For Master in Public Policy (MPP) students, the Policy

Analysis Exercise (PAE) is the culmination of the Harvard Kennedy School

experience. During the PAE, second-year MPP students serve as a consultant to a

public or nonprofit organization and develop solutions to a policy or

management issue.

Students and their clients work together to define specific

issues, design research strategies, gather data, formulate and evaluate

options, and, finally, make actionable recommendations. The final analysis gives

students the opportunity to integrate the technical skills and specialized

knowledge gained from the MPP curriculum while also helping the client

organization tackle a real-world concern. And it’s not unusual for client

organizations to implement the PAE recommendations made by students.

PAE Showcase

Each spring, a select group of MPP students present their

PAE projects and share their findings and recommendations with the HKS

community.

During the 2023 PAE Showcase on April 25, students

presented projects focused on a range of topics—climate resilience planning, reproductive

health education, countering far-right extremism, development assistance in Ukraine,

bringing early-career talent into the federal government—to name a few.

Clients included the World Bank, U.S. Department of Defense,

Southern Poverty Law Center, Norwegian Refugee Council, City of Green Bay, and

others.

Learn more about the 2023

PAE presenters and projects.