Offered by the Committee on Higher Degrees in Public Policy

The PhD in Public Policy provides advanced graduate training to exceptional scholars preparing for responsible positions in government, academic institutions, and research organizations. Participants in the program explore the questions of what government should do and how better governance can be achieved. The program furthers the primary mission of training capable leaders for the public sector by facilitating the scholarly research that enables public policy practitioners to make ever more informed policy choices. Recipients of this degree are also qualified to be future teachers in public policy and related academic fields.

Admissions and Residence

The Committee on Higher Degrees at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) serves as the admissions committee for applicants to the PhD in Public Policy. Candidates are expected to have a distinguished undergraduate record regardless of undergraduate concentration. Admissions decisions are based on the excellence of the candidate's academic record, test scores, recommendations, and a demonstrated ability and motivation to pursue research. Solid quantitative skills are an important part of successful applications. Mathematical preparation should include multivariable calculus.

Note to applicants from the Kennedy School only: Applicants for doctoral study may apply as early as the first term in residence. In most cases a student will apply at the midpoint of the second year. Kennedy School students should speak to the Program Director regarding the specific details of applying to the doctoral program.

All applicants are required to take the GRE no later than November 2011. Students whose native language is not English must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) unless they have already completed a degree from an institution in which the language of instruction is English.

For more detailed program information, consult the Website maintained at the Harvard Kennedy School. All applications must include a writing sample that is a single-authored research paper that has a policy focus. Please include an abstract and this writing sample should not exceed 10,000 words.

Tuition and Financial Aid

Full tuition is charged during the first two years of study, and reduced tuition is charged in the second two years of study. The facilities fee is charged for any additional years in residence. Typical aid packages include four years of tuition plus two years of stipend. Students are eligible for teaching fellowships and research assistantships to help finance their studies. Please consult the GSAS Guide to Admission and Financial Aid for complete instructions.

Applicants who are US citizens or permanent residents of the US should determine if they are eligible for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Minority Graduate Research Fellowship, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship for Minorities (202-334-2872), or the US Department of Education's Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship (202-502-7542).

Most students are also eligible for teaching fellowships, research assistantships, and loans. Research assistantships are available through affiliations with the Kennedy School's research centers in science and international affairs; human rights policy; social policy; business and government; state, local and intergovernmental studies; international development; public leadership; the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations; the Joint Center for Housing Studies; and the Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy. While most of these centers support students after the first year, the Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy offers research support to eligible first-year students as well.

Program of Study

During the first two years, PhD candidates must demonstrate proficiency in the areas of theory, methods, and a substantive special field. The theory area includes economics and politics/political philosophy/public management. The methods area includes qualitative methods, quantitative methods and analytical methods. The special field includes, among other areas, environmental policy, international economic policy, science and technology policy, international security relations, risk assessment, economic regulatory policy, and international development. Appropriate courses in the student's special field must be approved by the PhD Committee. All others should be drawn from the published list of courses. In two fields (Analytical Methods and Public Management) students may demonstrate proficiency by a combination of course work and written qualifying examinations. Proficiency in quantitative methods and qualitative methods may be demonstrated by satisfactory completion of one doctoral course in each area. Students have the option of making quantitative methods the field of specialization, to be fulfilled by two doctoral courses in the area. All students must also attend the PhD research seminar, API 901, in their first year.

Students advance to the oral general examination after passing their doctoral coursework and written qualifying examinations. A primary field of substantive interest and a secondary field that may be a disciplinary or methodological area are examined at the end of the second year in residence.

Prospectus and Dissertation

After completing the Oral General Exam, students cross-register for the Kennedy School's PhD Proseminar (API 902) during their third year of study. This portion of the seminar is designed for the presentation and discussion of student research papers in general, and specifically for the development of a dissertation topic. By the end of this course, students must present a completed prospectus to the Committee on Higher Degrees in Public Policy. Approval of the prospectus is contingent upon a successful oral presentation to two of the three dissertation committee members at the end of the third year in residence.

The dissertation is expected to represent a significant contribution to knowledge in a policy area, or to yield insight aimed more broadly at improving the functioning of government. Most dissertations involve the application of analytic techniques to the solution of a substantive problem. A few methodological dissertations concentrate on developing new analytic techniques, their usefulness to be demonstrated through explicit application to a policy issue.

Dissertation Defense

After completing all other requirements for the degree, the candidate must pass an oral defense of the dissertation. The dissertation examiners will include at least two readers who are serving as dissertation supervisors, one of whom must be a Kennedy School faculty member on the PhD Committee, and one of whom must hold an appointment at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The third committee member may be chosen by the student from any department at the University. Additional members of the committee may include a non-Harvard faculty member or a Harvard professor emeritus.

General

One chapter of the dissertation must be completed each year after the fourth year in the program. Except by special vote of the committee, all work for the PhD degree must be completed within seven years of residency.

Recent Dissertation Titles

"Integrating Information and Decision Making in a Multi-Level World: Cross-scale Environmental Science and Management"

"Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana"

"Norms and Membership Conditionality: The Role of European Institutions in Ethnic Politics in Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, and Romania"

"Essays on Institutions and Finance"

"Policy Coordination, Political Structure, and Public Debt: The Political Economy of Public Debt Accumulation in OECD Countries Since 1960"

"Strategy and Psychology in Environmental Assessment"

"The Management and Performance of Microfinance Organizations"

"Essays on Monetary Policy and Debt Accumulation"

"Land, Money and Politics: Essays on Government Intervention in Housing Markets"

"Living as a Debtor in a World of Sudden Stops: The roles of exposure to trade and commitment"

"Household Behavior and Energy Demand: Evidence from Peru"

"The Economic Interdependence of China and the World"

"A Comparative Study of Income Inequality, Corruption, and Social Trust"

"Administrative Reform as Credible Commitment: The Design, Sustainability, and Performance of Semi-autonomous Revenue Authorities in Latin America"

"Federalism and the Policy Process: Using Basic Education as a Test-case of Decentralization in Mexico"

"The Effects of Freeway Management Systems and Motorist Assistance Patrols on the Frequency of Reported Motor Vehicle Crashes"

"The Political Economy of Institutional Change in the Electricity Supply Industry"

"Pension Reform in Economies with Large Informal Sectors: The Case of the Ukraine"

"Essays in Program Evaluation"

"Essays on the Changing Labor Market: Computerization, Inequality, and the Development of the Contingent Work Force"

"Keeping the Job You Find: Understanding Job Turnover Among Welfare Recipients Who Obtain Work"

"Incentives in Health Care Payment Systems"

"Structural Change and Technological Diffusion in Transition Economies: Implications for Energy Use and Carbon Emissions in China"

"A Theory of the Determinants of R&D: Consumer Characteristics and Technological Competence"

"A Theoretical and Empirical Examination of Land Use Change Under Uncertainty"

"Speed Bumps and Road Blocks: Procedural Controls and Regulatory Change"

"Silence, Sacrifice, and Shoofly Pies: An Inquiry into the Social Capital and Organizational Structures of the Amish Community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania"

"In Search of a Second Chance: The Consequences of GED Certification, Education, and Training for Young Women Without Traditional High School Diplomas"

"Skill Mismatch, Turnover, and the Development of Young Workers' Careers"

"After the Peace Agreement: Lessons for Implementation from Mozambique, Angola, and Liberia"

"Essays in Environmental Economics and Policy"

"Child Care Arrangements Among Low- Income Families: A Qualitative Approach"

"Between Politics and Markets: The Institutional Allocation of Resources in Higher Education"

"Money and Mission: How Nonprofit Organizations Finance Their Charitable Activities"

"Centralization or Democratization: Assessing the Internet's Impact on Policy Networks"

Members of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Public Policy