Southern Methodist University
SMU

DEDMAN COLLEGE
PUBLIC POLICY

www.smu.edu/dedman/majors/publicpolicy

Professor Dennis Ippolito (Political Science), Director

The Public Policy major is an interdisciplinary program in Economics and Political Science. The B.A. degree in Public Policy is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and historical context to understand and deal with contemporary policy issues. The major in Public Policy is useful as preparation for work in government and business and as preparation for postgraduate study in law, public policy and the social sciences.

Major Requirements. The B.A. degree in Public Policy requires a total of 33 hours. The degree consists of two components:

1. Eighteen (18) hours of core courses:

ECO 1311, 1312 and 3301.
PLSC 1320, and PLSC 1340 or 1380.
PLSC 3320.

2. At least 15 hours of advanced courses selected from the fields below, with no fewer than six hours in Economics (ECO) and six hours in Political Science (PLSC) or Public Policy (PP).

To meet the advanced course requirements, students must take at least six hours in each of any two of the fields of Political Economy, Law and Social Policy, and International Politics and Policy, as well as three hours from the quantitative methods field. Although not a requirement, students are advised to take at least one term of calculus (MATH 1309 or 1337) and one term of statistics (STAT 2301 or ITOM 2305).

Note of Importance. Students must receive at least a C– in all classes counting toward the major.

List of fields and acceptable courses (additional prerequisites not contained in the core are listed in parentheses):

Political Economy

ECO 4366 Economics of the Public Sector
ECO 4371 Theory of Industrial Structure
ECO 4382 Economics of Regulated Industries
ECO 4385 Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy (Prerequisite: ECO 3302)
ECO 5361 Natural Resources and Energy Economics (Prerequisite: ECO 3302)
ECO 5365 Public Finance
PLSC 3329 Bureaucracy and Regulatory Politics
PLSC 3355 The Political Economy of the Welfare State
PLSC 3389 International Political Economy
PLSC 3390 Negotiating International Trade
PLSC 4333 Policy, Politics and the Budget

Law and Social Policy

ECO 4351 Labor Economics
ECO 5337 Urban Economics
ECO 5353 Law and Economics
ECO 5357 Economics of Human Resources
PLSC 3321 Congress and the Legislative Process
PLSC 3330 Law, Politics and the Supreme Court
PLSC 3335 Judicial Process
PLSC 3370 Women and Politics
PLSC 4321 Basic Issues in American Democracy
PLSC 4337 Civil Rights
PLSC 4338 Criminal Process Rights
PLSC 4339 Women and the Law
PLSC 4341 Comparative Rights and Representation
PP 3310 Environmental Policy

International Politics and Policy

ECO 3321 International Economic Policy
ECO 4357 International Trade
ECO 4358 International Macroeconomic Theory and Policy (Prerequisite: ECO 3302)
ECO 5360 Economic Development (Prerequisite: ECO 3302)
PLSC 3340 Western European Politics
PLSC 3345 Governments and Politics of the Middle East
PLSC 3346 Government and Politics of Japan
PLSC 3348 Governments and Politics of Latin America
PLSC 3358 Government and Politics of Russia
PLSC 3383 The American Foreign Policy Process
PLSC 3389 International Political Economy
PLSC 4356 Latin American Political Economy
PLSC 4381 National Security Policy
PLSC 4384 The American-Russian Relationship
PLSC 4386 Issues of U.S.-East Asia Relations
PLSC 4391 NAFTA and Free Trade in the Americas

Quantitative Methods

ECO 5341 Strategic Behavior
ECO 5350 Introductory Econometrics (Prerequisites: STAT 2301 or 4340 or ITOM 2305, MATH 1309 or 1337)
ECO 5370 Cost-Benefit Analysis
ECO 5375 Economic and Business Forecasting (Prerequisite: STAT 2301 or ITOM 2305)

The Courses (PP)

3310. Environmental Policy. Overview of governmental environmental policies designed to provide a foundation for future application and study in the growing environmental field.

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