Prof Patrick Dunleavy and Dr Lloyd Gruber

plus supervisors from MPA-owning departments

This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy and MPA in Public and Social Policy. This course is not available as an outside option.

Students may not take this course and an MPA Dissertation

MPA students will write an individually-authored MPA Policy Paper on a topic developed in consultation with their MPA supervisor. This paper will analyse a concrete policy problem in a specific setting and proposes an evidence-based solution or course of amelioration. Papers cannot exceed 6,000 words and should be clearly and directly written, suitable for consideration by policy-makers.

6 hours of lectures in the MT.

A title, abstract, and MPA Policy Paper proposal (of no more than 750 words in total). Students will have these items returned, with comments, within two weeks of submission.

David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining, Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 5th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2010); Lisa Anderson, ed., Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005); Edith Stokey and Richard Zeckhauser, A Primer for Policy Analysis (Norton, 1978); Anthony E. Boardman et al., Cost-Benefit Analysis, 4th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2010); William N. Dunn, Public Policy Analysis: An Introduction, 4th ed. (Pearson, 2008); Eugene Bardach, Practical Guide for Policy Analysis, 4th ed. (CQ Press, 2011); Alec Fisher, The Logic of Real Arguments (Cambridge University Press, 1988); Charles Lindblom and David K. Cohen, Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving (Yale University Press, 1979); Shahid Yusuf, Development Economics through the Decades: A Critical Look at 30 Years of the World Development Report (World Bank, 2008); Patrick Dunleavy, Authoring a PhD (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

Essay (100%, 6000 words) in the ST.

Students are encouraged to work on their policy paper from MT onwards.