Policy Topics

Analytic methods

Showing 1 - 30 of 536 results
Emeritus faculty

John R. Chamberlin

Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Political Science
Chamberlin taught Statistics, Applied Regression, Values and Ethics, and Nonprofit Policy and Management at the Ford School. His research interests include ethics and public policy, professional ethics, and election methods.
Emeritus faculty

Alan V. Deardorff

Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Deardorff’s research focuses on international trade. With Bob Stern, he developed the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade, which has been used to estimate the effects of trade agreements. He is also doing theoretical work in international trade and trade policy. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, State, and Treasury and to international organizations including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank.
Emeritus faculty

Carl P. Simon

Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Mathematics, and Complex Systems
Simon was the founding director of the U-M Center for the Study of Complex Systems. His research centers on the dynamics of covid-19, of crime, of teenage smoking, and of Great Lakes salmon. He was named the 2007 LSA Distinguished Senior Lecturer.
Postdoctoral fellow

Dominique Adams-Santos

Associate Director, Center for Racial Justice
Dr. Adams-Santos is a qualitative researcher who centers questions of sexuality, intimacy, and belonging in the digital era; in particular, how individuals navigate the racial, gender, and sexual politics of digital and urban landscapes in their search for intimacy and community.
Faculty by courtesy

Daniel E. Little

Professor of Sociology; Professor of Public Policy (by courtesy); Chancellor Emeritus, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Daniel Little is a professor of sociology at UM-Ann Arbor, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School and research appointments in the Center for Chinese Studies, ICPSR, and the Center for Complex Systems. The former chancellor of UM-Dearborn,…
Faculty by courtesy

Melvin Stephens

Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Economics; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center; Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center
Mel Stephens is professor of economics, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School. He serves as a research affiliate at the Population Studies Center and a faculty associate at the Survey Research Center, both within the Institute for Social…
Core faculty

Ben Green

Assistant Professor/Postdoctoral Scholar
Green studies the social and political impacts of government algorithms. His book, The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future, was published in 2019 by MIT Press.
Core faculty

Robert C. Hampshire

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Hampshire—currently on leave from the Ford School and serving as Chief Science Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation—develops and applies operations research, data science, and systems approaches to public and private service industries. His research focuses on the management and policy analysis of emerging networked industries and innovative mobility services such as smart parking, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, ride-hailing, bike sharing, and car sharing. He has worked extensively with both public and private sector partners worldwide.
Core faculty

Jonathan K. Hanson

MPP/MPA Program Director; Lecturer in Statistics for Public Policy
Hanson is a specialist in comparative political economy and political development. He examines the ways that political institutions affect economic performance and development. In his recent projects, he has explored how to measure state capacity, the roles of democracy and state capacity for improving human development, and why authoritarian regimes vary significantly in economic and social outcomes. A former congressional aide, he has been active in political campaigns.
Core faculty

Yazier Henry

Lecturer in Public Policy
Henry has written and published on the political economy of social voice, memory, trauma, identity, peace processes, Truth Commissions, international transitional justice and international humanitarian law. His research and writing projects focus on how structural and administrative violence come to be institutionalized during post-colonial transitions. His current work is on the discourse of human rights, structural violence and the politics of official voice.
Core faculty

Brian A. Jacob

Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy; Professor of Public Policy, Economics, and Education
Jacob is co-director of the Youth Policy Lab. His primary fields of interest are labor economics, program evaluation, and the economics of education. Jacob's current research focuses on urban school reform, with a particular emphasis on standards and accountability initiatives.
Core faculty

Paula Lantz

James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy; Director, BA Programs
A social demographer, Lantz studies the role of public policy in improving population health and reducing social disparities in health. She is currently engaged in research regarding innovative financing approaches for supportive housing among Medicaid beneficiaries, and also on how COVID-19 is exacerbating existing social and health inequalities in the U.S.
Core faculty

John Leahy

Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics
John Leahy is the Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics, a joint appointment between the Ford School and the Department of Economics. Much of his work considers the psychological side of consumerism, analyzing individuated, decisionmaking…
Core faculty

Kevin Stange

Associate Professor of Public Policy (on leave with the U.S. Department of Education)
Stange's research lies broadly in empirical labor and public economics, with a focus on education and health care. His prior research includes studies of college enrollment and persistence, the effect of resources and peers on community college students, the importance of amenities in college choice, and the effects of different pricing structures on major choice and student credit load.
Core faculty

Megan Tompkins-Stange

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Tompkins-Stange is a scholar of education policy and philanthropy, focusing on the influence of private foundations on the politics of K-12 school reform.
Core faculty

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes

Dean; Director, Center for Racial Justice
Watkins-Hayes is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert on HIV/AIDS; urban poverty; social policy; and racial, class, and gender inequality. Her work illuminates social problems of great interest to scholars, communities, and policymakers. She works at the intersection of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy. Her work analyzes the impact of the HIV epidemic on women and the growth of the HIV safety net.
Core faculty

Justin Wolfers

Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Wolfers is an economist with broad policy-related interests and experience. He is also affiliated with the NBER, Brookings and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a contributing columnist for the New York Times and host of the “Think Like An Economist” podcast. He is a popular teacher and author of a leading economics textbook.
Core faculty

Alton Worthington

Lecturer in Public Policy
Alton Worthington is a lecturer in public policy at the Ford School, where he teaches on statistical computing and data visualization. His core research is on topics of international political economy, with a focus on the intersection of global…
Staff

Yucheng Fan

Data Manager, Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS)
Staff

Adrianna High

Michigan Data & Policy Fellow, Youth Policy Lab
Adrianna High is a Michigan Data & Policy Fellow with the Youth Policy Lab. Adrianna comes to YPL from the State of Michigan's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. In her previous role as a data analyst, her primary focus was…
Publication

Ethical implications of defense funding in social science

Mar 22, 2023
Since World War I, defense funding has been a driver of social science’s growth. The dense ties between social science and defense agencies benefitted social research but also attracted decades of heavy criticism. This long and entangled history has...
News

Poverty Solutions marks impact of action-based research in 2022

Mar 15, 2023
From informing how the U.S. Census estimates populations to reimagining land contracts as a path to homeownership and inspiring state legislation that would aid homeless youths, Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan continued to tackle the...
Publication

Overcoming data collection challenges in ECE research

Jan 24, 2023
Rigorous research in early care and education requires high-quality data, often gathered through intensive in-person fieldwork. The COVID-19 pandemic upended the ECE sector, making it much more challenging to safely and successfully collect data in...
State & Hill

An economic eye on equity in higher ed

Dec 19, 2022
As the first chief economist in the U.S. Department of Education, Ford School alumnus Jordan Matsudaira (PhD ’05), seeks to identify and implement policies that best promote student success—academically and financially—in higher education. Ford...
State & Hill

Think local: CLOSUP checks in with local government officials

Dec 19, 2022
By Tom Ivacko (MPA ’93), executive director, Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy Democracy in the United States and across the globe has been in decline for years, as documented with rigorous tracking methodologies. Freedom House has...
News

Ford School faculty launch open online courses

Dec 19, 2022
Three Ford School faculty have developed exciting new online courses to equip learners and professionals around the globe with interdisciplinary skills that help them engage in and inform complex public policy decision-making processes. Elisabeth...