Professional Development/Internship Requ

PD/Internship Requirement

• 0 points

Excel Fundamentals

This introductory course surveys fundamental Microsoft Excel concepts and functionality applicable to SIPA courses and in professional settings. Topics include understanding references and functions, writing formulas, interacting with spreadsheets, building basic models, controlling formatting and presentation and creating basic charts. The course is targeted at students with limited or no prior Excel experience. The course is open to SIPA students only. Note: A laptop is required for this course

• US noon-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Kenyon S Saverance
  Info
• 0 points

Advanced Techniques in Excel

Prerequisites: SIPA U4010 or equivalent experience This course explores skills needed for sophisticated spreadsheet development and problem solving in Microsoft Excel. Topics include implementing advanced logic using complex formulas, managing complexity with Excel's auditing features, leveraging lookup functions leveraging and calculated references, parsing and cleaning raw data, refining data structure, and constructing and leveraging PivotTables. The course does not focus on specific models or applications, but instead explores general concepts and techniques that can be flexibly applied to different solutions in Excel. The course is open to SIPA students only. Instructor approval is required: students will be waitlisted in SSOL and contacted by the instructor. Part of the Excel at SIPA course series. Deadline to drop this course is one week prior to the start date of the course. A notation of "W" will be assigned if requests to drop are not made by this deadline.

• M 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Kenyon S Saverance
  Info
• 0 points

Best Practices for Financial Modeling in

Financial Modeling in Excel

This intensive one-day workshop develops financial modeling skills through the hands-on construction of an interactive financial model. Using a real company as a case study, the lectures will direct participants to blend accounting, corporate finance and Excel skills to create a dynamic, three-statement financial model. The completed product has five years of projections, three years of historical data and supporting schedules including working capital, debt, equity, depreciation and amortization. Other advanced topics include understanding and controlling circularity errors, troubleshooting, sensitivity analysis and discounted cash flow valuations.

• S 10:15 a.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Kenyon S Saverance
  Info
• 0 points

Professional Development

Building Professional Profile

Whether you’re in the early stages of your career or an experienced professional navigating a career change, pursuing your next position requires a compelling, marketable professional profile. This course will cover the essential strategies and tools you will need to present yourself effectively to prospective employers. Topics include career assessment and its value to your self-marketing tools; your “pitch” and why it’s critical to your candidacy; constructing a resume that’s right for your industry and experience; and the value of LinkedIn as a professional network. Like all Professional Development courses in 2020-2021, Building Your Professional Profile is a single-class course. Students may attend only the section for which they are registered. This course is a required component of the two-course (0.5 point, total) SIPA Professional Development requirement; the other component may be chosen from among a menu of four electives (see SIPA U4041 through SIPA U4044). Students should complete both components of the PD sequence in their first semester.

• T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• F 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• 0.2 points

Professional Development

Managing Intercultural Dynamic

In the contemporary workplace, teams are comprised of leaders and contributors from myriad cultural backgrounds. Each person’s way of viewing and being in the world shapes their approach to teamwork, leadership and interpersonal relations in general. This course examines the ways in which diverse experiences and perspectives are critical to the growth and productivity of teams and organizations. Participants will gain insight into unconscious biases and other impediments to teamwork in the workplace and learn interpersonal skills that foster effective collaboration, conflict management and productive team outcomes.

• W 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• 0.2 points

Professional Development

Effective Public Speaking

Common workplace interactions such as leading or contributing to meetings and delivering presentations are a critical component of professional life. Yet for many professionals, public speaking is highly stressful. This course will introduce you to public speaking skills that produce effective results, including how to structure, frame and organize a presentation and deliver it with impact. You will learn the key elements of an effective presentation, and how to communicate your message convincingly by analyzing your audience and determining its needs. Participants will have an opportunity to practice important verbal and non-verbal delivery techniques – and begin to overcome the fears of speaking up and speaking out.

• R 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• 0.2 points

Professional Development

Negotiation Skills in Workplac

Effective negotiation is a key skill for leaders and contributors at all professional levels, in organizations and workplaces around the world. This course is designed to promote understanding and build problem-solving skills that can lead to strength and competency in this vital activity of everyday work life. Participants will be able to define negotiation and articulate the key tension that exists in all negotiations; prepare for negotiations using a research-based framework; and articulate their strengths and weaknesses as negotiators, as well as ways they can improve negotiation outcomes.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• 0.2 points

Professional Development

Networking for Career Advance

Workplace environments have always been bastions of operative professional relationships, explicit and tacit. Over the last 40 years research has demonstrated the value and benefits of networking, both in finding jobs and in career advancement within an organization. In this course, you will learn what networking is and isn’t; how to network effectively and respectfully; balancing the “getting” and “giving” aspects of networking; and an actionable framework for conducting effective networking meetings. Participants will have an opportunity to practice a mock networking meeting to build and refine relationship-building skill, and to increase confidence, comfort, and motivation.

• W 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• 0.2 points

Accountability in Humanitarian Assistanc

Account-Humanitarian Assistnce

Prerequisites: Undergraduate students are not permitted to register this course This short course will explore the concept of accountability within humanitarian intervention. In particular it will look at the contemporary significance of accountability for humanitarian response – when and why it has become an important concept for humanitarian intervention, and specific events that have led to a shift from donors to recipients of aid as the agents of accountability and how it is being implemented in the field. Key questions that will be explored include: To whom are humanitarian agencies accountable? What are the competing accountabilities and how do these influence program decisions and agency performance? Why is accountability to affected people important during a humanitarian response? Aside from ideological views, why should the humanitarian sector be concerned with accountability to affected people? What are its end goals? What does an effective accountability mechanism look like? How do agencies implement it? Do these work? In what contexts? How is their effectiveness being measured? By whom? Through an exploration of case studies from the field (including 2005 South East Asian tsunami, Pakistan earthquake and flood response, Haiti earthquake, European Migration of 2015/2016), a mix of lecture, group exercise, video presentation, the course will address the above questions. Guest speakers will be brought in to discuss the issues with those who are grappling with the accountability debates in the field.

• F 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Jessica B Alexander
  Info
• 1 points

Political, Social & Economic Development

Pol, Soc, & Econ Devp-Brazil

This course is set-up in a form of a practicum where major activists concerned with Brazilian political, social and economic development will be asked to address a policy problem and discuss their proposals for effective changes. Other speakers will analyze the government's policies but will also discuss major new reports or studies, and bring to our attention key issues that are not yet on the policy agenda.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Sidney N Nakahodo
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 1.5 points

Oil, Rights and Development

This multi-layered role-playing simulation, based on a fictitious country, allows exploration of the challenges associated with initiation of a major industrial venture in a developing country as regards any or all of the following: macro-economic and political factors; identification of priorities; environmental management; complications arising from ethnic and religious conflicts; health management (including HIV/AIDS); community development aspects; reconciliation of the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders; media management; achievement of the largest possible Circle of Consensus. The simulation is conducted over two consecutive days and some 50 to 80 participants role-play up to twenty separate entities, including an international industrial company and its competitor, government factions, opposition groups, a local community and wide varieties of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and of media. As in real life, some more general knowledge of the situation is available to all entities, but each one has sole access to information (which may overlap with that of others) which is unique to its own perspective. The emphasis is therefore on sharing and on cooperation to make progress against tight deadlines, on managing information of various degrees of reliability and of balancing conflicting demands. There is no single right answer but through the process participants have an opportunity to explore the interplay of a very wide range of factors and develop strategies which are based on a holistic appreciation of the problems involved and on creation of alliances which are by no means obvious at the beginning of the simulation.

• FS 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Jenik Radon
  Info
• 1 points

Analysis of Public Sector Organizations

Analysis of Public Sector Orgs

Virtually all government policies depend on organizations to execute and evaluate them. Effective public management therefore depends crucially on an understanding of how organizations work. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the institutional basis of public policy and administration. A major theme throughout is that explaining organizational outcomes requires the understanding of: (i) the actors involved and their preferences, and (ii) the institutions, or “rules of the game” within which they function. Expanding on this theme will allow us to explain many features of political organizations, including some that may appear (at first glance) to be pathological. The study of organizations is multi-disciplinary in nature, and as a result the course draws upon a range of literature from economics, political science, and psychology. It will focus particularly on applications of behavioral economics and game theory. The course readings and the student assignments will provide ample opportunities for seeing how theoretical arguments are developed and tested. The objective is to give students not only a working knowledge of how public sector organizations work, but also the ability to utilize it across a broad range of settings. The course begins by considering different models of individual and collective behavior. With these tools in place, it then proceeds to study the internal structures of organizations and their management implications. The “principal-agent” framework will guide this discussion. Next, it will examine the impact of the external environment on organizations. Finally, it will consider some prospects for reform.

• W 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• M 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Michael Ting
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Programming for Social Impact

In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of programming so you can start writing web applications that can potentially be used in non-profit or public sectors. The course will be very hands-on and you are expected to code during the class. The topics will include - fundamentals of computer science, programming basics, data structures, client-server architecture, javascript, application programming interface, LAMP stack and web frameworks, design tools, scalability issues and infrastructure for application deployment. We will discuss some of these topics in the context of agile development methodology for startups. If you are interested in building a startup as a social entrepreneur, the tools and methods you learn in this course should help you in coding the first prototype of your application. As part of the final project, you are expected to build a fully functional web application. No programming background is required. Students are expected to complete all the reading assignments before the first day of class.

• F 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Sameer R Maskey
  Info
• 1.5 points

Effective Management in the Public Servi

Effective Mgmt in the Pub Serv

The course is designed to introduce you to the field of public management. It is a practical course, organized around the tools managers may use to influence the behavior of their organizations. The course also discusses the political environment in which public managers must interact. This course serves as an introduction to management in government and in the non-profit and private organizations that contract with and/or partner with government to provide public services. Lectures, cases, discussions and group projects focus on an array of management tools that help managers implement public policy and deliver critical services. While many examples come from the instructor's experience in New York City and US state and federal agencies, numerous comparative cases and projects from Asia, Latin America and Europe are used to discover best practices, common challenges and the impact of culture on organization behavior. The course will be valuable to those expecting a career in large, complex organizations, either as a manager or a policy advisor. A laboratory section focuses on assigned readings and case studies, provides more opportunities for student discussions and brings in prominent guest speakers from multiple sectors.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• M 8:10 p.m.-10 p.m.
• Instructor: William B Eimicke
  Info
• 3 points

Artificial Intelligence in Public Policy

Artificial Intel in Public Pol

Prerequisites: INAF U6004 or INAF U6006 This course is meant for students who want to learn the basics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how AI is applied for public policy and implications of AI in the future of governance. Students can expect to learn: Foundations of AI. We will go through the mathematical and programming background of how the most common Machine Learning (ML) algorithms work, specifically focused around how to predict scores, classes, and clusters from data. Applications of AI. With the understanding of basics of ML algorithms we will look at how AI is being applied for various functions across businesses, non-profits and governments. Building AI Solutions At the end of the course we will spend time on how to build an AI solution that has a significant value from public policy perspective. We will go through an exercise of how to think of a problem from AI perspective, how to take account data and algorithm challenges when building AI solution. As student groups you will be asked to go through “Concept to Implementation” process and propose an AI solution for a given problem that student is keenly interested in.

• F 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Sameer R Maskey
  Info
• 1.5 points

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Prerequisites: SIPA U6400 The course objectives are to introduce the method of cost-benefit analysis and to illustrate the use of cost-benefit analysis for evaluating policy. Cost-benefit analysis is conceptually simple but practically complex, so the course will focus on case studies that illustrate different methodological points. The first part of the course will mix lectures on methodology with focused study of illustrative cost-benefit analyses. The second part of the course will examine more complex case studies. By the end of the course, students should understand the components of a successful cost-benefit analysis and should be able to read and evaluate published analyses.

• W 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• M 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey G Jr Shrader
  Info
• 3 points

Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management

Strategic & Entrepren Mgt

This course will provide the analytical ability and practical skills to build the right strategy, entrepreneurial operations and culture for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. The methodology of this class is to learn from case studies, leading management texts and insights from practitioners. Students will learn to recognize and develop entrepreneurial skills by examining and analyzing the strategies employed by practicing entrepreneurs in building new ventures. Particular attention is given to the criteria used in analyzing the strategies of international and non-profit new venture ideas. Further focus on strategy, managing people and organizational culture will be emphasized. Each student is required to develop an entrepreneurial venture focused on a social/non-profit, emerging market or private sector opportunity.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: David Siegel
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability Management

Sustainability management matters because we only have one planet, and we must learn how to manage our organizations in a way that ensures that our planet is maintained. The course is designed to introduce you to the field of sustainability management. This is not an academic course that reviews the literature of the field and discusses how scholars think about the management of organizations that are environmentally sound. It is a practical, professional course organized around the core concepts of management and the core concepts of sustainability. This year I am introducing a specific emphasis on urban sustainability as the planet’s urban population continues to expand. Each week we will read one or two cases in management and/or sustainability, and some background material designed to help you answer the questions posed at the end of each case exercise. The cases always pose practical issues for decision makers to address—but issues that are best addressed with a firm grounding in the literature of management and sustainability. The literature and case material we will study this semester are based on lessons learned in government, non-profits and the private sector. However, most of my own work focuses on government and non-profits so this course will emphasize management in public and nonprofit organizations and the role of public policy in sustainability. In this course you will be assigned to one team that will present a briefing in class on an assigned position for a particular case, for which another team will present an opposing view. You will also write three two-page memos according to a specified format. The syllabus includes a schedule for each assignment. There is also a take home final exam that is due the last day of class.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Steven Cohen
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 21 Info
• 3 points

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Prerequisites: SIPA U6300 or SIPA U6400 This course aims to provide an introduction to cost-benefit analysis and the economic evaluation of government or development programs, projects and policies. The course consists of two parts: theory/methodology in the first half of the semester and application of the learned concepts through an analysis of various case studies in the second half. Case studies will cover the full range of possible applications of CBA -from early education, social policy, health, urban planning, transportation and energy to environmental regulations. Case studies will cover both the US and developing country contexts. In the second half of the semester students will be expected to apply what they have learned by carrying out a cost-benefit analysis on a topic of their choice. The project is expected to include all components of a professional CBA - description of policy or program scenarios to be evaluated, compilation and monetization of the main costs and benefits, development of an Excel model including discounting and sensitivity analysis.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• T 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Eva Weissman
  Info
• 3 points

Leading & Managing in Moments of Adversi

This course will provide the analytical ability and practical skills to lead and manage in moments of adversity and opportunity. The frameworks and strategies apply across the sectors from change-makers to start-ups, teams to companies, not-for-profit to government. The focus is on the leadership and management needed at key high stakes moments: turn arounds, pressures from competition or innovation in the market, pivots, pervasive and recurrent challenges, large scale social change, reform processes… The methodology of this class relies on the case method using two types of cases: individual student professional leadership cases and business case studies. It also draws on readings, structured exercises, videos and role-plays. The learning is experiential – we will be using ourselves as cases and the class as a space to practice and develop our diagnostic, communication, management and leadership skills. All students will be called on to participate in weekly class discussions and must come to class prepared. The course views the analysis of failure as a meaningful way to learn. Students will be asked to identify a professional leadership failure and present it in the small groups and write their final paper analyzing it. Some students will have the opportunity to share their case with the class and receive further feedback on their analysis.

• T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Kirsti Samuels
  Info
• 3 points

International Trade

Prerequisites: SIPA U6400 The course has two dimensions: theory and policy. In the former, the fundamental models of international trade theory will be presented. Using these models we will try to understand why countries specialize and trade, what determines the pattern of trade (i.e. which country will export which good), and how trade affects relative prices, welfare, and income distribution within a country. The second part of the course deals with issues concerning trade policy. We will compare the effects of and rationale behind the usage of various policy instruments such as tariffs, subsidies, quotas, etc. The political economy of trade policy and trade policy in developing countries will also be covered. Additional topics may be included at a later stage if time permits.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Benjamin R Mandel
  Info
• 3 points

International Finance & Monetary Theory

Intl Finance & Monetary Theory

Prerequisites: SIPA U6401 Registration restricted to IFEP students This is a methods course meant to provide students with the analytic tools necessary to think through real life international economic policy situations. The class is primarily meant for those interested in working at international financial institutions, the foreign-service, Wall Street, or the financial press. Lectures will, in part, be fairly rigorous though, if the student has taken first year economics, knows basic algebra, and (most importantly) can navigate graphs, he/she will be able to handle the material fairly easily. While theory will at times dominate, its policy relevance will be illustrated through i) l0-minute discussions at the beginning of every class on topical issues; ii) continuous references to recent economic/market episodes meant to illustrate the theoretical material; iii) reading short pieces of Wall Street research that cover timely market topics; and iv) the term paper that will be graded on how well theory and policy are integrated. In terms of topics, the first half of the semester will develop an analytic framework that thinks though the concept of the exchange rate in terms of its (short and long term) determinants as well as the interaction between the exchange rate and macro variables such as growth, inflation, and monetary policy. The second half of the semester we will investigate individual themes including exchange rate regimes; BoP crises and contagion; global imbalances and the savings glut; the role of FX in inflation targeting regimes; and capital markets and emerging markets finance.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• F 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Daniel J Waldman
  Info
• 3 points

Decision Models & Management

This course provides an introduction to computer-based models for decision-making. The emphasis is on models that are widely used in diverse industries and functional areas, including finance, accounting, operations, and marketing. Applications will include advertising planning, revenue management, asset-liability management, environmental policy modeling, portfolio optimization, and corporate risk management, among others. The aim of the course is to help students become intelligent consumers of these methods. To this end, the course will cover the basic elements of modeling -- how to formulate a model and how to use and interpret the information a model produces. The course will attempt to instill a critical viewpoint towards decision models, recognizing that they are powerful but limited tools. The applicability and usage of computer-based models have increased dramatically in recent years, due to the extraordinary improvements in computer, information and communication technologies, including not just hardware but also model-solution techniques and user interfaces. Thirty years ago working with a model meant using an expensive mainframe computer, learning a complex programming language, and struggling to compile data by hand; the entire process was clearly marked "experts only." The rise of personal computers, friendly interfaces (such as spreadsheets), and large databases has made modeling far more accessible to managers. Information has come to be recognized as a critical resource, and models play a key role in deploying this resource, in organizing and structuring information so that it can be used productively.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Lucius J Riccio
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

International Banking

This course offers a comprehensive understanding of the trends and challenges associated with the provision of cross-border commercial, investment and wealth management/private banking services. We will study the evolution of the global financial system over the past 30 years and explore how banks tend to make their decisions regarding the scope and the geographical reach of their operations in response to geopolitical and economic circumstances, systemic crises, regulatory developments, technological challenges, evolving competitive dynamics at home and abroad and, last but not least, the COVID-19 crisis.

• R 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Irene E Finel-Honigman
  Info
• 3 points

Economic Cost Benefit Analysis & Intro t

Econ CBA & Program Evaluation

The goals of the course are three-fold: 1) gain an understanding of the economic principles needed to judge the limits and strengths of cost-benefit analysis; 2) learn the basic mechanics of cost benefit analysis and its application to policy; 3) learn the mechanics of statistical program evaluation and its use in cost-benefit analysis. Every policy has costs, and every policy generates winners and losers. A cost-benefit analysis that strives to be fair and objective will highlight the costs and benefits as well as the winners and losers of any proposed policy. The first half of the course will be used to develop skills and concepts. The second half will focus on applications. Several of the applications will be based on statistical program evaluation, and a background in basis statistics will be needed. Program evaluation and random assignment evaluation of policy experiments in particular have become popular in recent years. Placing these experiments in the context of cost-benefit analysis will demonstrate some of the weaknesses of statistical program evaluation and provide tools for interpretation of an evaluation’s finding. Further discussion of the measurement issues commonly encountered in random-assignment evaluation and quasi-experiments will develop an understanding of when random-assignment evaluation is a powerful tool of policy analysis and when it fails.

• S 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• S 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Stephen Cameron
  Wikipedia h-index: 12 Info
• 3 points

Electricity Markets

The electricity sector worldwide is changing more rapidly today than at any period since the inception of the industry. Billions of dollars of new investment will be required over the next decade to maintain and improve electricity service, particularly in emerging economies. Models of service delivery are changing, and the role of the traditional regulated utility continues to evolve. This class is designed to provide a full exposure to current issues across the electricity value chain, including both regulated and competitive sectors. In addition, it is intended to provide insights that are applicable to other industries, including infrastructure financing, maintaining competition in markets, structuring good governance arrangements, and promoting economic efficiency.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: A.J. Goulding
  Info
• 3 points

Global Energy Policy

Global Energy Policy gives an objective view of the world energy system and the energy transition. This course aims at providing students with the critical knowledge and skills to understand the energy trilemma and the trade-offs that governments have to make in designing energy policies. The course centers around sustainability but deep-dives into the technological and political economy constraints that inhibit a higher-paced transition. Consequentially, the course focuses on three elements. First, we evaluate the state of play, trends and projections in global energy, including key technologies, investment trends and subsidy policies. Second, we use case-based teaching to understand the drivers and constraints associated with national energy policy decision making. Cases are chosen to discuss the role of social contracts, firms, geopolitics and vested interests. They include, among others power sector reform in India; biofuel reform in the US and the EU; oil and natural gas geopolitics; oil & conflict; corruption in the energy sector; energy in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. And third, we discuss regional and global energy policies and players.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Tom Moerenhout
  Info
• 3 points

Energy & Power Financing Markets

Energy & Power Financing Mrkts

Prerequisites: Familiarity with Corporate Finance The global energy industry is comprised of the largest and most interrelated set of businesses in the world. From its inception, the industry has grown dramatically to provide ever increasing amounts of energy and power to commercial, industrial and retail consumers around the world. Given its unique industry structure, specialized financing techniques have been developed to expand and/or complement conventional public and private financing alternatives. These specialized financing approaches have, in turn, allowed the energy industry to access an unprecedented range of capital sources to finance its increasingly complex and challenging business model.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Brooks James Klimley
  Info
• 3 points

Current Issues in Energy Policy

Current Issues-Energy Policy

The purpose of this course is: (1) to familiarize participants with seven current issues in energy policy, (2) to better understand the interplay of policy and political factors that guide public sector decision-making, and (3) to improve skills for drafting memoranda to senior policymakers. The class will focus on U.S. energy policy, but explore policies in other countries as well. Sub-national, national and international issues will be examined. The seven topics studied will be: 1. Democratic Presidential candidates climate plans; 2. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan; 3. Global energy governance; 4. Natural gas; 5. 100% renewables goal; 6. Cyber attacks on the electric grid; 7. Food and climate change

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: David Sandalow
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

Energy Management for Public & Private S

Energy Mgmt: Pub & Priv Sector

This course delivers students a practical view and associated tools for management of energy in individual facilities as well as throughout larger portfolios of facilities or assets. Students will review aspects of the operations involved in the Energy Mangers role including how energy markets and policies intersect with the facility and portfolio investment and management. Through class lectures, industry articles, site visits, assigned readings, and expert speakers, the course will provide students with the ability to understand how energy policy, markets, and regulation intersect with operational personnel, equipment, budgets, and contracts. Case studies where students assess the success of various theoretical concepts and applications are included.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Kristin L Barbato
  Info
• 1.5 points

Clean Energy Financial Innovation

Prerequisites: INAF U6072 or SUMA PS5155 or Clean Energy Financial Innovation will focus on the financing of clean energy generation, energy efficiency and energy storage. The course is complimentary to International Energy Project Finance (INAF U6040) and not intended to have substantial overlap. Instead, Clean Energy Financial Innovation will cover those transaction and financing structures outside traditional utility scale project finance. Clean Energy Finance will focus upon the fragmented distributed generation and energy efficiency sectors where portfolio approaches and other innovative techniques are required. Such financing structures often require a combination of project finance techniques, securitization and other structured finance skill sets. The objective of Clean Energy Finance is to introduce students to asset deployment market participants and business models, key contractual arrangements, capital structuring techniques, private market precedents and criteria, public market precedents and criteria, and the at financing frontier transaction types that have yet to be financed but that offer tremendous potential. Students completing the course should have a broad understanding of clean energy deployment transaction types, example participants, precedent transactions, methodologies for considering the viability of transaction types and financing structures, and investor requirements.

• M 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• 1.5 points

Economic Development in Latin America

Econ Development:Latin America

• M 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Jose A Ocampo
  Wikipedia h-index: 77 Info
• 3 points

Environmental Justice and Climate Resili

Enviro Justice & Climate Resil

This course will examine the intersections of race, equity, and the environment – focusing on the growing role and impact of the environmental justice movement. Environmental Justice embeds various disciplines into its analytical framework ranging from political science to urban ecology, economics, sociology, environmental science, community organizing, and more. Drawing from these disciplines, as well as from recent climate laws, policies, advocacy, and regulations, students will develop a deep understanding of climate, equity, and environmental justice in New York City. Building on the concept of integrated climate resiliency, this course will introduce students to the policies, stakeholders, research, and advocacy involved in the development and implementation of environmental laws, energy policies, nature-based solutions, and sustainable infrastructure. Throughout the course, we will review the impact and implications of particular policies, as well assess case studies of particular communities. The course will also invite guest speakers currently working in the field to share their views and expertise.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Annel M Hernandez
  Info
• 3 points

Comprehensive Financial Sector Policy

Comprehensive Fincl Sector Pol

In this course, we will look at activities and functions of various types of financial institutions, such as banks, asset managers, and securities dealers, and examine how their activities interact and affect households, corporates, and the economy. We will examine the challenges they face and the possibility of market failures created by their activities. We will then turn to the role of the public sector in addressing such market failures. The course will take a comprehensive view of regulation, across all types of institutions and markets. Although the course will take up many Japanese examples, the challenges are shared by other economies. The purpose of the course is to discuss the appropriate policy in the field of finance to secure a good balance between financial stability and effective financial intermediation, between consumer and investor protection and better services for consumers and investors, and between market integrity and market vigor. The ultimate goal aims to promote sustainable economic growth and national welfare.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Nobuchika Mori
  Info
• 1.5 points

Central Banking, Monetary and Fiscal Pol

Cent Bank, Monetary & Fisc Pol

This course is about central banks, monetary and fiscal policy. Its goals are to provide students with expertise in this area; to prepare students to communicate this expertise to policymakers, clients and the public; and to enable students to use this expertise in their roles in central banks, finance ministries or other public or private institutions. The first part of the course uses some simple Classical and neo-Keynesian models to analyze the effects of monetary policy. It is shown how a Phillip’s curve can arise and how a liquidity trap is possible. The various roles of money and the costs of inflation are discussed. The rational expectations revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and stagflation of the 1970s and 1980s changed academics’ and policymakers’ view of the relationship between inflation and unemployment. I discuss how this led to central bank independence and monetary union. The second part of the course considers central banks as agents of the state and as fiscal players.  The balance sheets of central banks and of the rest of the state sector are inextricably intertwined.  I discuss how a monetary policy committee makes a group decision and communicates this to the public. The final part of the course considers a number of topical issues in central banking. How should a central bank deal with a financial market bubble? What is the relationship between central banks and politics? How does it matter that a committee makes monetary policy?  The unique problems faced by the Eurosystem/ECB.  What are central banks doing in response to COVID, and what should they be doing?

• R 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Willem Buiter
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Microeconomics II - Topics in Policy-ori

The class covers basic economics thinking and policy applications derived primarily from labor economics, industrial organization and international economics. It will examine the effects of government policies on firms, labor, and capital markets. It will also focus on issues of corporate and national governance and performance. There will be several guest lectures on these and other topics.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Jan Svejnar
  Wikipedia h-index: 49 Info
• 3 points

Strategic Management of Information and

Strategic Mgmt-Info&Comm Tech

Strategic Management of Information and Communication Technologies for the Public Good” addresses the spectrum of policy issues, options, and critical decisions confronting senior managers in the public sphere. Classes will be taught by a combination of lecture, readings, and case. Each class will address policy, technical, and managerial challenges for a particular domain of practice from the introduction or use of established and leading-edge information and communication technologies (ICTs), among them cloud, mobile and social. Arenas may include, for example, health, education, energy, economic development, transportation, civic engagement, law enforcement, human resources, social services, transportation, or compliance and regulatory affairs. The cases will involve a variety of managerial dilemmas and decisions, from governance to transparency, performance management to project management, and be generalizable across multiple domains, arenas, and technologies. Our goal is to expose students to the broadest range of policy challenges, and technologies comprising ICTs in use in the principal domains of practice, giving students a comprehensive exposure to the issues and opportunities as managers encounter them today - and will in the very near future. The course is intended for general, non-technical managers and assumes no engineering capability greater than plugging in a USB stick.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Robert Z Tumin
  Info
• 3 points

Macroeconomic Policy Management

Macroeconomic Policy Mgmt

The course covers major problems and methods in macroeconomics, with particular focus on issues faced by policymakers in small, open economies. Modern macro is characterized by three fundamental features: economic outcomes are determined in general equilibrium; expectations play a crucial role and all analysis must be based on micro-foundations. Firms depend on consumers, who in turn depend on labor income, profits and rents, which are influenced by government decisions and the environment in which they work. Therefore, in general equilibrium, everything is related to everything, and we must carefully analyze how the economy will respond to those forces that can be considered “exogenous.” At the same time, Current behavior crucially depends on expectations about the future and those beliefs are shaped by the credibility of policies, the reputation of policymakers and the likelihood of potential “shocks.” Finally, economic incentives determine actions and we must make sure that our analysis of decision processes is incentive compatible. Macroeconomic outcomes (unemployment, inflation, growth, income distribution) may or may not be optimal and, if they are not, there usually is room for well-designed policy actions to bring us closer to more socially desirable results. In this class will develop a basic understanding of models and theoretical foundations, but the relevant analytical framework will be presented in the context of current policy dilemmas. Students are expected to build a technical foundation to allow them a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the existing state of economic policy debates. We will discuss theory and evidence on determinants of growth, economic stabilization, inflation, monetary, fiscal and financial policies. Along the way, we will touch on “hot” policy discussions: the future of capitalism and income distribution; policies to generate growth and the role of government; global economic imbalances, secular stagnation and the long decline in risk free interest rates; economic adjustment in the wake of shocks (technology breakthroughs, pandemics, regulatory fads); should advanced economies worry about the high levels of debt or should they engage in fiscal expansion? How about emerging markets with much more limited access to borrowing? How should monetary policy be conducted to attain desired inflation levels? Why does the financial sector play such a crucial role in a modern economy and why do financial meltdowns create such high costs?

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Guillermo Mondino
  Info
• 3 points

Visual Storytelling

Taught by PBS NewsHour Weekend producer/correspondent Christopher Booker, Multi-Platform Storytelling will teach students some of the tricks, turns and pitfalls of the 21st digital story. With an emphasis on video storytelling, the course will be dedicated largely to technical production of videos and interactive content, but will also be an exploration into some of the current thinking behind editorial video development, production and distribution. Students will use photographs, audio, video and data to tell compelling stories and create comprehensive outreach strategies, but will also be asked to contemplate, as well as justify, the usage, delivery and goal of their work. Students will work with digital cameras, Adobe Premiere, smartphones, Timeline JS and Google Fusion Tables.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points

Building & Scaling Social Impact Program

Building & Scaling Soc. Impact

The concept of “social impact” has captured the imaginations of many professionals eager to make their mark on the world and give back to society. But what exactly is social impact, and what is its role in today’s public policy and social justice landscape? Many companies, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs are making big bets on how they can “do well by doing good” by leveraging their brands, products, resources, and capital to make the world a better place – all the while paying attention to the bottom line and creating value for donors, shareholders, and businesses. But there are important and consequential considerations about this “win/win” approach, and what role the private sector can and should play in ensuring political, social, and economic equality. The course will take a practical, case-based approach to looking at social impact programs, and we will: Examine business-led models of giving, including corporate social responsibility, cause marketing, social entrepreneurship, and impact investing; Assess how corporate social impact programs and market-based solutions have created innovative interventions to complex social issues; Consider the tradeoffs and unintended consequences that can occur when resource allocations for social impact programs consider business interests; Identify strategies to successfully design and implement social impact initiatives with an individual or business. The case-based analysis in the first part of the course will inform sessions that focus on how to design, implement, and scale effective social impact programs, with specific attention on how to conduct a landscape assessment on a specific issue, identify potential solutions and interventions given available resources, program design and implementation, and impact assessment.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas Ogletree
  Info
• 1.5 points

Design for Social Innovation

Design for Social Innovation is a project-based course where students work in teams to solve real-world problems on behalf of social sector clients including nonprofits, social enterprises, and government agencies. Students work as “intrapreneurs” (entrepreneurs within organizations) on innovation projects on behalf of client organizations, looking at their client’s organizational or programmatic challenges through the lens of design thinking and human-centered design.

• W 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• 3 points

Storytelling and The Art of Creating Soc

Storytelling and Social Impact

After countless videos of police brutality, why did the video of George Floyd’s murder dramatically accelerate the pace of cultural and policy change that had been demanded by Black Lives Matter since 2013?  How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact this and other campaigns?  After years of governmental and NGO campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy, how was it that a TV show became one of the main drivers of reducing teen pregnancy to the lowest point in recorded history?  After losing 31 state referendums, why did a new narrative approach enable the gay marriage campaign start winning nationwide?  These examples are part of broader social impact campaigns that combined the right mix of strategy and narrative to create change.  A social impact campaign is one that creates a significant, positive change that addresses a pressing social issue. Often, there is too little focus on the power of narrative to change behavior and drive action.  This class will explore all aspects of social impact campaigns that harnessed the power of “effective” stories to engage audiences and prompt action.  Additionally, we will investigate how corporations and brands develop campaigns and how they partner with the government, foundations and NGOs.  Students will have the chance to question some of the leading creators/practitioners as they create their own social impact campaign.

• T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Stephen Friedman
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Impact Investing: Essential Skills

Impact investing is young but fast growing industry. An increasing number of philanthropists, traditional investors and asset managers look into impact investment as a compelling asset class. Entrepreneurs tackling social and environmental issues are finding in impact investors a more reliable and better aligned source of capital to finance their ventures. The industry requires a committed, talented and well-prepared pool of capital to continue evolving and growing. This class aims to provide the students with some of the essential skills and tools they will require to work and thrive in the impact investing industry. This is an experiential course designed to introduce students to impact investing and provide them with the skills used by impact investors every day. Students will work on the key products required in an impact investment transaction including: assessing a possible impact investment; writing an investment memo with a full impact analysis; and presenting an investment proposal to a group of seasoned impact investors. The course will take place over two weekends with the first weekend focusing on an introduction to impact investing and the technical skills needed to vet an impact investing opportunity (What questions do you ask? What does your analysis focus on?). The second weekend will focus on hearing pitches from several possible impact investments / companies, performing due diligence on each one and making a recommendation to invest in one of the companies.

• S 9 a.m.-noon
• 1.5 points

Impact Investing: Essential Skills

Impact investing is young but fast growing industry. An increasing number of philanthropists, traditional investors and asset managers look into impact investment as a compelling asset class. Entrepreneurs tackling social and environmental issues are finding in impact investors a more reliable and better aligned source of capital to finance their ventures. The industry requires a committed, talented and well-prepared pool of capital to continue evolving and growing. This class aims to provide the students with some of the essential skills and tools they will require to work and thrive in the impact investing industry. This is an experiential course designed to introduce students to impact investing and provide them with the skills used by impact investors every day. Students will work on the key products required in an impact investment transaction including: assessing a possible impact investment; writing an investment memo with a full impact analysis; and presenting an investment proposal to a group of seasoned impact investors. The course will take place over two weekends with the first weekend focusing on an introduction to impact investing and the technical skills needed to vet an impact investing opportunity (What questions do you ask? What does your analysis focus on?). The second weekend will focus on hearing pitches from several possible impact investments / companies, performing due diligence on each one and making a recommendation to invest in one of the companies.

• S 9 a.m.-noon
• 1.5 points

Civic Innovation & Building a People-Cen

Civic Innov/People-Center Govt

Governments around the world are tasked with delivering services to millions of citizens using a range of technologies and initiatives. They constantly assess their impact and find new ways to better serve the public and to provide service more efficiently and effectively. This course provides a look at innovative efforts underway, and an analytical framework for developing new approaches to serving people. Invention is part of innovation, of course. But innovation has another meaning. It is also a process-a process of improving, adapting, or developing a product, system, or service in order to deliver better results and create value for people. It is this second meaning of innovation that applies most acutely to government. While entrepreneurs may tinker with new products and ideas, government has a unique ability to take new ideas, adapt them to the needs of the public, and apply them at scale. This course explores what innovation actually means in government, what it looks like, and how it happens. It is focused on understanding how the same methodology that firms use to design and build revolutionary products can be (and is being) applied in government to design more effective policies, programs, and services. The goal of this course is to prepare students for working creatively in a policy environment, and finding new solutions to complex human problems, in a manner that prioritizes people over politics and bureaucracy. To this end, the course takes a blended and hands-on approach to learning, combining reading and lectures with design studios, and guest speakers who will provide a firsthand narrative of their experience with innovation in government. Guest speakers will include people who have been able to develop and implement new systems within government such as rescuing healthcare.gov and modernizing our immigration system.

• F 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Evagelia E Tavoulareas
  Info
• 1.5 points

Humanitarian Crisis Simulation

The simulation will be designed in order to provide exposure to a range of topics including but not limited to: Refugee and cross-border migration issues; Practical implications of international humanitarian law; Ramifications of international human rights law in crises; The interagency nature of a large-scale humanitarian response, including UN, National Governments, international NGOs and national NGOs and how to coordinate across actors; Humanitarian field negotiations; Humanitarian operations issues (logistics, staff security, human resources management, etc.); Emergency response design. The scenario upon which the simulation is based will be situated in Paradoxia, reflecting elements of a relatively recent real-world situation whereby a natural disaster evolves into a large-scale civil conflict. This will give students the opportunity not only to understand the complexities of planning and implementing a humanitarian response in a challenging environment. The learning objectives for the participants, therefore, are primarily: further their understanding of the roles of individual humanitarian actors and their inter-relationships; enhance their recognition of the difficulties associated with working in an inter-cultural environment; augment their understanding of the challenges involved in achieving effective coordination and cooperation among a range of humanitarian actors; build the capacity to make decisions based on relevant and time-sensitive information; strengthen their ability to develop strategies and operational plans that will improve immediate response without impeding future recovery.

• US 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey Klenk
  Info
• 1 points

Media Campaigning and Social Change

Media Campaigning & Social Chg

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• 3 points

Energy, Corporate Responsibility & Human

Energy, Corp Resp & Hum Rights

This class examines how to reconcile the differing/conflicting interests/goals of energy, and mining, companies and the public interest (e.g. governments); how to negotiate PPP agreements; understand the function/impact of laws and international trade agreements; and determine how CSR, especially environment and anti-corruption, and human rights apply. Case studies of multi-billion international energy pipeline projects, including TAP in Albania and Greece, TAPI in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, BTC in Georgian and the Caucasus and , for comparative purposes, the controversial Keystone in US and Canada, will be the prism/focus for analysis. The class is dynamic and cross-disciplinary.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jenik Radon
  Info
• 3 points

African Development Strategies

This course focuses on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa from a political economy perspective. It is divided into three sections. The first section examines the broad economic trends, policies and strategies of the past 50 years. The Washington Consensus and the lost decades are examined in some detail. The focus of this part is on economic growth and structural change, notably the controversies around economic policies and institutions. In the second section the course turns to socioeconomic dimensions and aspects of development including poverty, inequality, employment, health, education, and gender. The final section concludes with an examination of the implications of climate change, debates around foreign aid and an overview of what we have learned. Some readings are to be finalized.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Akbar Noman
  Info
• 3 points

Harlem Community Engagement Practicum

Urban universities in the United States are often located in primarily African-American and Latinx neighborhoods with large low-income populations. These neighborhoods have their own community organizations, religious and cultural institutions, business districts and civic organizations. What has often been called the “town-gown” divide has prevented students from learning more about the people who live in their neighborhood. Often the political, business and policy interests of these communities diverge from the interests of the University. This course will explore the Harlem community by immersing students in conversation with community members that represent diverse organizations and interests. Students will be asked to meet in different locations in East, West, and Central Harlem to be involved in a structured conversation led by the instructor (assuming COVID restrictions have lifted). Students will meet with members of the community board; residents of Harlem public housing; small business owners; those involved in the politics of Harlem, clergy and their congregants; Harlem hospital employees and leaders of cultural institutions. The purpose of these meetings will be to give our students the opportunity to learn about the issues of concern to Harlem community members, what Harlem mean to the different community members and how they organize to influence policy. Students will also be able to ask questions directly to community members.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Barbara Askins
  Info
• 1 points

Technology for Intl Crisis Response & Go

Tech for Intl Crisis Response

The advent of new technologies has fundamentally changed the capacity for processing and exchanging information. NGOs, governments, and companies alike are just beginning to understand the potential that these tools and systems can have in analyzing and addressing a range of social problems. This course will explore how technology is being used to respond to international crises, create early warning mechanisms, monitor elections, provide banking services, ensure effective governance, and much more. It will also take a critical approach and consider key challenges related to access, privacy, implementation, scale, and evaluation based on evidence that working with technology presents. The course is designed for graduate students to assist them in developing strategies and technological skills to work amid this rapidly evolving landscape. Students can expect a hands-on and interactive learning environment with a variety of examples from organizations working in the field.

• SUUS 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Nicholas Martin
  Info
• 1.5 points

Accounting for International and Public

The purpose of this course is to enable you to become an informed user of financial information. To be properly informed you need to understand financial statements, the note disclosures and the language of accounting and financial reporting. We will focus on the three major financial statements – the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows - that companies prepare for use by management and external parties. We will examine the underlying concepts that go into the preparation of these financial statements as well as specific accounting rules that apply when preparing financial statements. As we gain an understanding of the financial information, we will look at approaches to analyze the financial strength and operations of an entity. We will use actual financial statements to understand how financial information is presented.

• MW 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• MW 2:10 p.m.-3:40 p.m.
• F 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• F 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Norman Bartczak
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Internet Governance, Human Rights, & Inc

Whoever controls the future of the internet, controls the future of the world. We'll look at the technical roots of the internet, and the people and entities -- telecom companies and their regulators, technologists and idealists, security forces and hackers -- shaping it today. Each group faces challenges. Policymakers have reached consensus that human rights apply online, but need to update and replace laws, regulations, and norms for the digital age. Companies have responsibilities to law and policy, but vary widely in their respect for users and governments. The UN Sustainable Development Goals identify internet access as essential to development, but policy environments fail to extend connectivity to vulnerable or marginalized communities. And the cat-and-mouse game between cyber offense and defense continues, leaving many less-resourced groups -- and the right to privacy -- lagging behind. Will national sovereignty reassert itself, breaking the internet, or will the vision of a borderless cyberspace prevail? Will the European approach to data protection set global standards? Does network neutrality function amidst the internet of everything? To find the answers, we nimbly role-play, enjoy small group activities, welcome guest experts, and hone tech policy skills under time pressure. Expect to participate frequently, and learn to navigate the most pressing issues facing companies, governments, and technologists today.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter Micek
  Info
• 3 points

Operations Management

This course provides a foundation for understanding the operations of an organization. The objective is to provide the basic skills necessary to critically analyze an organizations operating performance and practices. Such knowledge is important for careers in a variety of areas, including general management and consulting. Unlike other courses which tend to treat operations as a black box, this course will be concerned with opening up the inner workings of an organizations operations to see how they work or dont work, learning the fundamental laws of behavior of producing a product or services, and lastly to learn how to design operations that perform at maximum levels. Its focus will be on the technical and mathematical analysis of operations rather than a human factors approach, although there are obvious connections between the two that will be explored. Concern is given to understanding which elements of an organizations operations enable it to produce quality outputs at a reasonable cost. The course will accomplish this by grouping the material under two major headings. The first half of the course will be devoted to understanding the physics of how material, paper work, and information flow through an organization to produce a product or service and how its design encourages or impedes good performance. The second half will focus on excellence in operations, learning techniques and approaches that increase overall performance in production, quality, variety, or speed of service.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Lucius J Riccio
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Cities Take the Lead: When Local Officia

• W 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Julie L Menin
  Info
• 3 points

Leadership & Innovative Policy Making

In this course the students will (a) master key themes in leadership development and policy making, (b) increase their own leadership and policy making capacities through reflection and discussion and (c) evaluate the leadership record of an extraordinary policy leader. The goal of the three-pronged approach is to prepare students for understanding and exercising leadership-executive ability in government, non-governmental organizations, and business. Leadership is the ability to influence people towards achieving a goal. An important part of the SIPA mission is to prepare students for leadership and innovative policy making. In this course we will examine leadership and policy making out of the box as well as inside the box by having students tackle several key themes and some specific questions. The themes include issues such as, are leaders born or made? What kind of leaders design and implement good versus bad policies? Can nudging and innovative policy making substitute for forceful policy intervention? To what extent are economic and political outcomes products of leadership as opposed to external environment?

• W 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Jan Svejnar
  Wikipedia h-index: 49 Info
• 3 points

History for Future Policymakers

Leaders often invoke the lessons of history, but rarely talk about anything but a few familiar episodes. Even if we can all agree that we should avoid another attack on Pearl Harbor or war in Vietnam, does this actually help us make decisions about the future? In this course, students will explore both the problems and the opportunities with using historical analysis to grapple with present and future challenges. They will develop a deeper understanding of the most often cited historical episodes, but also learn how to avoid using analogies in the place of more original thinking. That means thinking like a historian, and the course will introduce key concepts that can be used to analyze a range of complex challenges, including continuity and change, contingency and inevitability, human agency and structural constraints. But they will also learn how NOT to think like a historian, such as using history as a weapon, and extrapolating into the future.

• T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Sarah C Kovner
  Info
• 3 points

Comparative Social Welfare Policy

This core course explores welfare systems from a comparative perspective and analyzes the political, economic, socio-cultural, and historical factors that shape and sustain them in advanced industrialized countries. It pays particular attention to the development of key national social welfare policies, such as social security, health care, unemployment insurance, social assistance, childcare, tax expenditure, and public employment and training, and emerging best practice in these areas. The course also identifies pressing global/regional trends (e.g. greying of societies, labor market stratification, and persistent gender inequality) and compares how developed and developing countries address them through policy.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Yumiko T Shimabukuro
  Info
• 3 points

Corporate Sustainable Development: Drive

Corporate sustainability is being embraced by a growing number of business leaders to address the far-reaching and interrelated COVID-19, environmental and social challenges in the face of rapidly changing operating conditions and market demands.  In this course, we will explore from an environmental management perspective the underpinnings and elements of corporate sustainability.  We will examine how this field has evolved over the past 20 years and its potential to stand as a centrally important tool to achieve financial goals through the provision of goods and services that meet individual, societal and environmental needs now and well into the future.  We will embrace a systems approach, grounded in an understanding of a corporation's interconnections and interdependencies with the natural world and its broad array of internal and external stakeholders, to reveal business models that are inherently resilient and regenerative.  We will also address the role of government and the significant challenges faced by public officials in advancing this critically important agenda.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey Potent
  Info
• 3 points

EU Policymaking & New Global Challenges

EU Policymaking-Global Challen

This course explores the process of EU policy-making - how and why certain public policies are pursued by the institutions of the European Union - and analyses what the Union is doing to address a number of major policy challenges in today's interdependent world. After providing a general introduction to the overall policy process in the EU - looking at how policies are born, adopted, enacted, implemented and reviewed - this term's course will examine the specific policy agenda of the current European Commission (2019-24), led by Ursula von der Leyen, and do a 'deep dive' into EU action in three areas: the fight against climate change, the development of a 'digital Europe', and the EU response to the on-going coronavirus crisis. It will identify the key characteristics of these policies, assess how far they are succeeding or failing, and ask what they show about the evolving EU political system. The course will round off with an assessment of the growing emphasis on strategic foresight in the EU policy-making and identify new policies that are likely to be developed in coming years. Taught from a practitioner perspective by Anthony Teasdale, Director General of the European Parliament's research service, the course aims to provide a firm grounding in modern EU policy and should appeal to those interested both in EU politics and in the individual policy issues under discussion.

• W 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Anthony Teasdale
  Info
• 1.5 points

Environmental Finance

Prerequisites: ENVP U6233. Some background in microeconomics is highly recommended. This course covers the theory and practice of Environmental Finance. The course assumes that students have an understanding of financial; and economic concepts, especially Commodity Markets, Project Finance and Investing. The course is divided into three segments; first will cover how environmental commodity markets work and how markets can be used to regulate polluting industries. The second segment covers the financing of environmental projects. The last segment will cover investing in environmental markets, and socially responsible investing.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Urvashi Kaul
  Info
• 3 points

Environmental Finance: Scaling Up Clean

This class will address Environmental and climate challenges, the role of public sector funding and financing, and the need and potential for private sector investment and financing; The current state of clean energy deployment around the world: wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, ocean, and biomass, plus nuclear and cleaner fossil fuel options, and advanced transportation and vehicles, and energy efficiency, with attention to the financial characteristics of each; Methods and practices for clean energy investment and financing including government funding and incentives, corporate financing and project financing; Who the players are, and their respective activities and roles including government and corporate sponsors, multilateral development banks, commercial banks, equity investors, capital market equity and debt investors, and others. Students should leave the course with a better understanding of how the world is responding to the challenge of clean energy financing and a sense of where and how they might forge a career.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Eckhart
  Info
• 1.5 points

Politics & Policy of Urban Sustainabilit

Politics & Policy-Urban Sustai

Cities are increasingly recognized as a key level of government for environmental and sustainability policy. As at all levels, politics and policy are intensely intertwined, and perhaps moreso at the local level because the decisions involved often affect constituents directly and intimately -- in their neighborhoods, in their homes, in their commutes. This colloquium explores both the politics and the policy of sustainability in the municipal context. Covering a range of sustainability issues -- such as air quality, public health, and transportation -- it looks at the dynamics of making change happen at the local level, including variations in power among municipal governments; how issues get defined and allocated; how stakeholder management takes place (or doesnt); how agencies and levels of government interfere with each other; and how best practices can (and cannot) be transferred internationally. The course is reading-intense and includes case studies by historians rather than political scientists. The focus of most readings is on the United States, but students research projects will require looking beyond the US and transferring practices to a US city.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Rohit T Aggarwala
  Wikipedia h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

Energy Policy

The course provides a survey and analysis of the various dimensions, domestic and international, of policy formulation that, taken together, constitute energy policy. These dimensions include contributing to access to and production of natural energy resources; insuring the security and reliability of energy sources; promoting the diversity of fuels and development of new technologies in light of energy security and climate change mitigation objectives; promoting energy conservation and energy efficiency; environmental regulation at the domestic (air and water quality) and global (climate) levels. The objectives inspiring these policies are pursued through a combination of reliance on energy markets; subsidies and tax policy; development of energy infrastructure and a broad array of international policies influencing relations among and between net exporting and net importing countries. The origin of each policy issue, and lessons from significant market failures, are examined and the consequences of policy alternatives are evaluated. The major legal and regulatory themes of U.S. energy policy are examined (Part 1) and so are the essential dimensions of international policies affecting the international energy scene.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Jason E Bordoff
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Urban Social Policy

This course surveys social policymaking processes and outcomes from the perspective of cities in various parts of the world. It offers students analytical and empirical tools to better understand urban social problems (e.g. slums, homelessness, youth unemployment, child abuse, health risks) and the corresponding policies that promote more affordable, productive, inclusive, and healthier cities amidst fiscal constraints and intense economic competition. Case studies are utilized to delve deeper into specific issues, such as gender inequality, child welfare, cultural contexts, technologyenabled social innovation, public-private partnerships, and non-traditional redistributive programs. At the end of the semester we will hold the “Urban Social Policy Convention--The Cases of Success and Failures.” This event will deepen our understanding of emerging best practices and policies that have failed. This will help us to formulate new approaches in the future.

• R 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Yumiko T Shimabukuro
  Info
• 3 points

Development Practice Lab I

Development Practioner's Lab I

DP-Labs I & II are two full-semester, 3-credit courses with a first-year spring course focused on skills and tools around program design and a second-year fall course focused on skills around program management and leadership. The DP-Labs will bookend MPA-DP students’ 3-month professional summer placements, allowing for DP-Lab I skills to be applied over the summer and for DP Lab II to process those experiences as real case studies and examples. These skills will be applied to final semester capstone projects and allow students to synthesize lessons learned for their eventual job search and career development. DP-Lab I is designed to introduce students to key tools, techniques, and approaches used by development practitioners when diagnosing problems and designing programs.  Throughout the semester, students will receive hands-on training by experienced practitioners in high priority skill areas, while looking at communications and ethics and power as cross-cutting themes that can be applied to all skills.

• TR 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• 3 points

Development Practice Lab I

DP-Labs I & II are two full-semester, 3-credit courses with a first-year spring course focused on skills and tools around program design and a second-year fall course focused on skills around program management and leadership. The DP-Labs will bookend MPA-DP students’ 3-month professional summer placements, allowing for DP-Lab I skills to be applied over the summer and for DP Lab II to process those experiences as real case studies and examples. These skills will be applied to final semester capstone projects and allow students to synthesize lessons learned for their eventual job search and career development. DP-Lab I is designed to introduce students to key tools, techniques, and approaches used by development practitioners when diagnosing problems and designing programs.  Throughout the semester, students will receive hands-on training by experienced practitioners in high priority skill areas, while looking at communications and ethics and power as cross-cutting themes that can be applied to all skills.

• TR 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• 1.5 points

Role of States, Cities, & Subnationals i

Meeting Climate Challenge

This course examines the role of states, cities, and other sub-nationals in crafting and implementing the policy, technical, and behavioral changes necessary to address the climate crisis. While this topic has received increased attention since the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the reality is that cities, states, and other sub-nationals would still have an enormous, if not leading, role to play even with a cooperative federal government. Indeed, one could argue that subnationals represent the front lines in the fight. Substantively, our focus will be on the role of these actors in driving the necessary transition to clean energy, perhaps the key component in the overall effort to combat climate change. The energy sector is also particularly fertile ground for state and city action since states and cities oversee their power grids, establish building codes, and regulate electric and other utilities. Many of the issues and dynamics we will examine in the energy area also have direct application to other aspects of climate policy, such as food and agriculture and land use. The goal of the course is to get students to think more deeply about climate change and the complex intersection of science, economics, and politics that makes policy in this area so interesting and, at the same time, so difficult.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Adam Zurofsky
  Info
• 3 points

Financing Sustainable Development: The R

This course will focus on the practice of financing sustainable development. During the past several years, there has been significant attention given to the challenges of mobilizing public and private finance for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) have spurred a significant amount of activity in public policy, regulation, new financial instruments and asset class development. As a result, financing sustainable development is even more complicated than it was before, and requires students to have an understanding of a broad range of topics. The goal of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the practical realities of the topic of sustainable finance. The course instructor has been directly involved with major aspects of the topic, including as a policy advisor to the United Nations, an expert advisor to the Asian Development Bank and Uganda Development Bank, and a senior executive at various global financial institutions.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Aniket A Shah
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• 1.5 points

Defense Budgeting and Economics

Defense Budgeting & Economics

This course will cover defense budgeting and economics from various perspectives and with various methodologies. The course is not built exclusively around the current policy debate; the focus will often be on methodologies of more general application. That said, case studies will often examine contemporary issues, primarily but not exclusively those involving the United States.

• 3 points

Economics of European Integration

Econ of European Integration

A policy-oriented but theory-based course on the current state of economic integration in the European Union.  Topics include: macroeconomic policy responses to the Covid-19 crisis; the impact of Brexit; design failures of the Eurozone and steps to completing the Banking Union and Monetary Union; monetary policy of the ECB; fiscal policies and fiscal rules; EU labor markets; the Common Agricultural Policy and environmental policy; tax and competition policy for high tech firms in a digital economy; EU trade policy particularly relations with the U.S. and with China.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Seamus C O'Cleireacain
  Info
• 3 points

Corporate Finance

Corporate finance is an introductory finance course. It is a central course for students taking the international finance track of the International Finance and Economic Policy (IFEP) concentration. The course is designed to cover those areas of business finance which are important for all managers, whether they specialize in finance or not. Three fundamental questions will be addressed in this course: How much funding does a firm require to carry out its business plan? How should the firm acquire the necessary funds? Even if the funds are available, is the business plan worthwhile? In considering these questions, the following topics will be covered: analyzing historical uses of funds; formulating and projecting funding needs; analyzing working capital management; choosing among alternative sources of external funding for company operations; identifying costs of funds from various sources; valuing simple securities; evaluating investment opportunities; valuing a company based on its projected free cash flow The course will combine lecture time and in-class case discussions, for which students should prepare fully. The goal of the course is to provide students with an understanding of both sound theoretical principles of finance and the practical environment in which financial decisions are made.

• TR 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• TR 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• TR 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• F 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• F 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• F 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Gailen L Hite
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• Instructor: Deborah McLean
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• 3 points

Macroeconomics for International and Pub

Prerequisites: SIPA U6300 or SIPA U6400 This course continues the one-year sequence initiated with SIPA U6300 and focuses on macroeconomics. The goal of this course is to provide you with the analytical framework to examine and interpret observed economic events in the global economy. We will first familiarize with the measurement of the macroeconomic variables that are used to evaluate the well-being of nations. Next, we will build from microeconomic principles to clarify the causal links between macroeconomic aggregates. The subject matter will always refer to concrete situations with a particular focus on the causes and effects of the current global financial crisis. The controversial nature of macroeconomic policies will be central.

• MW 9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
• MW 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• TR 9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
• TR 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• R 2:10 p.m.-3:40 p.m.
• R 6:10 p.m.-7:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas Groll
  h-index: 7 Info
• 3 points