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About the PPD Programme

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Ambitious and Innovative

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Resources and Staff

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Student Information

About the PPD Programme

There is a growing demand for expertise in public policy evaluation. National and local governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector increasingly require experts able to provide economic policy solutions in a challenging context of globalization, transparency, and tight budget constraints.

To meet these challenges, the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and its institutional partners created the Public Policy and Development (PPD) Masters Programme, an integrated approach to public policy and economic analysis in both developed and developing countries.

Ambitious and Innovative

The PPD Masters prepares students to become experts in the design, analysis and evaluation of public policies. It combines rigorous training in analytical and quantitative economic methods with an emphasis on policy and practice in both developed and developing countries.

The curriculum combines classes taught using a traditional lecture format for methodological and conceptual coursework (especially in the M1 year) and classes taught using a case method that emphasizes policy applications over pure theory (particularly in the M2 year).

Most policy areas are addressed thematically (e.g. competition and regulation, education) with examples and implications from developed and developing countries. In the M2 year, students choose electives freely from two policy tracks, social policies (e.g.

fiscal, health, labor, urban policies) and global policies (e.g. sustainable development practices, migration policy).

Career opportunities include non-academic positions in national administrations, international organizations (EU, OECD, WTO, UN agencies,

etc.), development agencies (e.g. World Bank, AFD), non-governmental organizations, financial institutions (banking and insurance) and major corporations.

The programme combines professional training as in masters of international affairs or public administration with high-level technical training, as with traditional masters of

economics. Graduates may continue their studies at the doctoral level (PPD is a master recherche), and are encouraged to do so if they are interested in an academic career or other positions for which a PhD is a prerequisite.

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Resources and Staff

The programme is jointly organized by PSE’s institutional partners: École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), Agence française de développement (AFD), Centre pour le recherche économique et ses applications (CEPREMAP) and École normale supérieure (ENS).

Many PPD instructors are affiliated with CEPREMAP or have strong ties to International Organizations and the French agencies including the Treasury (DGTPE), Ministry of Labor and Solidarity, and Ministry of Health. Researchers from IRD/DIAL and professionals from the French Development Agency (AFD) offer students a unique window into development practice through lectures and internships. AFD also provides funding for the programme.

The Institute of Research for Development (IRD) provides financial support for PPD students from developing countries to participate in the programme and offers internship opportunities. CEPREMAP serves as an interface between

economic research and public administration, and coordinates a network of researchers. The center finances a course and a series of conferences with prestigious policy makers as part of the PPD Masters.

The founding institutions of the Paris School of Economics have a proud history of research and in topics ranging from social, labor finance and trade policies, to tax benefits, macroeconomics, and development economics.

Many researchers involved in the PPD masters play an active role in the design and

evaluation of public policies, including François Bourguignon, Esther Duflo, Eric Maurin and Thomas Piketty. The Jameel-Poverty Action Lab opened its European regional office (J-PAL Europe) at the Paris School of Economics in

May 2007. J-PAL Europe supports researchers working on randomized control trials, particularly to evaluate social and labor policies in France, Europe and the developing world. PPD students have participated extensively in J-PAL field research.

Programme CommitteeDirectors: François BOURGUIGNON (EHESS, PSE), Éric MAURIN (EHESS, PSE); Pedagogical committee: Philippe ASKENAZY (CNRS/PSE, CEPREMAP), Denis COGNEAU (IRD/DIAL, PSE), Flore GUBERT (IRD/DIAL, PSE), Marc GURGAND (CNRS/PSE); Other faculty: Anne PERROT (Autorité de la concurrence, Université Paris 1), Sylvie LAMBERT (INRA/PSE), Robert PECCOUD (AFD), Thomas PIKETTY (EHESS/PSE), Thierry VERDIER (ENPC/EHESS/PSE).

Institutional PartnersEHESS, ENPC, ENS, CNRS/INRA, PSE (Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques), IRD (DIAL), AFD.

Number of faculty members and staff involved: approximately 45 total, including 25 tenured researchers, 15 associated researchers, 5 staff members and support staff.

Number of students (Masters/Doctorate): approximately 70 total: 25 M1, 35 M2, 10 Doctorate

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Student Information

Formally, the Public Policy and Development Masters is issued by EHESS as the Master en Sciences sociales, Mention économie quantitative, Spécialité politiques publiques et développement. PPD was accredited from the French Ministry of Education in September 2007 and sanctioned (libelisé) by the scientific committee of the Paris School of Economics (PSE) in December 2008. All PPD instructors benefit from a specific contract with PSE.

Graduates receive the same Master recherche degree as students that graduate from other EHESS masters, such as Analyse et Politique Économiques (APE), also sanctioned by PSE.

The programme’s pedagogical committee includes representatives from PPD’s institutional partners. It is responsible for recruitment and admission at the M1, M2 and doctorate levels.

The PPD Masters Programme is organized as follows:

The M1 year includes general microeconomics, macroeconomics and quantitative methods. Courses prepare students for quantitative policy analysis, in addition to classes focused on empirical policy design and evaluation and a series of conferences by CEPREMAP with renowned academics, experts and influential policy-makers. The academic year ends in early May and is followed by a vocational internship (minimum 2 months) at an institution responsible for the design and/or evaluation of public policies.

The M2 year offers in-depth and applied courses that cover pressing policy questions at the national and global level, along with state of the art best practices in policy evaluation. Apart from three mandatory classes, the curriculum is individualized. Each student must take and pass elective courses worth at least 27 ECTS from among more than twenty classes offered. Students must complete a masters thesis (“mémoire”) supervised by a PPD faculty member, optionally co-supervised by a professional from a public institution.

Highly qualified students may enter the M2 year directly after completing another M1 programme, or equivalent, provided its coursework is comparable to the M1 PPD year.

Each year (M1 and M2) students must take and pass 60 ECTS credits (European Credit Transfer System). This counts for a total of 120 credits for M2 graduates. Each semester (S1 and S2 during the M1 year, S3 and S4 during M2) is composed of approximately 30 credits.

All compulsory courses and most elective courses are offered in English.

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Year M1

Course Schedule – All courses mandatory

SemesterLectures (hours)

Class exercises(hours)

CreditsECTS

Microeconomics: Markets and Market Failures, Theory and Public Policies Households S1 18 9

} 6 Firms S1 18 9 Competition and Regulation S1 12 6 3

Macroeconomic Policies and Public Finance Macroeconomic policies S1 & S2 36 18

} 9 Growth S1 12 6 Public Economics: Tax and Transfer Policies S1 24 3

Quantitative Methods Measurement of Policy Outcomes S1 24 3 Econometrics 1 S1 15 18 4 Econometrics 2 S1 15 18 4 Econometrics 3 S2 15 18 4 Team work in Applied Economics S1 & S2 3 Mathematics and Statistics for Economic Analysis (optional but highly recommended course – no credit)

S1 24 _ _

Time Series (optional but highly recommended course – no credit)

S1 12 _ _

Policy Design and Evaluation Distributional Challenges of Globalization S2 24 3

Social Policies S2 24 3

CEPREMAP Conferences S1 & S2 24 3 Law and Economics S2 24 3

Vocational Internship S2 (2 months) 9

TOTAL 321 102 60

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Year M2

Course Catalogue

SemesterCourses(hours)

CreditsECTS

Common Core 72 9 Evaluating Public Policies S2 24 3 Empirical methods for Policy Evaluation S1 & S2 24 3 Introduction to Political Economy S2 24 3

Advanced Elective Courses 216 27 CEPREMAP Conferences S1 & S2 24 3

Social Policies: Demography and Ageing S1 24 3 Economics of Education S1 24 3 Economics of Inequalities S1 24 3 Economics of labour and social policies S2 24 3 Health Economics and Health Policy S1 24 3 Income level, Income Distribution and Subjective Well-Being S1 12 1.5 Labour Market Policies S1 24 3 Practice of Care and Dependence Policies in France Today S1 24 3 Public Finance S2 24 3 Risk, Incomplete Contingency Markets and Microfinance S2 24 3 Topics in Labour Economics S2 24 3 Urban Issues S1 12 1.5

Global Policies: Aid, Debt and International Finance S2 24 3 Development Economics S1 24 3 Economics of Corruption S1 12 1.5 Immigration, Citizenship, Churches-State Relations and Antidiscrimination Policies and Laws

S2 24 3

Industrial Dynamics in Japan and Korea: firms’ strategies and public policies

S1 24 3

National Governance S2 12 1.5 Sustainable Development and Climate Change S2 24 3 Territories and Spatial Inequality S2 24 3 The Evaluation of Macroeconomic Policies in Industrialized and Emerging Economies

S1 24 3

Trade S2 24 3

Quantitative Methods: Micro-simulations and Evaluation of Public Policies S2 12 1.5 Short-term Economic Analysis S2 24 3 Analysis Survey Methodology and Design S1 24 3

Masters Thesis 24

TOTAL 288 60

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Student Representatives

Each year, students elect two representatives for each year of the PPD program (two for M1, two for M2). Elections take place in October and November.

Student representatives have the opportunity to offer their perspective during two annual meetings with the programme director and as members of the pedagogical committee. They also participate in the annual meeting to decide on the following year’s coursework.

M1 Year

Vocational internship and M1 TutorAn informational session on internships takes

place in November with Flore Gubert (Gubert@dial.prd.fr), who also serves as tutor for M1 students.

M2 Year

M2 Advanced Elective CoursesStudents are encouraged to take more

elective courses than is strictly necessary to ensure they pass elective classes worth 27 ECTS by the end of the year. No make-up exams (“rattrapages”) are offered for electives. Students aren’t required to formally signup for courses (except if offered at ENSAE). However,

attendance is mandatory for course credit.Students can informally register using the form

on the course website located within the Online Resources for PSE Programmes: http://parisschoolofeconomics.info/. Students are encouraged to sign up in order to receive any course-specific information by email.

Masters thesis (“mémoire”)A research supervisor must be chosen by

the end of January of the M2 Year. A research proposal (3 pages or less) must be approved by the research supervisor and given to the PPD Administration (“secrétariat”) before the end of January. Any instructor from the PPD programme (M1 or M2 year) can act as masters thesis supervisor.

Each year two thesis defense sessions are scheduled, one in June/July, one in early September. If you pursue a doctorate, you must defend your masters thesis in June. It is graded between 0 and 20, following a formal defense of about one hour with the research supervisor and rapporteur.

The masters thesis must be sent in PDF format by email to the programme administration, research supervisor and rapporteur. The supervisor must to give prior approval for the student to defend the thesis by e-mail to the programme administration.

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Attendance

Students must attend all classes and take exams for all mandatory courses, as well as advanced elective courses where they wish to receive a grade. If a student is absent from an exam, the absence must be justified (medical certificate, employer certificate, etc.). If a student cannot attend class, he/she must email the administration and instructor.

The PPD Programme is full-time. There is no distance learning option, nor is there a night program. However, students that wish to continue working or concurrently pursue another degree program in addition to the PPD Masters can request permission to complete the masters over 4 years (2 in M1, 2 in M2). Students that would like to make use of this flexibility can do so by contacting the programme director and administration, which can provide more information

Exams and Grades

GradingMasters students aren’t ranked. However,

at the end of the M2 year, each diploma issued is accompanied with an annex describing the distribution of grades for each course within the class, which allows for an evaluation of the student relative to his/her peers.

Enrolled students can obtain, upon request to the programme administration, an English translation of their transcripts (official transcripts are issued in French). The translation is accompanied by an explanation of the grading system used in the programme.

CourseworkStudents must attend and pass all

mandatory and advanced elective courses. Each course (mandatory or advanced) will be graded on the basis of a written exam or individual coursework (e.g. written reports, presenting articles, etc.), as determined by the instructor.

Grading is on a scale of 0 to 20. A passing grade for a course, also referred to as an UE (“unité d’enseignement”) is 10. Any student with a grade lower than 10 must:

Take and pass a make-up exam (“rattrapage”), in the case of mandatory courses;

Take and pass an additional class, in the case of advanced elective courses. No make-up exams

are offered for advanced elective courses.Each course (UE) is weighted on the basis of

the number of ECTS.Admission into the M2 year for

students that have completed the PPD M1 year

To qualify for admission into M2, students must pass all their exams, since all M1 courses are mandatory. There is no diploma, nor are honors accorded on the basis of M1 grades. However, students can request a certificate of success in their M1 courses (“attestation de réussite”). An end-of-year committee, made up of programme instructors, will finalize the list of students that have passed all M1 courses, and decide how to handle cases where students fail to do so.

Diploma and HonorsM2 Year coursework counts

for 65%. The thesis counts for 40% of the final grade. M2 students must receive a passing grade on their thesis (mémoire) and all courses in

order to receive their masters degree at the end of M2.

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Pursuing a doctorate (PhD) at the Paris School of Economics

To continue your studies at the doctoral level after the PPD Masters, there are 3 prerequisites:

PPD graduates are automatically admitted to the APE Analyse et Politique Économiques (APE) Doctorate if they graduate with a grade average in M2 PPD of at least 13, and obtain a masters thesis grade of 13 or higher. They must fulfil all other requirements (see APE website). It is crucial to defend the masters thesis in June.

An APE Doctoral Programme Instructor–Research Supervisor (“enseignant–HDR”) must agree to serve as your doctoral supervisor and support your doctoral application.

Students can only pursue a PhD if they obtain doctoral funding (e.g. allocations et bourses doctorales). This is a complicated process that begins de facto early in M2.

Students will be notified of an information session on PhD funding at the beginning of 2012.

Note: There are two distinct PSE Doctoral programmes: APE/PPD and ETE.

Students with an APE or PPD M2 both typically enter the APE Doctoral Programme. It is difficult, though not impossible, to pursue an ETE doctorate after graduating from PPD or APE masters programs.

For additional information, please refer to the APE and ETE programme websites.

APE/PPD Doctorate: http://www.master-ape.ens.fr/-doctorat-.html

ETE Doctorate:http://eep.univ-paris1.fr/formation-ete/F-Doctorale.htm

Any honors (“mentions”) are determined exclusively on the basis of the average M2 grades:

- 12 to 14 entitles students to honors / cum laude (“mention assez bien”);

- 14 to 16 high honors / magna cum laude (“mention bien”);

- Equal or higher than 16 highest honors / summa cum laude (“mention très bien”).

EHESS doesn’t rank students. Grades higher than 15.50 (A) are rare and indicate the student has done excellent work. A grade higher than 18.00 (A+) is extremely rare.

For the M1 Year: The grade average is

calculated on the basis of all courses.For the M2 Year: The grade average is

calculated based on the weighted grades of the 3 mandatory courses, the 9 highest elective course grades, and the masters thesis.

The grading scale is as follows:

French Grade

16-2014-1613-1411-1310-11Below 10

Equivalent

A+A- / AB+B- / BCFail

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/Public Policy & DevelopmentMasters Programme

Campus Jourdan48 boulevard Jourdan75014 PARISEmail: master-ppd@ens.fr Tel: +33(0)1 43 13 63 43 / 42

November 2011 | Editor: France ARTOIS-MBAYE ; Translator: Robert KLEIN ; Graphism: Caroline BAUER | Photo credit: Paris School of Economics