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Find individual courses here or browse the curricula of our graduate and executive programmes.
For the PhD programmes, please find more information here.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Demographic Change & Policy Challenges

Course-ID: EMPA-E1024
Instructors: Michaela Kreyenfeld

Abstract

 

Demographic ageing and population change is a pressing problem in a growing number of countries. This course introduces participants to core demographic theories, data, measures, and methods. Participants will be informed where to locate high quality demographic data. We will learn how to calculate and correctly interpret demographic indicators such as the fertility rate, the mortality rate, and measures that can be derived from migration statistics. Moreover, we will learn how to forecast populations (using the cohort-component model). There is also time devoted to debating policy-relevant themes. For example, is population decline a challenge for local and national governments? In light of climate change, should we worry about a further increase in world population? What would be appropriate policies to address the challenges that come with demographic ageing and population decline?

Main learning objectives:

  • Introduction into demographic theories and concepts (including period/cohort approach, Lexis-diagram)
  • Introduction to demographic methods and indicators (i.e., difference between tempo and quantum effects)
  • Introduction into population forecasting (using the cohort-component model)

Teaching style:

We mainly use hands-on exercises to understand and practice the techniques. Excel will be used for the calculations.

This Executive MPA course is also a CIVICA Honours Seminar, which means that students from other universities within the CIVICA network will have the opportunity to participate. CIVICA Honours Seminars offer graduate students' engagement in addressing current global issues leveraging upon interdisciplinary, transnational and research-intensive approaches, while strengthening and promoting common European values and further enhancing a shared sense of belonging through social/cultural activities.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Design Thinking for Societal Purpose

Course-ID: GRAD-PDC1056
Instructors: Regina Frieser

Abstract

 

Ever wondered what all this buzz around Design Thinking is about? Heard that it was the solution to all our problems? Questioned that, because you generally do not believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. We asked ourselves the exact same questions. However, after studying Design Thinking and working with this method in various contexts, we believe that Design Thinking can be a very helpful tool in the appropriate contexts and that it will enrich your set of problem-solving strategies.

In this skills workshop, you will learn how to use the Design Thinking framework to develop, test, and iterate solutions to complex societal challenges. During the two workshop days, you will experience the entire Design Thinking process and use a variety of its tools. Furthermore, we want to reflect on how you can make use of the Design Thinking toolkit in your studies and your career. We will share our own experiences and give examples of how you can incorporate freelance and coaching work in your potential future career paths.

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Master of Public Policy

Designing the City of the Future

Course-ID: GRAD-P1068
Instructors: Konstantinos Bakogiannis

Abstract

 

Cities are the future. Urbanization is set to increase to two-thirds of the global population by 2050, driven mostly by sharp increases in Africa and Asia. Around the world major cities will continue to expand but many small and medium-sized cities are also set to experience rapid growth. How cities manage resources and their expansion, how cities are governed, will be critical for economic growth, battling inequalities, public safety, public health and well-being, housing and education, and of course adapting to the climate crisis. The contrast between future expectations and present reality is sharp. With a few exceptions, cities are aging. At best, cities are equipped to face 20th century challenges in the 21st century. Today's cities are in many ways inefficient. Mired by traffic and air pollution - already cities consume around 70% of global emissions - many cities are unsafe, unpleasant and wasteful while budget constraints along with increasing demands for transparency and citizen engagement complicate the policy task. Cities need to grow, adapt, change. Cities need to be redesigned and redeveloped to be adapted and resilient. The goal of this class is to meet the global challenges cities will face and explore their potential to lead social change. Opportunities abound for transitioning towards smart and Greek cities and harnessing the AI revolution along with tools such as internet of things and digital twins. Cities need to reinvent themselves their services, streamline bureaucracies, prioritize data-driven decision-making, and reset their plans to become more agile, adaptable, responsive and result-driven and at the same time leaner and more efficient and effective institutions. Moreover, they need to foster collaboration, both with central governments and international organizations but also with non-governmental actors. In this project seminar we aim to design the city of the future. We aim to develop innovative policy ideas that could change the relationship between a city and its citizens. How can cities work in the future? How should they be structured and organized? What instruments can be developed? Towards what outputs? What form should evaluation take? Students will be divided in four teams, each representing a city in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americans, and will collaboratively work on policy proposals.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Designing, Leading & Growing Organisations

Course-ID: EMPA-C1002
Instructors: Harry Bauer

Abstract

 

This course is about building, running, and growing organizations in the public and social sectors. For many leaders of new organizations, the most pressing questions (aside from financing) are about how to locate and recruit talented people, and how to manage and keep them, and how to put the organisations on a path that will sustain it for the long-term. This course will address these questions and will provide you with a number of critical concepts and competencies that will be useful in both the short and long term. The course also serves as a general discussion about organizations and organizing so it will be of interest even to those who don't plan to found or grow a new organization. Throughout the course there will be a dual emphasis on thinking systematically and strategically about aspects of managing and growing an organization from its early stages until maturity and on the actual implementation challenges associated with management and leadership.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Developing Bots & Scrapers with Python

Course-ID: GRAD-PDC1089
Instructors: Pierre Daix-Moreux

Abstract

 

This course is divided into three parts:

The first part will be an overview of how web pages work (html, css, and javascript). Students will then be introduced to the client-server model along with a speedy review of python basics.

The second part will be a practical notebook session. Students will interact with a set of Jupyter Notebooks, allowing them to get hands-on experience with how to query web server APIs or plain html pages.

Finally, students will be asked to choose an API or website of their choice and develop a bot/scraper. They will be invited to explain to the group what they developed, which blocking points they encountered and what could be improved in the future regarding it. It will be followed with a live scraper development session to consolidate student's learning.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Development Economics

Course-ID: GRAD-E1393
Instructors: Arianna Ornaghi

Abstract

 

In recent decades, social protection programs have become increasingly common in developing countries. This courses discusses the challenges that governments in these countries face when designing such programs and the taxation systems needed to finance them. We are going to address these questions by discussing state-of-the-art research in development economics, with a specific methodological focus on randomized control trails.

We are going to begin by considering the specificities of taxation systems in developing countries, by discussing the role played by taxation instruments such as the value added tax but also the role of tax administration. We are then going to consider how social protection programs can be structured to address the challenges associated with large informal sectors and weak state capacity, from how to target recipients, to what type of transfers are appropriate, to how to deal with governance issues. We will also consider the general equilibrium effects of social protection schemes and what determines demand for public services.

Importantly, throughout the course, we will discuss randomized control trials in great detail: how they can be designed to evaluate policies and understand economic mechanisms, how different implementation challenges can be addressed, and how their results should be analyzed.

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Master of Public Policy

Digital Development Cooperation

Course-ID: GRAD-P1059
Instructors: Toni Kaatz-Dubberke, Lukas Sonnenberg

Abstract

 

Digital transformation is both an opportunity and a challenge to make international development more efficient and sustainable and to make progress towards the achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This project course is organized in collaboration with GIZ and some of its partners. The course addresses how digital technologies drive social change processes and how to design, regulate and govern them for inclusive, human-centered sustainable development.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Digital Governance & the Politics of Platforms

Course-ID: EMPA-E1022
Instructors: Yannis Theocharis

Abstract

 

Digital media have transformed the way we communicate, interact, and consume many kinds of information, including political information. Social media technology is still young, but it has already played a part in numerous turbulent protests, a highly polarized U.S. election and an ongoing war of disinformation. Most importantly, digital media have often been at the forefront of the conflict between democratic forces who use social media to make their voices heard and autocratic and repressive forces who aim to censor this channel to silence these liberal elements. One of the biggest challenges emerging from these dynamics is how digital spaces that have become the forefront for political interaction and public discourse can be governed.

The first part of the course combines input from the instructor with in-class case study work to examine four controversial developments in digital spaces that have raised important challenges for digital governance: (a) the origins, proliferation and effects of mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories, (b) the rising levels of toxicity and its societal and political implications, (c) the emergence of highly sophisticated campaigns - by political parties but also foreign or domestic actors with non-democratic aims and (d) the importation from authoritarian regimes into Western democracies of methods of strategic reach and digital governance. It does so, using comprehensive theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence from scientific studies using experimental and data science methods.

The second, but in parts overlapping with the first, part of the course focuses on the regulation of digital spaces, content moderation and the future of free speech. Here, most of the emphasis will be placed on how different actors from civil society, governments, tech firms, citizens themselves and even advertisers are involved in the governance and regulation of platforms. This part involves input form the instructor along with class-work focused on developing policy proposals and plausible future scenarios.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Dynamics of the Welfare State

Course-ID: GRAD-E1477
Instructors: Miroslav Beblavý , Aart Jan de Geus

Abstract

 

The Welfare State, developed in Western countries in response to industrialization, has contributed to social and political stability during the 20 th century. More recently, it seems to be in permanent crisis. Fiscal pressure and ageing of society have spurred cost cutting reforms. Information technologies and digitalisation can disrupt employment. Migration of people and mobility of labour itself change social patterns and challenge social cohesion. Inequality is on the rise in many countries, which is disputable from a moral point of view, and destabilizes economies and democracies. The whole world faces the challenge of climate change and the resulting need to transform energy systems comprehensively, equitably and efficiently._x000D_

What should be on the national and international political agenda to deal with the Welfare State challenges? Which reforms are needed to protect societies from social divide and rise of populism? What can countries learn from each other? What is the role of international organisations? What are practical tools for policy makers, diplomats and their advisors?

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Economic & Financial Governance of the European Union

Course-ID: GRAD-E1425
Instructors: Johannes Lindner

Abstract

 

This course introduces European economic policymaking and focuses on the role that the EU level plays. You will learn about the major actors and the key processes and dynamics. First, the origins and milestones of European economic integration and the basic institutional architecture will be discovered: the single market, the single currency and the key EU institutions. Second, the transformations through the financial crisis and euro crisis, as well as the corona pandemic, will be discussed. Third, a deep dive will be taken into the different areas and instruments of economic policymaking (with a focus on current challenges and policy discussions, including climate change, inflation and high energy prices): monetary policy (ECB instruments and accountability), fiscal policy (fiscal rules and the EU budget), economic policy (European Semester, Recovery and Resilience Plans, and EU legislation), and financial sector supervision and regulation (banking union and capital market union). We will adopt a political economy perspective as our main lens to study these issues. We will also pay particular attention to the way finance ministries and EU officials consider such problems.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Economics I

Course-ID: GRAD-C7
Instructors: Egon Tripodi

Abstract

 

The course offers an introduction to some of the key concepts used by economists, with a focus on microeconomic analysis. The main topics covered include consumer and producer behavior, competitive markets, as well as market failure and the need for governmental intervention. The goal of the course is for students to learn how economists think and it is built around three components. The first of these is the theory and ideas that economists use to structure their thinking. The second component is policy applications and debates where this theory will be applied and put to test, while the third is evidence from empirical studies to highlight principles of applied research design.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs

Economics II: Economics & Politics

Course-ID: GRAD-C8-108
Instructors: Arianna Ornaghi

Abstract

 

This course explores how the political system shapes public policy using tools from economics. First, we will use tools from microeconomics to formalize the key forces at play in the different issues we are going to discuss through simple theoretical models. Second, we will use tools from statistics and econometrics to understand what the empirical evidence says on how these forces play out in the real world. By the end of the course, you will not only be familiar with the core theoretical concepts in this area, but also develop skills helpful to approach empirical evidence in economics.

The course will cover a diverse set of questions, among others:

How can a society aggregate individual preferences through different voting systems? Do models of collective choice and voting apply to the real world?

What determines politicians' accountability? What is the effect of political representation of women, and can gender quotas help reaching equality?

Is corruption always inefficient?

How does collective action influence public goods provision, and how does diversity affect collective action?

What is the role of special interest groups and corporations in politics?

What is the best way of rewarding public officials? How should public officials be selected?

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