About the Program
The PhD Program in Health Policy at UC Berkeley is distinguished by its interdisciplinary application of the social and behavioral science disciplines to real-world health issues. Students select a specialty field from among three tracks (Health Economics, Organizations & Management, and Population Health Sciences) while receiving rigorous training in quantitative research methods. Students augment their training through skills and knowledge from UC Berkeley's top-ranked Economics, Political Science, and Sociology departments, as well as the Haas School of Business and the Goldman School of Public Policy. Graduates of the Health Policy program are well prepared to assume academic careers in research and teaching. The program's interdisciplinary social and behavioral sciences approach to health services and policy research is a cornerstone of the PhD program that enables students to tailor much of their coursework to their own research interests.
Admissions
Admission to the University
Applying for Graduate Admission
Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. The Graduate Division hosts a complete list of graduate academic programs, departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application and steps to take to apply can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Admission Requirements
The minimum graduate admission requirements are:
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A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
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A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and
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Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.
For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page. It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here.
Where to apply?
Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page.
Admission to the Health Policy PhD Program
Successful applicants have a clear research focus in health policy and/or health services research. Experience working in the health sector is viewed favorably by the admissions committee, as is prior research experience.
Entering students should have a foundation of basic knowledge in microeconomics, epidemiology, and statistics. A master’s degree is preferred but not required for this program. Applicants without a master’s degree should have at least two years of related experience. Additional admission requirements include GRE scores (average scores for admitted applicants are in the 70th percentile or above) and three letters of recommendation.
Doctoral Degree Requirements
Health Policy PhD Course Requirements
Specialty fields:
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Health Economics
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Organizations & Management
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Population Health Sciences
Curriculum Requirements
All students must take the core courses PB HLTH 237C, PB HLTH 237D, PB HLTH 237E, and PB HLTH 237F, five specialty field courses, three quantitative research methods courses, and three additional graduate elective courses.
Required Core Courses for All Specialty Fields
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| PB HLTH 237C | Health Policy Research Colloquium | 1 |
| PB HLTH 237D | Health Policy PhD Dissertation Seminar | 2 |
| PB HLTH 237E | Doctoral Seminar in Health Organizations & Management | 2 |
| PB HLTH 237F | Doctoral Seminar in Health Economics | 2 |
Health Economics Course Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Speciality Field Core Requirement | ||
| ECON 201A | Economic Theory | 4 |
| Speciality Field Electives | ||
| Students select four courses, including a two-course sequence | ||
| ECON 201B | Economic Theory | 4 |
| ECON 219A | Foundations of Psychology and Economics | 3 |
| ECON 219B | Applications of Psychology and Economics | 3 |
| ECON 220A & ECON 220B | Industrial Organization and Industrial Organization | 6 |
| ECON 230A/230B | Public Economics | 3 |
| ECON 250A & ECON 250B | Labor Economics and Labor Economics | 6 |
| ECON 270B & ECON 270C | Development Economics and Development Economics | 6 |
| DEMOG C175 | Economic Demography | 4 |
| DEMOG C275A | Economic Demography | 3 |
| PB HLTH 226A | Health Economics A | 3 |
| PUB POL 251 | Microeconomic Organization and Policy Analysis | 3 |
| PUB POL 259 | Benefit-Cost Analysis | 4 |
| Electives | ||
| Three additional elective courses taken for a letter grade from among Berkeley’s wide offering of graduate courses. Students should work with their advisor to select an appropriate mix of courses to ensure multidisciplinary but deep methodological and substantive expertise. | ||
Organization and Management Course Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Speciality Field Core Requirement | ||
| Students select five courses, with at least one micro and one macro course | ||
| Micro-Organizational | ||
| Social Psychology and Information Technology [3] | ||
| Research in Micro-Organizational Behavior [3] | ||
| Research Seminar in Behavioral Science [4] | ||
| Research Seminar in Management of Organizations [2-4] | ||
| Special Topics in Public Policy [1-4] | ||
| Macro-Organizational | ||
| Research Workshop on Macro Organizational Behavior [3] | ||
| Doctoral Topics in Business Administration [0.5-3] | ||
| Workshop in Institutional Analysis [2] | ||
| Advanced Study in Substantive Sociological Fields: Organizations [3] | ||
| Other Electives | ||
| DEMOG 180 | Social Networks | 4 |
| Social Networks [4] | ||
| Public Management and Policy Implementation [4] | ||
| Research Topics in Public Organization [4] | ||
| Seminars: Social [2] | ||
| Sociology of Medicine [3] | ||
| Group, Organizational, and Community Dynamics [2] | ||
| Electives | ||
| Three additional elective courses taken for a letter grade from among Berkeley’s wide offering of graduate courses. Students should work with their advisor to select an appropriate mix of courses to ensure multidisciplinary but deep methodological and substantive expertise. | ||
Population Health Sciences Course Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Speciality Field Core Requirement | ||
| Students select five research methods courses. | ||
| Electives | ||
| Six additional elective courses taken for a letter grade from among Berkeley’s wide offering of graduate courses. Students should work with their advisor to select an appropriate mix of courses to ensure multidisciplinary but deep methodological and substantive expertise. Electives are suggested below. | ||
| DEMOG 215 | Current Research Topics in Demography | 2 |
| DEMOG 220 | Human Fertility | 4 |
| DEMOG 230 | Human Mortality | 4 |
| DEMOG 240 | Human Migration | 2 |
| DEMOG 260 | Special Topics in Demography Seminar | 1-4 |
| DEMOG C275A | Economic Demography | 3 |
| DEMOG C280 | Social Networks | 4 |
| INFO 232 | Course Not Available | 3 |
| INFO 233 | Social Psychology and Information Technology | 3 |
| PUB POL 250 | The Politics of Public Policy | 4 |
| PUB POL 267 | The Social Safety Net, Poverty and Income Inequality | 4 |
| PUB POL 271 | The Political Economy of Inequality | 4 |
| PUB POL 290 | Special Topics in Public Policy | 1-4 |
| PB HLTH 132 | Artificial Intelligence for Health and Healthcare | 3 |
| PB HLTH 201E | Public Health Interventions: Theory, Practice, and Research | 2,3 |
| PB HLTH 203A | Theories of Health and Social Behavior | 3 |
| PB HLTH 206B | Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs | 3 |
| PB HLTH 206C | Nutritional Epidemiology | 3 |
| PB HLTH W206B | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH 216A | Biological Embedding of Social Factors | 2 |
| PB HLTH 219C | Community-Based Participatory Research in Public Health | 3-4 |
| PB HLTH 226C | Economics of Population Health | 3 |
| PB HLTH W226C | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH W226F | Course Not Available | 1 |
| PB HLTH C233 | Healthy Cities | 3 |
| PB HLTH W236A | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH 236 | U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Drug Development, and Public Health | 2 |
| PB HLTH 253D | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH 255A | Social Epidemiology | 4 |
| PB HLTH 255C | Mental Health and Psychopathology | 3 |
| PB HLTH 271E | Science and Policy for Environment and Health | 3 |
| PB HLTH 258 | Cancer Epidemiology | 3 |
Research Methods Courses
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Methods Courses | ||
| Health Economics and Organizations & Management trainees need to complete at least 3 methods courses, Population Health Sciences trainees need to complete at least 5 methods courses | ||
| A,RESEC 212 | Econometrics: Multiple Equation Estimation | 4 |
| A,RESEC 213 | Applied Econometrics | 4 |
| DEMOG 210 | Demographic Methods: Rates and Structures | 4 |
| ECON 244 | Applied Econometrics | 3 |
| EDUC 274A | Measurement in Education and the Social Sciences I | 4 |
| EDUC 274B | Measurement in Education and the Social Sciences II | 4 |
| EDUC 274C | Research Seminar in Measurement | 2 |
| EDUC 274D | Multidimensional Measurement | 4 |
| EDUC 275B | Data Analysis in Educational Research II | 4 |
| EDUC 275G | Hierarchical and Longitudinal Modeling | 5 |
| INFO 201 | Research Design and Applications for Data and Analysis | 3 |
| INFO 251 | Applied Machine Learning | 4 |
| PB HLTH 226C | Economics of Population Health | 3 |
| PB HLTH C240B | Biostatistical Methods: Survival Analysis and Causality | 4 |
| PB HLTH C240C | Biostatistical Methods: Computational Statistics with Applications in Biology and Medicine | 4 |
| PB HLTH C240D | Biostatistical Methods: Computational Statistics with Applications in Biology and Medicine II | 4 |
| PB HLTH 241 | Intermediate Biostatistics for Public Health | 4 |
| PB HLTH W241 | Course Not Available | 4 |
| PB HLTH C242C | Longitudinal Data Analysis | 4 |
| PB HLTH 243A | Targeted Learning | 4 |
| PB HLTH 243B | Targeted Learning in Practice | 2-3 |
| PB HLTH 243C | Information Systems in Public Health | 2 |
| PB HLTH 244 | Big Data: A Public Health Perspective | 3 |
| PB HLTH 245 | Introduction to Multivariate Statistics | 4 |
| PB HLTH 250B | Epidemiologic Methods II | 4 |
| PB HLTH W250B | Epidemiologic Methods II | 4 |
| PB HLTH 250C | Advanced Epidemiologic Methods | 3 |
| PB HLTH 251C | Course Not Available | 2 |
| PB HLTH 252 | Epidemiological Analysis | 4 |
| PB HLTH W252 | Course Not Available | 4 |
| PB HLTH W252A | Course Not Available | 4 |
| PB HLTH 252D | Introduction to Causal Inference | 4 |
| PB HLTH 252E | Advanced Topics in Causal Inference | 4 |
| PB HLTH 255D | Methods in Social Epidemiology | 2 |
| PB HLTH W267 | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH W272A | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH W272C | Course Not Available | 3 |
| PB HLTH 277A | GIS and Spatial Analysis for Health Equity | 3 |
| DEVP 229 | Quantitative Methods and Impact Evaluation | 3 |
| PUB POL 259 | Benefit-Cost Analysis | 4 |
| POL SCI 236A | The Statistics of Causal Inference in the Social Sciences | 4 |
| PSYCH 206 | Structural Equation Modeling | 3 |
| SOCIOL 273L | Computational Social Science | 3 |
| SOCIOL 273M | Computational Social Science | 3 |
Specialty Field Examination
A comprehensive written examination in the student's specialty field must be successfully completed prior to the qualifying examination.
Quantitative Research Methods Paper
An empirical research paper to demonstrate the student's ability to use doctoral-level quantitative research methods with real data must be successfully completed before the end of the third year of the program.
Qualifying Examination
An oral qualifying examination must be passed before the student can be advanced to doctoral candidacy.
Dissertation
An original research dissertation is required for the PhD degree.
Graduate Program Outcomes
Graduates can achieve and demonstrate expertise in the following major academic outcomes:
- Develop domain expertise in core works in health policy and the selected specialty field.
- Understand central social science theoretical frameworks and debates shaping health policy.
- Demonstrate substantive knowledge of the specialty field sufficient to design and teach graduate-level courses in that field.
- Demonstrate the ability to conduct rigorous quantitative research.
- Plan and conduct independent research using advanced research methods.
- Demonstrate the mastery of academia and grant writing, conference presentation, IRB procedures and ethics in research.
- Engage in intellectual exchange among students and faculty across the university to enhance interdisciplinary research and training.
Research Resources
Health Policy PhD students have access to a wide range of resources at UC Berkeley and UCSF, including highly regarded research centers. Below are brief descriptions of a selected list of research centers most closely aligned with the Health Policy PhD program. These Centers include faculty from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines who bring expertise in health services research and provide settings for intensive training and mentorship opportunities for trainees.
The Berkeley Center for Health Technology (BCHT), co-directed by Dr. James Robinson (Director) and Dr. Tim Brown (Associate Director), promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare through research and education on the development, insurance coverage, payment, and appropriate use of medical technologies. The focus of BCHT is on biopharmaceuticals, implantable medical devices, insurance benefit design, and payment methods. Research initiatives include leadership roundtables, case studies of leading organizations, and econometric analyses of public and private data sources. BCHT helps stakeholders design a healthcare system that combines innovation and entrepreneurship with economic efficiency and social fairness.
The UC Berkeley Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare, co-directed by Dr. Richard Scheffler (Director) and Dr. Brent Fulton (Associate Director), focuses on consumer protection, affordability and access to healthcare, especially for low and middle-income individuals. The Petris Center also focuses on and the role of information in consumer choice, and regulation and competition within healthcare markets. The research center is named after former California State Senator Nicholas Petris, who advocated strongly on behalf of California consumers for affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare.
The UC Berkeley Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research (CHOIR), co-directed by Dr. Hector Rodriguez (Director) and Dr. Amanda Brewster (Associate Director) aspires to help make the U.S. healthcare system among the most responsive in the world through practice-based research and dissemination of evidence. CHOIR emphasizes innovations in healthcare delivery and assessment of organizational performance to improve the technical quality of care delivered, patient experience and outcomes of care, population health, and cost. CHOIR works to maximize their “voice” and impact through webinars, roundtables, and discussions with private and public sector action and thought leaders.
The Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging (CEDA), directed by Professor William Dow, was founded in 1993 to promote interdisciplinary research on the economic and demographic aspects of aging. In response to the growing demand from government agencies, Congress, and academic researchers for timely, accessible, and practical information as well as basic research. At the central core of CEDA is a group of outstanding formal and mathematical and statistical demographers who apply their skills to a variety of research areas, including biodemography, demographic modeling and forecasting, and intergenerational transfers including fiscal accounting. This central core is enriched by other themes, notably psychological and behavioral economics with applications to economic and health-related behaviors.
The UC-Berkeley Opportunity Lab (O-Lab), co-directed by Professor Ben Handel and Professor Hilary Hoynes serves as the central research hub for Berkeley scholars conducting rigorous, data-driven research on social and economic inequality in the United States. Our network of faculty and graduate students work across disciplines and study a wide array of topics, from the role of childhood food security on long-term economic security to the disparate impacts of climate change on low-income communities.
The UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital carries out innovative research to prevent and treat chronic disease in populations for whom social conditions often conspire to both promote various chronic diseases and make their management more challenging. Beyond the local communities it serves, CVP is nationally and internationally known for its research in health communication and health policy to reduce health disparities, with special expertise in the social determinants of health, including literacy, food policy, poverty, and minority status, with a focus on the clinical conditions of pre-diabetes, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. CVP is at the frontline of practice-based research on chronic diseases for the diverse and disadvantaged populations of San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Contact Information
Graduate Group in Health Policy
2121 Berkeley Way West
Phone: 510-643-0976
Program Director
Hector Rodriguez, PhD, MPH
2121 Berkeley Way #5427
Phone: 510-643-6841
Program Manager
Kristine Doss, MPH
2121 Berkeley Way #5302
Phone: 510-643-0976