Public Policy in teaching

In our courses, we guide students to examine cross-nationally individual policy fields such as social inequality, labor market relations, or social security systems in a theory-based manner. In doing so, we emphasize the teaching of relevant methods. Some of the courses are taught in English, but no extensive language skills are required. 

Notes on assignments

In the seminars, it is often required to write an empirical term paper that constitutes the majority of your grade. Further examinations may include presentations, essays, poster presentations or take-home exams. You will receive information on these modes from your lecturers. The following information should help you to successfully design and write empirical term papers.link to document(338.3 KB)

Useful databases

• International Labour Organisation Database [https://ilostat.ilo.org/]  
• World Bank Data [https://data.worldbank.org/] 

• OECD Data [https://data.oecd.org/]  
• OurWorld in Data [https://ourworldindata.org/] 
• Harvard Dataverse [https://dataverse.harvard.edu/]  

Theses in Public Policy 

If you would like to write your thesis in the field of Public Policy, please contact Prof. Dr. Carina Schmitt directly with a topic proposal. You should write a short memo in which you present a possible research question, hypotheses, and research design considerations. Subsequently, participation in the colloquium in the course " Seminar für Abschlussarbeiten in International vergleichender Politikfeldanalyse (PWA-AB / PWM-AB)" is mandatory. In the course of the seminar, you will have to prepare an exposé and present it. However, the primary purpose of the seminar is to accompany and support you in your research and writing process.