PH.D. in PUBLIC POLICY
STUDY GUIDE FOR COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
The purpose of the comprehensive examination is to evaluate student competency in core
curriculum areas focused on in the program. The exam will ask students to integrate and
consolidate the material learned in the first two years of coursework. Students will be asked a
series of questions about case material which cover fundamental issues in politics, economics,
and analytic methods. In the quantitative exam, students will be given a data set, and asked to
conduct analyses to answer specific questions about the data set. The exam usually also offers a
few questions among which students have some choice so that they can emphasize areas where
they feel they have more expertise.
The best way to study for the examination is to review course notes, readings and exercises, and
the critical feedback one has received from faculty over the course of the program. You will be
asked to use theories and methods covered in the courses and to give specific citations to course
materials on the exam.
Study groups and review of past exams are strongly encouraged. Copies of all past exam
questions, case material and sample passing exams are on file in the Program Office.
Competencies which students will be expected to demonstrate at the end of their first two years
of study are the ability to:
From the Quantitative Methods Area
1. Use univarite and bivariate descriptive statistics, such as the mean, median, standard
deviation, correlation, confidence intervals etc. This includes an ability to perform some
common hypotheses tests involving two-way measures of association: difference of means
tests, chi-square tests for independence of categorical variables etc.
2. Specify a model, given a theoretical context and set of data. Identify what are the
dependent and independent variables appropriate for the analysis. Identify possible
confounding factors that should be included in the model. Operationalize the variables
appropriately--for example, specify a categorical variable as a set of dummy variables
where appropriate. Be familiar with various mathematical forms, or ways, in which
factors can enter a model, such as in quadratic form, logarithmic form, or as an
interaction.
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3. Select and identify the appropriate statistical technique for estimating the model. Be
familiar with regression (Ordinary Least Squares, or the Classical Linear Regression
model, and probit/logit estimators).
4. Diagnose the adequacy of a specification, that is to assess whether the functional form
appears reasonable, and whether there are problems regarding violations of the
assumptions of the Classical Linear Regression model, such as missing variables,
heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, etc.
5. Formulate appropriate hypotheses in terms of the coefficients of a model, and test those
hypotheses. This includes an ability to interpret the tests commonly presented in standard
estimation outputs and in addition, an ability to form and interpret the appropriate tests
when the standard model outputs do not contain the necessary information.
From the Research Methods Area:
Formulate an appropriate research/evaluation strategy for assessing the need, status, or outcomes
in a policy area, including:
1. ability to formulate researchable questions or hypotheses
2. ability to determine data/information requirements for answering the questions/testing the
hypotheses
3. ability to identify and select an appropriate methodological approach (es) for acquiring the
necessary information such as existing data, survey, (quasi) experiment, key informant,
participatory/consumer driven, process, goal oriented etc.
4. ability to specify, within the particular methodological approach chosen, the implementation
decisions that must be made, including data collection techniques, sampling procedure, sample
size, selection of control group (s), selection and definition of key variables, issues of
measurement, procedures of assessing reliability and validity etc.
From the Foundations/Political Economy/Planning Areas:
1. Discuss the theoretical underpinnings of a policy, its alternatives, and the events surrounding
implementation of the policy. Students should be able to describe policy approaches as having
roots in the conservative, liberal or radical perspective.
2. Discuss the moral principles and normative theory that underlie the major political
perspectives.
3. Analyze the historical antecedents of a policy area such as the social, political, cultural and/or
economic conditions which led to the origin of the policy area, the context of the development of
current policies, and some analysis of the current context for policy implementation.
4. Select and justify a specific analytic approach to informing public decision makers about
policy alternatives in a specific policy area (i.e. cost, risk, impact, decision, values, matrix).
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5. Carry out a preliminary analysis using the selected analytic framework, and be able to identify
"what one would do" given more time and information.
6. Identify major implementation challenges in a policy area and propose implementation policies
and tactics that increase the chance of successful policy implementation.
7. Identify differential effects of a particular policy by race, gender, class, and geography,
including the sources and implications of the differential impacts.
8. Identify and recognize any ethical dilemmas involved in a policy choice and understand the
way competing ethical frameworks and perspectives may lead to differing formulations and
resolutions to these dilemmas.
From the Economics Area:
1. Describe how outcomes (prices and quantities) are determined in individual markets as a result
of the interaction of supply (reflecting firms' cost of production) and demand (reflecting
consumer preferences). How changes in factors underlying supply and/or demand affect market
outcomes. How markets for labor are similar to, and how they are different from, other markets.
2. Understand the distinction between partial equilibrium and general equilibrium analysis of
economic outcomes.
3. Understand the appropriate criteria to use in evaluating the operation of an individual market
or of a market system, making use of concepts such as opportunity cost, efficiency, and Pareto
optimality. The conditions under which markets can be expected to work well in terms of these
criteria, and the conditions which are likely to lead to market failure. The role of alternative
market structures (e.g., perfect competition, imperfect competition, oligopoly, and monopoly),
information availability, and externalities in analyzing an issue.
4. Understand the appropriate roles of government (s) in the economy, in the light of market
failures and other relevant considerations--including government as producer (public enterprises),
as a regulator, as a provider of good and services produced by private firms, and as provider of
cash payments. Principles to guide government actions in carrying out each of these roles (e.g.
determining appropriate output levels and prices for public enterprises; regulatory policies in
various areas; level of provision of various good and services; and determining the appropriate
tax structure and level of taxation).
5. Identify the relationships between important macroeconomic variables (inflation,
unemployment, output, investment, government debt etc.) and know how the IS/LM, AD/AS,
and Phillips curve models help explain these relationships.
6. Be able to trace the policy implications associated with short- and long-run economic
performance. Know how these affect the possibilities for policy at the state and local level.
7. Know the costs and benefits associated with particular policy choices and those associated
with doing nothing.
8. Distinguish the sources of long- and short-run growth (e.g. labor, technology change, savings
etc.).
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From the Politics Area:
1. Understand the main approaches to analyzing power and markets, including how particular
actors are able to most easily and cheaply intervene in the policy process.
2. Identify who is actually shaping the public discussion of a subject and those who may be left
out (in whole or part) with regard to a particular policy issue. Who is organized and who is not?
Have one or the other political parties taken a position? If neither has, why not? Exactly who is
being quoted in the news media on the subject and what are their institutional positions? Where
do the statistics quoted in the media come from?
3. Understand to what extent the broad characteristics of a political system (constitutional rules,
level of governments involved, role of the legislature vis a vis executive branch, and patterns of
access, including voting and non-voting) help control a political outcome. To what extent is
money an important political resource in bringing about a certain state of affairs or decision? Do
the political parties make a difference?
Are thre any organized interests that are clearly involved in public debates that may be reluctant
to appear in public? To what extent might parts of the business community divide on questions
of public policy?
4. If public opinion polls are cited in debates, can they pass elementary tests for being sensible?
(i.e., were respondents allowed to have no opinion, were filters employed to see who knew
anything about the issue? How big was the sample, and is there any evidence of response
effects?)
5. Identify how various constituency groups match up with the various parts of government, i.e.
who are the "clientele" of particular government agencies.
6. Describe to what extent the internal structure of the legislature has an impact on how the
process of policy formulation works, i.e. to what extent do hearings matter? expert testimony?
and where do experts come from?
7. Identify the orientation of institutional actors (e.g, .the state welfare agency) about a specific
issue, and the ways in which different institutional actors (ex. executive agency versus
legislature, vs governor's office) relate to different constituencies and how this affects the policy
process.
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