The Kennedy School is home to many programs that address regulation. Part of RPP’s mission is to serve as a clearinghouse for this broad and impressive research portfolio.  

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVE

The Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative is a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder program that seeks to study and enhance the public contribution of private enterprise. It explores the intersection of corporate responsibility, corporate governance and strategy, and public policy, with a focus on the role of business in addressing global development issues. Among other areas, research addresses informal regulatory systems such as codes of conduct, certification schemes, and grievance mechanisms in areas where the formal state is weak. It also addresses the role of regulation in creating a context for economic opportunity in developing countries.

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ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES PROGRAM

The Environment and Natural Resources Program’s mandate is to conduct policy-relevant research at the regional, national, international, and global level, and through its outreach initiatives to make its products available to decision-makers in regulatory agencies and private sector firms, scholars, and interested citizens.  Its goal is to bridge the gap across natural, social, and engineering sciences, the environmental and development communities, multiple sectors of human activity, and geographic and temporal scales. The program works to respond effectively to global environmental threats such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and environmentally unsustainable economic policies, and to design, develop, and implement economically and environmentally sound energy policies.

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HARVARD ELECTRICITY POLICY GROUP (HEPG)

Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG) provides a forum for the analysis and discussion of important policy issues facing the electricity industry. Founded in 1993, its objectives are to address key problems related to the transition to a more competitive electricity market, to foster informed and open debate, and to contribute to the wider public policy agenda affecting the electric sector. Precipitated by the Energy Policy Act and other changes in the electricity industry, HEPG’s agenda includes the economics of electricity production and use, the evolution of the industry and its regulatory institutions, transition paths and strategies, and related public policy goals. Through research, information dissemination, and regular seminars on such topics, HEPG facilitates discussion, which leads to the development of new ideas or to an expansion of the debate.

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HARVARD ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS PROGRAM (HEEP)

Harvard Environmental Economics Program (HEEP) brings together faculty and graduate students from across the University engaged in research, teaching, and outreach in environmental and resource economics and related public policy. HEEP draws upon Harvard’s tremendous strength in environmental and natural resource economics, spread across many units of the University, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School, the Business School, the School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Design, and the Law School. Just a small sample of topics addressed by HEEP Faculty Fellows would include such pressing issues as: global climate change, the use of incentive-based or market-based instruments for pollution control, new methods of valuing risk reduction, the relationship between globalization and the environment, the role of environmental considerations in business decision making, and the intersection of economic development and environmental protection.

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HEALTH CARE DELIVERY GROUP

The Health Care Delivery Policy Program provides a forum for the health care industry’s leading institutions and analysts to collaboratively assess strategic challenges and synthesize strategic care in the largest industrial category in the American economy, accounting for 15% of the Gross Domestic Product. Among other research priorities, HCDPP seeks to outline a regulatory and policy framework that can support efforts to streamline care in accordance with the growing evidence-based approach to diagnosis and treatment of disease, thus paving the way toward a common understanding of the options for change.

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PROGRAM ON NETWORKED GOVERNANCE

The objective of the Program on Networked Governance is two-fold: (1) to foster research on networked governance and (2) to provide a forum to discuss the challenges of networked governance. The traditional notion of hierarchical, top down, government has always been an imperfect match for the decentralized governance system of the U.S. However, much of what government does requires co-production of policy among agencies that have no formal authority over each other. Networked governance refers to a growing body of research on the interconnectedness of essentially sovereign units, which examines how those interconnections facilitate or inhibit the functioning of the overall system.

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TRANSPARENCY POLICY PROJECT

The Transparency Policy Project conducts in-depth research on the political economy of U.S. and international transparency systems. The Project has constructed a framework for assessing the sustainability and effectiveness of government-mandated systems designed to provide the public with critical information to improve public health and safety, reduce risks to investors, minimize corruption, and improve public services. Research has resulted in a book, Full Disclosure, which explains what went wrong with the initial promise of transparency policies and how a new approach could result in regulations that do much more to empower those the information was meant to help.

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WEIL PROGRAM ON COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

The Weil Program on Collaborative Governance works to nurture a better understanding of the potential, limits, and proper realm of collaborative governance; to identify the professional skills that matter most in shaping effective, accountable collaboration in the service of common goals; and to promulgate those skills through the curricula of the Kennedy School of Government and other parts of Harvard. Few important public problems — and perhaps even fewer of the solutions to these problems — lack a major private-sector component. From immigration policy to vaccine production to college lending to defense logistics, private players hold central roles in most policy challenges in the U.S. and other advanced countries. A growing share of these private roles are the kinds of complex, discretion-laden functions that the Program terms “collaborative.”

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