Bloomberg Center for Cities

Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Framework for Thorny Public Problems

An event of the Bloomberg Center for Cities

Register—In Person

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2:30 p.m. EST
Bloomberg Center for Cities, Taubman Third Floor, Harvard Kennedy School

About the Event

Co-sponsored with the Harvard Graduate School of Design

In-person event open to Harvard University ID holders. Virtual event open to all.

As communities grapple with the real-time impacts of complex, increasingly divisive problems—from climate change to economic policy—identifying solutions to these thorny issues requires a data-informed yet nuanced approach that addresses the realities on the ground. While traditional policy analysis tools are anchored in microeconomics, prioritizing economic efficiency, the newly published second edition of Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Flexible and Evidence-Based Framework leverages insights from multiple disciplines, offering a flexible, evidence-based framework that draws on multiple perspectives and methods.

This event will explore how public leaders can effectively navigate today’s policy landscape and develop workable solutions through an analytical approach that is pragmatic in the face of time and resource constraints while also conducive to synthesizing multiple viewpoints, contexts, and priorities. Authors Rachel Meltzer and Alex Schwartz will present findings from the book and its policy cases, and engage in a panel discussion with a city leader at the forefront of policymaking, Tiffany Chu, chief of staff to Mayor Michelle Wu in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

SPEAKERS

  • Rachel Meltzer, Plimpton Associate Professor of Planning and Urban Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  • Alex F. Schwartz, Professor of Public and Urban Policy, The New School
    Authors, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Flexible and Evidence-Based Framework
  • Tiffany Chu, Chief of Staff, City of Boston

MODERATOR
Jorrit de Jong, Director, Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University; Faculty Co-Chair, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative; Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School

Reception to follow.

Doors will open at 2:15 p.m. and the event will begin at 2:30 p.m.
Registration is requested as space is limited.

Directions to the Bloomberg Center for Cities

We welcome individuals with accessibility needs to participate in our events. Contact us at  to request accommodations or if you have questions.

Speakers

Rachel Meltzer
Rachel Meltzer

Rachel Meltzer

Plimpton Associate Professor of Planning and Urban Economics

Rachel Meltzer is the Plimpton Associate Professor of Planning and Urban Economics at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Her research is broadly concerned with urban economies and how market and policy forces can shape disparate outcomes across neighborhoods.  She focuses on issues related to economic development, housing, land use, and local public finance.

Dr. Meltzer’s current research explores how economic and institutional “shocks” impact retail and commercial activity and real estate markets in urban neighborhoods. These “shocks” range from gentrification to the introduction of broadband to Superstorm Sandy.  Dr. Meltzer is also interested in the private provision of public goods, and she has explored a number of questions related to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and Homeowners Associations (HOAs) about their formation and impacts on housing markets and public services. In addition, she has conducted extensive research on Inclusionary Zoning, an alternative to traditional methods of providing affordable housing, including its impact on local housing markets and the political economy behind the adoption of such policies.

Her work sits at the intersection of urban economics and planning and has been published in top policy, economics and urban planning and studies journals.  Dr. Meltzer’s research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Kauffman Foundation.

Prior to joining the GSD, Dr. Meltzer was Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Chair of the Public and Urban Policy M.S. Degree program at the Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment at The New School, where, for over a decade, she taught in the core policy analysis curriculum.  Out of that teaching experience, Dr. Meltzer authored the textbook, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving (Routledge 2018), with her New School colleague, Alex Schwartz.  She has also taught classes on quantitative methods, urban economic development and public finance.

Dr. Meltzer is a Research Affiliate at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a Mortgage Officer and Project Manager for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she managed the financing and rehabilitation of affordable housing. Dr. Meltzer earned her doctorate in Public Policy and M.P.A. from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University and a B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics from Dartmouth College.

Alex F. Schwartz

Professor of Public and Urban Policy, The New School

Alex F. Schwartz is Professor at the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment and is the former chair of the school’s Master’s program in Public and Urban Policy. He holds a doctorate in Urban Planning and Policy Development from Rutgers University.

Professor Schwartz’s research centers on housing and community development, including public housing and other affordable housing programs, mixed-income housing, and fair housing. While most of his research has focused on housing issues in the United States, he has also studied housing policy in the United Kingdom, and has consulted for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).

Professor Schwartz is the author of Housing Policy in the United States: 4th Edition (Routledge, 2021). He is co-author with Milano colleague Rachel Meltzer of Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Flexible and Evidence-Based Framework  (Routledge  second edition 2024). His research has appeared in such journals as Cityscape, Economic Development Quarterly, Housing Policy Debate, Housing Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the Journal of the American Planning Association. In addition, he served as the Managing Editor for North America for the international journal Housing Studies from 2010 to 2020.

Professor Schwartz is Director of the Milano School’s Urban Policy Lab, in which teams of graduate students advise government agencies and nonprofit organizations on a wide array of policy and management issues. He also teaches Policy Analysis, Community Development, and Housing Policy.

In the spring of 2019 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Professor Schwartz to the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which determines maximum rent increases for nearly 1 million units of rent stabilized housing.

Tiffany Chu

Chief of Staff, City of Boston, Massachusetts

Tiffany Chu is the Chief of Staff to Mayor Michelle Wu.

Tiffany comes from a background in design, urban planning, and entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the City of Boston, she was the CEO & Co-founder of Remix, a collaborative software platform for transportation planning used by 500+ cities around the world. Remix was named a Tech Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and Bloomberg for furthering sustainability and equity in the field, and was acquired by Via in one of the largest software acquisitions of 2021.

Tiffany was appointed as a Commissioner of the San Francisco Department of the Environment and served on San Francisco’s Congestion Pricing Policy Advisory Committee.

Previously, Tiffany was at Code for America, Y Combinator, Zipcar, and Continuum. She’s been named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, LinkedIn’s Next Wave of Leaders Under 35, and featured at SXSW, Helsinki Design Week, the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow Conference, and more. Tiffany has a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning.

Tiffany is a first generation Taiwanese American. A few of her favorite things around Boston include the Charles River Esplanade, pasta at Giacomo’s, and the city’s walkability.

Jorrit de Jong
Jorrit de Jong, Center director and faculty co-chair, headshot

Jorrit de Jong

Director, Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University

Jorrit de Jong is director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University and the Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School. His research, teaching, and engagement with practice focus on the challenges of making the public sector more effective, efficient, equitable, and responsive to social needs.

His scholarly research has been published in academic journals such as Public Administration Review, Cities, Public Management Review, Administration & Society, Stanford Social Innovation Review, International Journal of Public Administration, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Policy. A specialist in experiential learning, Jorrit has taught strategic management and public problem-solving in degree courses and executive education programs at Harvard and around the world.

Since 2016, Jorrit has been director and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a joint program of Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, funded by and executed in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies. Over 300 mayors and their senior teams have participated in this year-long program designed to help cities tackle pressing problems.

Jorrit has designed and led field labs on neighborhood development, organized crime, human trafficking and other social issues that require multiple agencies to innovate together. As director of the Center for Government Studies at Leiden University, Jorrit co-founded the Kafka Brigade, an action research team that helped governments in the Netherlands and the UK diagnose and remedy bureaucratic dysfunction. Before that, he was founding co-director of a start-up technology firm for public sector innovation in Amsterdam.

Jorrit holds a PhD in Public Policy and Management (VU Amsterdam), a Master in Philosophy (Leiden) and a Master in Public Administration (Leiden). He has written extensively, including the books The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities (Brookings 2008, co-edited); Agents of Change: Strategy and Tactics for Social Innovation (Brookings 2012, co-authored); and Dealing with Dysfunction: Innovative Problem Solving in the Public Sector (Brookings, 2016). Jorrit co-developed more than 60 teaching cases, simulation exercises, toolkits and learning modules on governance and leadership.

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