectives: organizational, historical, communication, and policy.

34:833:687. Finance (3)
This course introduces students to corporate and real estate finance. Corporate finance topics will include the concept of risk and return, capital structure analysis (including short and long term financing), and the cost of capital. Real estate finance topics will include project evaluation, development budgets, financing strategies, valuations, and capital markets issues. The course will include both lecture and case methods. Examples will be drawn from both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. This course is taught once a year by a practitioner. Syllabus