ELECTIVES AND AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

After completing the bulk of the core curriculum in the first year, students can choose either two two-course concentrations or one four-course concentration in the second year. Currently, seven concentrations are offered: Health Policy; Environmental and Natural Resource Policy; Urban Poverty; Social Welfare Policy; Transportation and Urban Development; Regional Development Policy; and Employment and Labor Policy.

Students also have the option—with faculty approval—to design their own concentrations, taking advantage of the expertise of School faculty in such areas as crime control, drug policy, national security, international policy, and child and family policy, among others. Student-designed concentrations have included education policy (both early education and higher education), cultural policy, international conflict resolution and international economic development.

Electives can be used to deepen a selected concentration or to explore other areas. In addition to courses offered by the School’s departments of Social Welfare and Urban Planning, MPP candidates may choose from among the many other highly regarded UCLA graduate programs, including Economics; Political Science;* Sociology;* History;* Geography;* Engineering and Applied Science; Law; Management; and Public Health.

(*Ranked in the top 10 nationally by the National Research Council)

Health Policy

The health sector is the fastest-growing segment of the American economy, presenting challenges for both the public and private sectors. An understanding of how the components of the health care system work together is crucial for policy analysts. The Health Policy concentration gives students an understanding of health institutions and professions and how they work, both individually and together, and addresses many of the current policy issues central to ongoing policy debates: quality assurance, market restructuring, cost containment, health insurance reform, and control of medical technology. The full range of microeconomic and political analysis is applied to the multidimensional problems of the health care sector.

Health Policy courses include:

• M215. Health Policy
• M213. Mental Health Policy
• M268. Microeconomic Theory of the Health Sector
• M269. Health Care Policy and Finance
• M267. Medicare Reform

Environmental and Natural Resource Policy

Issues related to the environment and to the management of natural resources involve a complex array of institutional, legal, and policy factors. Students in this emphasis gain a basic understanding of the natural science aspects of environmental systems, and an in-depth understanding of the human systems that guide environmental decisions.

This knowledge is critical for writing laws and regulations, creating new domestic or international institutions, supervising environmental organizations, and operating environmental protection programs and resource management efforts. Courses for this emphasis include microeconomics, economic decisions, natural resource economics, risk management, data management and statistics, public policy, and environmental regulation and law.

Environmental and Natural Resource courses include:

• CM250. Environmental and Resource Economics and Policy
• M223. Transportation and Environmental Issues
• 234, Labor Markets and Social Policy

Urban Poverty

Poverty in the United States remains a serious social problem. After sustained reductions during the 1960s and early 1970s, poverty levels began to rise steadily. This growth has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the extent of concentrated poverty neighborhoods in metropolitan areas, with older central cities now housing a majority of these low-income populations. Even European countries are experiencing the growth of concentrated poverty neighborhoods in metropolitan areas. These trends are cause for serious concern, because poverty neighborhoods have been shown to have a negative influence on the social and economic development of their residents.

Massive federal efforts during the 1960s met with little success in reducing poverty. Many questions remain regarding the causes and consequences of increased poverty on the social and economic well-being of individuals who live in poor neighborhoods. Tremendous uncertainty remains about the mechanisms that cause poverty environments to have such negative influences on the social and economic health of individuals. The impact of poverty on public policy suggests that greater attention be paid to the poverty problem--whether on the federal, state, or local levels--and that new thinking be directed toward the kinds of policies needed to successfully address the poverty problem in the United States.

Urban Poverty Courses include:

• M214. Poverty, the Poor, and Welfare Reform
• M295. Law and the Poor
• M230. Labor Markets and Social Policy
• 271. Urban Poverty, Workforce Development, and Public Policy

Social Welfare Policy

The political debate has ended, and welfare reform is now a fact. Yet analyses of its initial impacts and forecasts of what these changes will ultimately accomplish vary widely. The Social Welfare concentration introduces students to the major policy considerations affecting this and the broad array of other issues in the field, including protection from poverty, hunger and illness, and the provision of shelter, health and social services.

Students learn how to analyze the conditions to which social policies seek to respond, the processes by which such policies are carried out, and the consequences of the policies. Students selecting this concentration are required to take an introductory course on social welfare policy and services, after which they can pick an advanced course in a more specialized area such as child welfare, aging, or mental health.

Social Welfare courses include:

• M210. Foundations of Social Welfare Policy
• M211. Public Policy for the Elderly and Their Families
• M212. Child Welfare Policy
• M214. Poverty, the Poor and Welfare Reform

Transportation and Urban Development

Los Angeles, home of the freeway and an automobile-oriented lifestyle, is also home to one of the biggest mass transit projects in American history: construction of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority’s $5.2 billion subway project. Drawing on the region’s long experience as a transportation laboratory, the Transportation and Urban Development concentration gives students a clear understanding of the evolution of transportation systems with a strong emphasis on the multiple links between transportation and land-use patterns and policy.

Students learn travel modeling, forecast methods, and transportation demand management. They are introduced to emerging trends in travel behavior and are given a thorough grounding in transportation economics and finance at the federal, state, and local levels. Students also study the impact of urban transportation systems on air quality, relying on case studies of proposals for improving air quality and energy conservation through transportation planning.

Transportation and Urban Development courses include:

We live in a global economy where intercontinental flows of goods, capital, labor, and information are increasing. Yet the distinct economic role of major urban areas and the regions that surround them continues to grow—a fact recognized by most countries, which have policies designed to foster such development.

Regional development treats the interrelated problems of area development in both highly industrialized and developing countries, a discipline students learn using the perspectives of political economy, locational analysis, regional economics, and the economic and sociological analysis of institutions. Focusing on such issues as urbanization, patterns of regional growth and decline, rural development, and problems of marginalized populations, the Regional Development and Policy concentration gives students a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of the migration of labor and capital, trade liberalization, and other key concepts.

Regional Development Policy courses include:

• M240. Theories of Regional Economic Development
• M241. Introduction to Regional Planning: Evolution of Regional Planning Doctrines
• M242. Global City-Regions: Analytical and Policy Issues
• M281. Growth, Science and Technology

Employment and Labor Policy

Because most people depend upon it for their livelihood, employment is the key economic relationship. But that relationship is being transformed, with important consequences for society, the economy, and public policy. Concerns have arisen over corporate restructuring, downsizing, and the increased use of contingent, rather than career, forms of employment. Growth in wage inequality has sparked widespread debate about causes and potential remedies.

The goal of the Employment and Labor concentration is to provide students with the ability to analyze and evaluate regulation of the labor market, understand the current regulatory framework and the key forces that have shaped it, and to appreciate likely trends in labor market public policy. Students are required to take Labor Markets and Public Policy and may select any one of the remaining courses to form the concentration.

Employment and Labor courses include:

• M230. Labor Markets and Public Policy
• M232. Labor Relations
• CM231. Comparative Industrial Relations
• 233. Employment Issues in California

Leadership and Management of Nonprofit and Community-Based Organizations

The School of Public Policy and Social Research will establish a new interdisciplinary nonprofit leadership program in the 2000-2001 academic year. The program will focus on the role of the growing nonprofit sector in building strong democracies and improving nonprofit management and programming.

The Program in Leadership and Management of Nonprofit and Community-Based Organizations is a logical outgrowth of the School’s wealth of faculty expertise and its close ties to the nonprofit sector locally, nationally, and internationally.

Made possible by an anonymous $1.6 million gift to the School, the new program will include four components:

*Creation of a school-wide concentration in Leadership and Management in Nonprofit and Community-Based Organizations, which will include new team-taught courses common to all departments in the School, plus electives in such areas as business, law, education, public health, economics, and political science.

*Establishment of fellowships and internships for graduate students who choose the new concentration.

*Development of a Nonprofit Leadership Forum to facilitate dialogue among nonprofit leaders, promote interaction between students and practitioners, and provide executive education courses for leaders of nonprofits.

*Establishment of a university-wide Research Colloquium on Nonprofit and Community-Based Organizations to promote interdisciplinary research in the field.

A New International Initiative

The School of Public Policy and Social Research is pleased to announce a new initiative in international policy. The initiative seeks to promote teaching and research in the areas of international political economy, international and comparative health and social welfare policies, international and comparative enviromental policy, and foreign policy and international institutions. The departments of Policy Studies, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning are developing an international, comparative, and regional course of study, which will enable students to gain an expertise in international policy.