John Romley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Pharmaceutical & Health Economics
Faculty Director, PhD Programs
Julie Kim, Ed.D., M.Ed.
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
Managing Director, Doctoral Programs
For admissions information, please email [email protected]
Fields of Study
Working closely with faculty mentors, Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management students focus on and develop substantive expertise in core areas that leverage the Price School’s renowned research strengths in:
- Governance
- Health Policy and Management
- Homeland Security
- International Development
- Nonprofits and Philanthropy
- Social Innovation
- Social Policy & Justice
- Sustainability and the Environment
Funding
All Ph.D. students are supported for four years through a combination of fellowships and graduate assistantships that provides year-round full tuition, a competitive stipend, and health and dental insurance. Students beyond their fourth year obtain support through teaching or research assistantships, or funding from USC and/or outside sources. Ph.D. students have access to stipends for conference travel.
Learn more about funding »
Research in a Supportive Environment
Price School faculty mentor Ph.D. students to contribute to the scholarly foundations of their chosen field. Many Ph.D. students publish and present their work at conferences, often co-authoring papers with faculty.
Recent Ph.D. Student Publications
Arthur Acolin, J. Bricker, P.S. Calem, and S.M. Wachter (2016). A Renter or Homeowner Nation? Cityscape, 18.1: 145-157.
Cynthia Barboza-Wilkes, Bill Resh, and Carmen Mooradian (2020). Unpaid Work? Emotional Labor Assessments and Episodic Recall Bias in Public Engagement, Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Vol. 3(2), 1-11.
Yi Chen, Bryan Tysinger, Eileen Crimmins, and Julie Zissimopoulos (2019). Analysis of Dementia in the US Population Using Medicare Claims: Insights from Linked Survey and Administrative Claims Data, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, Vol 5(1), 197-207.
Andy Hong with Lisa Schweitzer, L. Marr, and W. Yang (2015). Impact of Temporary Freeway Closure on Regional Air Quality: A Lesson from Carmageddon in Los Angeles. Environmental Science and Technology, 49(5): 3211-3218.
Sushant Joshi, Teryl Nuckols, and Jose Escarce (2019). Regression to the Mean in the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, JAMA Internal Medicine, 179(9), 1167-1173.
Hui Li with Shui-Yan Tang and Carlos Lo (2016). Nonprofit Policy Advocacy under Authoritarianism. Public Administration Review.
Matthew Miller (2015). Social Finance in Black Geographies: A Statistical Analysis of Locations in Los Angeles County. Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, 21: 78-91.
Noah Miller, Adam Rose, Dan Wei, Toon Vandyck and Christian Flachsland (2018). Achieving Paris Climate Agreement Pledges: Alternative Designs for Linking Emissions Trading, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Vol. 12, No. 1: 170-182.
Maria Francesca Piazzoni (2018). The Real Fake: Authenticity and the Production of Space, Fordham University Press.
Vincent Reina with Raphael Bostic and H. Schwartz, R.K. Green, L.M. Davis, and C.H. Augustine (2015). The Preservation of Affordable Rental Housing: An Evaluation of the MacArthur Foundation’s Window of Opportunity Initiative. RAND Corporation report.
Jovanna Rosen (2016). Climate, Environmental Health Vulnerability, and Physical Planning: A Review of the Forecasting Literature. Journal of Planning Literature, 1-20.
Eun Jin Shin (2017). Ethnic Neighborhoods, Social Networks, and Inter-household Carpooling: A Comparison Across Ethnic Minority Groups, Journal of TransportGeography, Vol. 59, pp. 14–26.
Xize Wang with Marlon Boarnet and D. Houston (2016). Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A before-after, experimental-control evaluation in Los Angeles, Journal of Regional Science.
Featured Research Centers
The Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise, an applied research center at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, is dedicated to understanding and fostering effective democratic governance as an essential component in ensuring the betterment of communities. The Bedrosian Center fosters effective governance by building the capacity of public and nonprofit institutions; shaping public dialogue across public, private and nonprofit sectors; and promoting and supporting innovative scholarship.
The Sol Price Center for Social Innovation was established with the recent gift to name the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. This new center aims to advance ideas, strategies, and practices that enhance the quality of life for people in urban communities. The center will provide opportunities for direct student engagement across all of the Price School’s primary disciplines.
Established in 2000, the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy promotes more effective philanthropy and strengthens the nonprofit sector to advance public problem solving. Its research focuses on trends and patterns in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, philanthropic strategies for social impact, and challenges in philanthropic stewardship and leadership.
Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID), is a nonpartisan research center serving the U.S. Founded and directed by Dr. Mindy S. Romero, CID moved to the USC Price School, Sacramento in 2018. CID conducts a range of national and multi-state research initiatives exploring voting behavior, civic engagement, electoral and economic research, the intersection of social justice and democracy, and more.
The Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC aims to promote health and value in healthcare delivery through innovative research and policy in the US and internationally. The center brings together policy experts and health economists from the USC Price School and the School of Pharmacy. It uses a novel approach to advance economic, health services and to train a new generation of global health policy leaders.
