PAC906 | Policy Analysis and Clinic

The key aim of this course is to prepare students to carry out policy analysis as client-centered advice on a specific problem. Client-orientation is demonstrated by distinguishing policy analysis in the practice world compared to academic policy science research. This course works in tandem with next trimester course on Policy Design. In this course, students will be given policy problems, and help them to look the problem from several angles. Then, they will be trained to gather data (first trimester course on Intro to Data Systems will be useful here) to analyze various alternative solutions. Compared to this, in the Policy Design course, students will be given situations and issues. They will be asked to formulate problems, which are solvable through policy intervention.

Apart from this, students will also be trained in a range of policy communications such as self-introductions in professional context, policy argumentation with stakeholders, writing policy briefs and memos. Students will be given concrete small-scale problems (not large-scale policy problems) and asked to find alternative solutions, and to compute costs and benefits for such problems.