Interview with Steven Durlauf on the MACRM program

The MA in Public Policy with Certificate in Research Methods (MACRM) application is now open! We interviewed Steven Durlauf, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the MACRM program, to learn how this unique program works and what skills MACRM students can expect to take with them to academia or research jobs.

What sets the MACRM apart from other programs at Harris?

The MACRM program is oriented towards quantitative methods—with electives across disciplines. Students take doctoral-level core courses and then are paired with a professor for an immersive research apprenticeship so that the students are in a position to become researchers themselves. 

It's a great program for people thinking of getting PhDs in economics, political science, or any social sciences where a quantitative background is needed. Many of our students have gone on to excellent doctoral programs or brought the tools they learn to jobs across sectors.

What makes for an excellent MACRM candidate?

We look for candidates who are enthusiastic about research and social sciences and want to pursue that in their lives.*

How does the apprenticeship work?

Each year I mentor a small group of MACRM students in their research apprenticeships. My approach is to get students working on research right away. I may give them suggested topics, or they may come to me with topics, and I organize them to begin the process of writing papers. So much of what you need to learn in research is all the frustrations: the nitty-gritty of working with complicated data sets, trying to work out problems where you go down the wrong path, when you can't get an answer, and things like that... Other professors integrate students directly as research assistants in their own research.*

What are some examples of research projects MACRM students have worked on?

Many of my students have worked on intergenerational mobility: the extent to which the facts of one's childhood and adolescence and one's family and social background control outcomes in adulthood. And so I've had students work on a range of questions there. For example, a former MACRM student currently in a PhD program at UCLA is now a co-author with me; Kristina Butaeva, a postdoctoral fellow at the Stone Center; and Albert Park, Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank. Our paper looks at intergenerational mobility since 1990 in Russia and China after market economies emerged.

What goes into the research portfolio MACRM students build?

In addition to papers they write in other courses, we want every student in the MACRM program to have a culminating paper that is a substantive, serious piece of research that tries to answer a hard question.

How do MACRM alumni stand out from other candidates on the job market or in their academic pursuits?

It's the rigorous training: MACRM alumni have taken PhD-level courses. And so if somebody is applying to a private sector job, I write in the letter of recommendation that they have learned statistical methods at a doctoral level, and these are the sorts of tools and types of questions that they are prepared to do novel work with. If it's for a doctoral program, I would write that they have the tools to excel in the first-year PhD courses, because they've already thought about much of the material.

Plus, if a student can submit a paper when applying for a PhD, that's incredibly valuable. Because PhD admissions typically ask one question: what is the research potential of the candidate? It’s one thing for a PhD applicant to say, "I received an A in statistical methods." It's another thing to say, "Here you can see how I applied these methods to a substantive question." So I think that the ability of the program to equip students with papers that are part of their applications matters.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about your experience as MACRM director?

Before I came to Harris in 2017, I had been at University of Wisconsin-Madison for 24 years. And so, of course, there were challenges. But the best thing that happened to me moving to Harris was the MACRM program. The opportunity to be assigned talented, motivated, committed students, and work with them has been fantastic.

*Read more about the quantitative background we look for in a candidate on the MACRM page. 

* In your first Fall Quarter you'll work with your advisor/MACRM program director to identify a few faculty members you're interested in doing your apprenticeship with. Students are paired with faculty based on identified faculty preferences as well as faculty capacity and research interests.