• Research conducted by Harvard faculty, fellows and students, and in collaboration with external 'practitioner' experts and organizations;
• Dialogues and workshops that convene leaders from business, government, civil society, academia and the media around emerging trends and critical dilemmas in corporate social responsibility;
• Education activities to build relevant skills among the next generation of public and private sector leaders;
• Outreach to share research findings and conclusions from dialogues with policy-makers, business leaders, academics, investors and the media.

Regulatory Policy Program (RPP)

The Regulatory Policy Program at the Center for Business and Government develops and tests leading ideas about regulation and regulatory institutions. RPP's research aims to improve society and the economy by understanding the impacts of regulation and creating better ways to design and implement regulatory strategies. RPP’s efforts focus on the role of regulation, markets, and deregulation; on assessing the impact of different types of regulatory instruments; and on studying and improving the management of regulatory institutions and policymaking.

Under the direction of Faculty Chair Cary Coglianese and Director Jennifer Nash, the Regulatory Policy Program studies and seeks to improve regulatory strategies across a range of policy areas from environmental to financial regulation, health and safety to transportation regulation. In addition to research, the Program organizes policy conferences, sponsors an ongoing New Directions in Regulation seminar series, disseminates working papers, and engages in other efforts to build a global dialogue around regulatory issues. The Regulatory Policy Program also supports the website, E-rulemaking.org, a national clearinghouse on the use of information technology in the rulemaking process.

Environmental Economics Program at Harvard University (EEPHU)

The Environmental Economics Program at Harvard University is leading the way in developing innovative answers to today’s complex environmental issues. EEPHU will provide a forum for policymakers, scholars and advocates to grapple with such difficult questions as whether the Environmental Protection Agency should consider costs as well as benefits when determining regulatory targets; or what level of carbon reductions will be necessary to limit global climate change; and whether the United States should open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration as dependence on foreign oil pushes prices higher.

Established at the end of 2000 under the direction of Professor Robert Stavins, EEPHU offers a venue to bring together faculty and graduate students from across the University engaged in research, teaching, and outreach in environmental and natural resource economics and related public policy.  The program, jointly sponsored by the Center for Business and Government and the University Committee on the Environment, will develop innovative curriculum, sponsor research projects, and convene conferences to further the understanding of the critical issues in Environmental Economics in the U.S. and around the world.

Founded in 1993, the Harvard Electricity Policy Group provides a forum for the analysis and discussion of important policy issues regarding the U.S. electricity industry.  Its objectives are to address key problems related to the transition to a more competitive electricity market, to provide a forum for informed and open debate, and to supply a vehicle for contributing to the wider public policy agenda affecting the electric sector.

HEPG conducts research, publishes papers on a variety of electricity-related topics and holds regular conferences around the country under the guidance of Professor Bill Hogan, HEPG research director and Ashley Brown, executive director. These special sessions are comprised of academics, policy makers, regulators, consumer advocates and industry executives convened by HEPG to candidly discuss a variety of topics including regional transmission organization, re-regulating retail competition in electricity markets, and possible solutions to the California energy crisis.  

Asia Programs has undergone a dramatic period of growth at CBG.  Spanning the regions of greater China, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, the current work of Asia Programs focuses on the training of civil servants, applied policy research, strategic dialogue workshops, and institutional capacity building within the targeted nations. Each program seeks to meet these goals through a variety of mechanisms.

Programs like the China Public Policy Program, offer tailored strategic policy dialogue initiatives and specialized executive training programs designed for targeted constituencies that combine to create an instructive, policy-oriented environment for participants. Under the direction of Faculty Chair Tony Saich, the Asia Pacific Policy Program engages in focused policy analysis through research, teaching, course development, and outreach activities. Senior scholar exchange programs (such as the Kansai Keizai Doyukai Program) and international training centers created a rich network of academic and government partner institutions throughout the region. The Fulbright Economic Teaching Program in Vietnam teaches applied economics to Vietnamese mid-career decision-makers and administers various executive-education programs.

Program on Technology and Economic Policy (PTEP)

The work of the Program on Technology and Economic Policy includes research, teaching and engagement on economic growth and public policy. Research focuses on such areas as the effect of environmental policies and tax reform on capital accumulation, technological change and economic growth, and the impact of educational and tax policies on human capital accumulation and productivity.

Under the leadership of Professor Dale Jorgenson, recent PTEP projects include: contributing an economic analysis of the Clean Air Act for review by the U.S. EPA; writing with the PEW Center on the costs of climate change policies; collaborating on an international project to compare productivity performance in the U.S. and Japan; and examining the role of computers in US productivity growth.

Weil Program on Collaborative Governance

The Weil Program on Collaborative Governance's mission is to facilitate more effective, better national policy and decision making in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors on matters relating to capital markets and the economy at large. It does so by helping all sectors understand each other, coordinate and recognize their differences, and focus on common goals. In particular, WPCG helps coalesce the various programs of CBG by engaging civil society stakeholders in advancing the goals of their respective societies through regular seminars, symposia and publications.

Areas of research include the definitional parameters of collaborative governance; the theoretical aspects of the complex interrelationships of collaborative governance in practice; European comparative aspects and how the concept applies to different spheres such as labor and education; existing examples in the US, such as environmental agreements and community policing; instances of US government encouragement or implementation of collaborative governance; and world trade and the dynamics of collaborative governance in international negotiations and organizations.

Trade and Negotiations Program

The Trade and Negotiations Program at the Center for Business and Government seeks to improve trade policymaking through research, dissemination of ideas and teaching. The program has a particular focus on the dynamics of international trade negotiations in multilateral, regional and bilateral forums; on problems of global governance; and on international dispute settlement procedures at the World Trade Organization. A central goal of the program is to make the global trading system work better for developing countries. This requires not simply an improved understanding of how the system actually operates and what policies might be undertaken to enhance it, but also building negotiating capacity in developing countries.

The program was founded in 2002 under the direction of Professor Robert Lawrence. Under the sponsorship of CBG, the program has launched a highly successful executive program, The Practice of Trade Policy, that brings policymakers to Cambridge and provides them with training in the trade policy economics, rules and negotiation strategies. The program has completed a series of case studies covering major trade negotiations and disputes over the past decade. The program also participates with the Center for International Development in sponsoring a trade negotiations website that provides a wide array of materials for researchers and others interested in trade policy and negotiations.

The Ethiopia DSA Project (Decentralization Support Activity)
Formally known as the In-Service Training Program in Financial Management

The DSA Project is implemented by the Kennedy School of Government (Center for Business & Government) and funded by Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI), the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The DSA project provides assistance to the Government of Ethiopia's Civil Service Reform in budgets, accounts and budget planning. Since 1992 Ethiopia has implemented one of the most ambitious decentralization programs in Africa, indeed of any developing country, by devolving authority to autonomous regions and then sub-regional governments. The Government of Ethiopia initiated a Civil Service Reform in 1996 to build the capacity to implement devolution. The DSA project started in January 1997 and supports the Civil Service Reform through technical assistance in accounting, budgeting, and expenditure planning for Ethiopia's central and eleven regional governments. The project was recently awarded a 29-month multi-million dollar extension from USAID with funding from the Netherlands Aid and Irish Aid agencies. It is slated to run through the end of 2006.

Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery Policy Program

The mission of the Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery Policy Program (HCDP) is to devote to the actual delivery of health and medical services a degree of intellectual energy comparable to that devoted to understanding the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of individual disease. Since its launch in 2000, the Program has sought to identify feasible changes that promise to render the U.S. health care delivery system more effective, efficient, accessible, and integrated. By convening leaders of the major components of the health care delivery system, and simultaneously undertaking cutting edge research, HCDP incubates innovative, cross-sector solutions to increase productivity and quality in the delivery of health care services.

Other Research Initiatives

HIV/AIDS and Business in Africa and Asia: Building Sustainable Partnerships

Together with the Harvard Business School, Public Health School and Harvard AIDS Institute, and co-sponsored by UNAIDS and the World Economic Forum, CBG is hosting a series of four symposia during the 2003 calendar year in Cambridge, Beijing, and Durban. Our aim in this project is to foster multi-sectoral partnerships that can lead to sustainable capacity building in developing countries. Some businesses are finding that they are compelled by facts on the ground to get involved in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and providing treatment to workers and families – in some cases, as in the Southern African mining industry, up to one-third of the workforce is infected. How can we tap into that willingness and link firms with other social actors, including governments, to respond to the immediate challenges while also building a broader social capacity for the long haul?

The Center, founded in 2002 with generous support from the National Science Foundation, is building a national capacity for research and practice in digital governance, fostering collaboration among societal sectors. The goal of the Center is to apply and extend the social sciences for research at the intersection of governance, institutions, and information technologies.

The Center brings together scholars and government decision makers to undertake and advance scholarly and problem-based research on the existing and medium-term effects of ubiquitous computing in government. This is done through a fellowship program, which brings together doctoral candidates conducting research on digital government; a seminar series titled “Future Directions in Digital Government;” small workshops on research methodologies; and small research grants to support master’s level capstone projects on digital government conducted in partnership with government clients.

Repsol-YPF Harvard Kennedy School Fellows Program

The Repsol YPF-Harvard Kennedy School Fellows Program for energy policy research is a new initiative supported by a gift from the Fundación Repsol YPF and established at the Center for Business and Government in the Spring of 2003. Envisioned as a multi-year fellows program, the Kennedy School seeks to identify interest for this or future years. Fellowship awards could be made as early as the academic year beginning September 2003.

In the new century, the accelerated pace of change presents a renewed demand to develop both ideas and people to expand and clarify the complex topics that permeate energy policy. The transformed setting of international security and expanded challenges of international terrorism profoundly affect the operation and importance of energy markets. Dramatic changes in energy industries, advances in technology, and restructured energy markets present new choices and challenges. There is a sense that an era when easy solutions of excess supply capacity, robust infrastructure, and low cost environmental improvements may be coming to an end. Stresses as diverse as global climate change, energy market liberalization, and greater integration of energy companies produce extended policy debates. The Repsol YPF-Harvard Kennedy School Fellows Program responds to these opportunities and challenges by making an investment in intellectual capital through the research of another generation of energy policy scholars.

Young Faculty Leaders Forum

The Young Faculty Leaders Forum engages a select group of outstanding young scholars - the best in the nation - committed to strengthening American education in new ways. The goal is to evaluate challenges and a need for change facing the American educational system, both K-12 and higher education. A critical feature of this program is vigorous interaction not only among Forum members, but also among senior leaders from business and government who share a similar thirst for change.

The 34 young participant/scholars meet periodically and repeatedly over a series of two-day intensive sessions. During each of these sessions, the young faculty members present and rigorously defend their best ideas. With a strong emphasis on concrete evidence, these ideas are actively debated by both Forum members and senior guests from business, government and philanthropy who are leaders in their fields. Afterwards, to broaden the impact, each young faculty member is invited to present and share new ideas from the Executive Sessions with colleagues at their own universities, with the eventual objective that participants will then capitalize on their insights to train a new generation of American education leaders.