Policy Analysis and Management

These notes describe the courses taken by PAM undergraduates. To download the full curriculum description, click here.

Foundation Courses
PAM majors start by building a liberal arts foundation with classes in the natural and social sciences (economics, sociology, psychology, and government), the humanities (ethics), and written communication skills.

Core Courses
At the heart of the PAM undergraduate curriculum are the core courses in the major. These courses include: An Introduction to Policy Analysis (PAM 2300), which provides students with foundational concepts in policy analysis and exposes them to current issues related to family, consumer, and health policy; Intermediate Microeconomics (PAM 2000); Economics of the Public Sector (PAM 2040), which introduces students to the fundamentals of public sector taxation and expenditure policies; and Population and Public Policy (PAM 2030), which considers the relationships between family policies and demographic behavior.

Research and Analytic Skills
Building on a strong liberal arts foundation, students are required to take courses in research and analytic skills: Introduction to Statistics (PAM 2100); Multiple Regression Analysis (PAM 3100); and Causal Inference and Policy Evaluation (PAM 3300). These courses are designed to provide students with skills and competencies to enable them to undertake individual policy analyses and to evaluate the validity of the plethora of policy studies that are used in both the public and private sector decision-making processes.

Upper Level Electives
After completing the Research and Analytic Skills and the Core Courses, students will have been taught a very powerful set of skills for performing social science research.  These skills are applicable to study a wide range of policy, economic, political and social questions.  Students then select at least four upper level electives where these skills will be used and refined.  PAM has strengths in Family/Social Welfare policy, Health policy, and Consumer/Regulatory policy. The major offers a wide range of PAM electives to choose from.  Topics addressed in the health policy area include access to and quality of health care, health care costs, health insurance (including Medicare and Medicaid), how consumers and families alter their behavior in response to public and private health care initiatives and polices, and reproductive health and human sexuality.  Topics covered in the family/social welfare areas include race and immigration, work and family issues such as parental and family leave policies, subsidies and tax policies for children and dependents, and the economic and legal aspects of marriage, divorce and child support, etc.  The consumer/regulatory area offers courses that teach skills applicable to business, government, or advocacy and offers a broad view of the way individuals, corporations, and government interact in the marketplace. Students, therefore, have the flexibility to design their electives to match both their interests and future plans for employment and graduate studies.

Special Study Courses
PAM students are encouraged, but not required, to enroll in special studies courses.  These courses include directed readings with a professor, working as a research assistant for a professor, and writing a senior honors thesis under the direction of a faculty research mentor.    Additionally, PAM students can take advantage of a Capital Semester in Albany, the Cornell Urban Semester in New York city, a Cornell-in-Washington semester, or a study abroad semester.  Within reasonable limits, the credits earned are applied to the PAM and university requirements.

For Additional Information
Please do no hesitate to email Tom Evans, PAM’s Director of Undergraduate Studies.