This course is designed for future leaders and top-level advisors within both governmental and non-governmental (i.e. private for-profit and non-profit) organizations. The goal is to introduce the participants to the basic concepts, skills, and tools of “positive political theory” in policymaking.

This course asks how global cooperation can help meet global challenges. The readings, lectures, and class discussions address ongoing debates over the prospects for global governance. Special attention is given to the role of international institutions, including the United Nations, regional organizations, and international financial institutions. We discuss global policies on investment and trade, combating poverty, and sustainable development.

This course equips mid-career professionals with the statistical tools needed to make data-informed decisions in public management and policy contexts. The course begins with foundational concepts in probability and statistics and advances through hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and applied data interpretation. Emphasis is placed on practical application, allowing students to critically evaluate research and apply quantitative findings to real-world policy and business challenges.

Microeconomics and Policy Analysis introduces mid-career professionals to the core analytical tools of microeconomics and their application to real-world policy and management decisions. The course emphasizes how individuals, firms, and governments make decisions under constraints, and how markets function and sometimes fail. Topics include supply and demand, consumer and producer behavior, market structure, welfare analysis, externalities, public goods, and government interventions.

This course examines key issues in open economy macroeconomics, including the determinants of exchange rates; causes and consequences of inflation; central banking and international monetary arrangements; the money supply process in open economies; capital flows and global banking; the balance of payments and current account imbalances; national income accounting and the nature of twin deficits; the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policies in open economies; fixed versus flexible exchange rates; the economics of monetary integration, and the role of the supply side and long-run economi

Pre-req: EMPA IA8213 - Microeconomics or equivalent. Familiarity with Excel is strongly recommended. This course introduces students to the principles and practice of cost-benefit analysis for evaluating policies and projects. Emphasizing practical skills over theoretical complexity, students will learn to apply key tools, including valuation methods, discounting, sensitivity analysis, and Excel-based modeling.

Public Finance introduces the nuances of the US municipal financing market from the perspective of issuers, investors and intermediaries. Students will learn about traditional fixed rate bond structures, but will also look at innovative financing techniques that have been implemented in recent years. In-depth discussions of interest rate markets, especially the impacts of Federal Reserve policies and recent inflation pressures, and their impact on financing will be a key area of study.

This course equips mid-career professionals with actionable frameworks, tools, and insights to lead organizational change, drive performance, and manage complex challenges in the public and nonprofit sectors. Across 12 highly interactive sessions, students examine case-based scenarios that explore how managers conceive and implement value-driven strategies, navigate organizational dynamics, and deliver measurable results.

Current and future public sector leaders face serious challenges in overcoming society’s most difficult and intractable social and environmental issues. Although many of our world’s problems may seem too great and too complex to solve—inequality, climate change, affordable housing, food insecurity—solutions to these challenges do exist, and will be found through new partnerships bringing together leaders from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management I Core. Leadership in Action integrates strategic leadership frameworks, real-world case studies, and an immersive multi-week simulation to build students’ capacity to lead in complex, high-stakes environments. Through a sequence of applied exercises, ranging from team formation and innovation design to crisis response, students will develop critical skills in decision-making, influence, and organizational change.

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. This course introduces students to the field of public management, focusing on the tools and strategies managers use to influence organizational behavior and deliver public services. Through lectures, case studies, discussions, and group projects, students will explore management practices in government and in nonprofit and private organizations that partner with the public sector. The course draws on examples from New York City and U.S. agencies, as well as comparative cases from Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

The EMPA Capstone Workshop is a culminating experience in which students apply the practical skills and analytical knowledge acquired during the program to a real-world policy or management challenge. Working in small consulting teams under faculty supervision, students engage with an external client to address a defined problem, conduct research, and deliver actionable recommendations.

The Portfolio Presentation Workshop is a culminating course that enables students to synthesize and showcase what they have learned throughout the Executive MPA program. Students develop and present an individual project focused on improving an organization, launching a new initiative, or conducting a case study of a significant policy or management issue. Each student draws upon prior coursework, professional experience, and new research to produce a final written report and two structured presentations.

This course will introduce students to the global context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through comparative business perspectives. It is presented in a seminar format and designed to blend the theoretical definitions, ideas, and frameworks with the examination of practical applications through a series of real-world case studies. We will look at the way business and ethical considerations are affected by different social, labor, political, and environmental factors and how these factors lead to the decision-making process around CSR strategies.

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.

Communicating in Organizations is a survey course that explores aspects of day-to-day managerial communication relating to presentations and other high-profile moments and more familiar elements of interpersonal communication.

This semester-long SIPA class is a project-based course designed to help introduce students to documentary film technique, and help student teams produce documentaries on local issues. The course offers rich custom-produced guides to smart phone filming, interviewing technique, field production and editing, as well as small group mentoring sessions and workshops.

This course examines modern policing in the United States through historical, legal, racial, and political lenses. Students will explore the evolution of policing practices and their implications for civil rights, public trust, and public safety. Key topics include police recruitment and training, disciplinary procedures, technology in law enforcement, use-of-force guidelines, and the impact of police unions. The course will evaluate the role of social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, in advancing reform and will analyze policy recommendations implemented in cities across the U.S.

In all societies, public policies are developed to solve social problems such as extreme poverty, inequality, basic sanitation, health and basic care, family planning, food security, mental health, abuse of illegal substances, education, and protection of vulnerable groups. How can we ensure that these public policies are based on solid evidence, which would guarantee the greatest probability of effectiveness? And how do we plan and adapt the implementation of these policies to different realities, respecting cultural and historical differences?

This course explores the institutional frameworks and financial mechanisms that shape affordable housing policy in the United States. Designed for students seeking a practical understanding of housing finance, the course examines how public and private sectors collaborate to address the needs of low- and moderate-income households.

In all societies, public policies are developed to solve social problems such as extreme poverty, inequality, basic sanitation, health and basic care, family planning, food security, mental health, abuse of illegal substances, education, and protection of vulnerable groups. How can we ensure that these public policies are based on solid evidence, which would guarantee the greatest probability of effectiveness? And how do we plan and adapt the implementation of these policies to different realities, respecting cultural and historical differences?

This seminar surveys the defining political economy issues of our time. It explores the interplay between politics and economics in the substantive issue areas of economic growth, industrial capitalist development, social welfare and inequality, financial crisis, and global migration. The seminar surveys the most provocative and influential contributions across multiple fields of study, drawing on a wide range of research methods.

This course is designed to help students use economic reasoning to analyze public policy.  It is centered around the government budget and the revenue and public spending choices that need to be made in the context of balancing the government budget.  We will learn about revenue sources and expenditure needs, and the balance between spending and the resources needed for such spending.  An important goal of the class is to have students apply economic concepts to current public policy issues.  Students learn not only economic concepts, but also how to explain them to deci

This course provides an introduction to the political economy of finance, trade, and international monetary policy, presenting both theoretical perspectives and more policy-oriented concerns.  The course requires no knowledge of formal economic models, but it does presume familiarity with basic concepts in open economy macroeconomics and finance. Students without this background may find several sections of the course very difficult. The course has three main sections.  The first examines the political economy of the global monetary system.  We begin

This course applies the economic approach to understanding financial markets, institutions, and business behavior. Students will learn core economic theories relevant to finance and apply them to practical problems. Topics include consumption and exchange, decision-making under uncertainty, asset pricing, market efficiency, and the limits of rationality. The course emphasizes conceptual understanding and economic intuition over technical rigor.

This course examines the evolution of capital markets in emerging economies and the forces shaping their current and future trajectories. Through a combination of case studies, financial theory, and practitioner insights, students will explore sovereign defaults, financial crises, policy responses, and structural reforms across Latin America, Asia, and beyond. Key topics include the influence of global liquidity cycles, the rise of China, ESG investment trends, and the implications of new technologies such as generative AI.

This course explores both the theory and policy of international trade. In the first half, students will learn why countries trade, what determines trade patterns, and how trade affects prices, welfare, and income distribution. Key models covered include the Ricardian, Specific Factors, and Heckscher-Ohlin models, along with extensions on migration and offshoring. In the second half, the course focuses on trade policy instruments such as tariffs, quotas, and subsidies, examining their effects under different market structures.

This course explores sovereign risk through the lens of credit rating agency methodologies, historical debt crises, and contemporary developments in sovereign debt markets. Students will examine the interplay of fiscal, institutional, political, financial, and geopolitical dynamics that shape sovereign creditworthiness. Students will gain fluency in rating criteria, peer comparisons, and debt sustainability analyses, with a focus on Moody’s sovereign bond rating methodology. The course culminates in a mock credit rating committee exercise.

This course offers students a strategic and applied framework for understanding the global financial services industry, spanning commercial and investment banking, asset and wealth management, central banking, and financial regulation. Students will examine the sector’s evolution, current challenges, and future direction. Topics include risk management, regulatory change, financial technology, global competitive positioning, and the strategic dilemmas faced by CEOs in a post-2008 financial landscape.

This seminar will focus on key topics in international finance and monetary theory, with particular attention to the relationship between monetary policy and financial markets. Central banks play a significant role in shaping global financial markets, but financial markets can, in turn, influence central banks and monetary policy. Understanding the feedback effects between the two is essential for both market participants and policymakers.

This seminar surveys the defining political economy issues of our time. It explores the interplay between politics and economics in the substantive issue areas of economic growth, industrial capitalist development, social welfare and inequality, financial crisis, and global migration. The seminar surveys the most provocative and influential contributions across multiple fields of study, drawing on a wide range of research methods.

This course provides an advanced introduction to core theories of international relations and their application to real-world policymaking in a global context. Students will examine foundational and contemporary analytical frameworks, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, game theory, selectorate theory, decision-making models, two-level game theory, and complex interdependence.

In all societies, public policies are developed to solve social problems such as extreme poverty, inequality, basic sanitation, health and basic care, family planning, food security, mental health, abuse of illegal substances, education, and protection of vulnerable groups. How can we ensure that these public policies are based on solid evidence, which would guarantee the greatest probability of effectiveness? And how do we plan and adapt the implementation of these policies to different realities, respecting cultural and historical differences?

Cities such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and Mumbai, have been at the heart of deepening economic, social and political globalization. International trade, financial flows, the arts, and migration have shaped their process of urbanization and position in national life and they in turn have influenced the character of globalization. Policymakers in global cities have abundant resources at their disposal but face complicated governance challenges due to their size, complexity and deep linkages to the rest of the world.

This course examines central issues in contemporary international security policy such as general causes of war, American primacy and the rising challenge from China, terrorism and unconventional warfare, nationalism and ethnic strife, humanitarian intervention and global justice, the role of new technologies, environmental conflict and cooperation, and key concepts in the study of international politics and conflict.

International migration’s substantial economic and social effects are at the forefront of today’s academic discussion, international debate, as well as national policy strategies. This course introduces students to the key notions, norms, and narratives of international migration from economic, sociological, legal, policy, international relations, and normative perspectives.

This course offers students a strategic and applied framework for understanding the global financial services industry, spanning commercial and investment banking, asset and wealth management, central banking, and financial regulation. Students will examine the sector’s evolution, current challenges, and future direction. Topics include risk management, regulatory change, financial technology, global competitive positioning, and the strategic dilemmas faced by CEOs in a post-2008 financial landscape.

United Nations and Globalization introduces the various ways in which the United Nations affect global governance. Over the last decade, every aspect of global governance has become subjected to review and debate: peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the future of humanitarianism, a new climate change architecture, human rights, a new sustainable development agenda, and the need for a new understanding of multilateralism.

This course explores welfare systems from a comparative perspective and analyzes the political, economic, socio-cultural, and historical factors that shape and sustain them in various parts of the world.  It pays particular attention to the development of key national social welfare policies, such as social security, health care, unemployment insurance, social assistance, public employment and training, and emerging best practices and challenges in these areas.

Cities such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and Mumbai, have been at the heart of deepening economic, social and political globalization. International trade, financial flows, the arts, and migration have shaped their process of urbanization and position in national life and they in turn have influenced the character of globalization. Policymakers in global cities have abundant resources at their disposal but face complicated governance challenges due to their size, complexity and deep linkages to the rest of the world.

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.

This course explores the institutional frameworks and financial mechanisms that shape affordable housing policy in the United States. Designed for students seeking a practical understanding of housing finance, the course examines how public and private sectors collaborate to address the needs of low- and moderate-income households.

This course is an introduction to how emerging hybrid models of traditional and digital organizing and advocacy are building unprecedented social justice movements in the United States. During the first half of the course, students will examine the theory and practice of successful traditional offline organizing and advocacy campaigns as well as principles and characteristics of successful digital activism.

Through case studies, guest presentations, literature reviews and interactive class sessions, this course will examine how social enterprise has challenged and transformed models for serving and empowering local communities. We will understand how it has inspired and been applied to business and impact models, and, even mindsets to improve the creation of public value in areas such as health, human services, workforce and small business development.

This course examines modern policing in the United States through historical, legal, racial, and political lenses. Students will explore the evolution of policing practices and their implications for civil rights, public trust, and public safety. Key topics include police recruitment and training, disciplinary procedures, technology in law enforcement, use-of-force guidelines, and the impact of police unions. The course will evaluate the role of social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, in advancing reform and will analyze policy recommendations implemented in cities across the U.S.

This course focuses on developing cities and transformative initiatives, especially in New York City. This course will examine a wide array of economic development projects and strategies. It will look at the core economic goals set forth nearly two decades ago to diversify the economy and make it less dependent on financial services, while examining the challenges faced by cities today in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In all societies, public policies are developed to solve social problems such as extreme poverty, inequality, basic sanitation, health and basic care, family planning, food security, mental health, abuse of illegal substances, education, and protection of vulnerable groups. How can we ensure that these public policies are based on solid evidence, which would guarantee the greatest probability of effectiveness? And how do we plan and adapt the implementation of these policies to different realities, respecting cultural and historical differences?

Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration. This is a course for thoughtful people who wish to influence actual policy outcomes related to sustainability challenges in major cities. Its objective is not to provide a primer on urban sustainability solutions; this is readily available from textbooks and will change by the time you are in a position to act. Rather, the course’s objective is to prepare you for the kind of challenges that will face you as a policy practitioner in the field of urban sustainability.

This course will examine the linkages between urban governance structures and an economically successful democratic city. We will consider the particular policy challenges that confront both developed and developing cities in the 21st century. It will be important to understand the institutional political causes of urban economic decline, the unique fiscal and legal constraints on city governments as well as the opportunities that only cities offer for democratic participation and sustainable economic growth.

All public policy occurs within a political context. The purpose of this seminar is to examine how politics impacts policy in America’s large cities. While we rely on case material from American cities, the theoretical frameworks, problems, and policy solutions we consider are relevant to understanding public policy in any global city.

This course is designed to prepare future policymakers to critically analyze and evaluate key urban policy issues in US cities. It is unique in offering exposure to both practical leadership experience and urban policy scholarship that will equip students to meet the challenges that face urban areas. Students are responsible for all the required readings and they will hear from an exciting array of guest lecturers from the governmental, not for-profit, and private sectors.

This course explores welfare systems from a comparative perspective and analyzes the political, economic, socio-cultural, and historical factors that shape and sustain them in various parts of the world.  It pays particular attention to the development of key national social welfare policies, such as social security, health care, unemployment insurance, social assistance, public employment and training, and emerging best practices and challenges in these areas.