Policy Research Areas

Many students arrive at Pardee RAND interested in a specific area of policy research, while others choose the School because of the myriad topics available to them, and the many faculty and experts with whom they can work.

You can visit the RAND website to browse by policy focus.

Within Pardee RAND, students and faculty tend to have more specific research interests that overlap and intersect with RAND's. Click on the topics below to learn about courses, faculty, research, and students in each.

  • Teacher asking her students a question

    Education

    Education policy is a medium size area of work for Pardee RAND students. RAND's work in this area has covered almost every aspect of the education system for more than four decades. Work ranges on everything from early childhood education to postsecondary education, educator effectiveness, instructional technology, to accountability and assessments.

  • Solar panels and wind generators against a city view

    Energy, Environment & Infrastructure

    Students interested in energy, infrastructure, and the environment contribute in a variety of ways to RAND research both within the U.S. and around the globe. Student work in this area has supported research on water, transportation, and energy policy, valuation of ecosystem services, and community resilience.

  • View of Morro do Papagaio at Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Global Development

    Through efforts like the Pardee Initiative, Pardee RAND students and RAND researchers conduct extensive work and write about global human development efforts in more than 75 countries around the world.

  • Nurse interviewing patient in the waiting room

    Health & Health Care

    Pardee RAND students contribute to RAND’s portfolio of research on health and health care in the U.S. and around the globe. Students have contributed to numerous projects on such topics as the effects of health care reform, military and veteran health, and mental health and addiction, among many others.

  • Legal marijuana purchased from a Boulder, Colorado retail shop

    Justice & Drug Policy

    Justice and drug policy is a broad and longstanding area of research within RAND. Student work in justice policy has ranged from work on the impacts of marijuana legalization, to analysis of the ways that emerging technologies may impact policing and public safety — among many other topics.

  • A large group of diverse people standing together

    Labor, Population & Aging

    The labor, population, and aging policy area aims to provide solutions to critical social and economic problems faced by children and families, workers, the elderly, the disabled, and other vulnerable populations. RAND’s work in this area has aimed to understand why people make the decisions they do and how markets, society, and policy affect them.

  • Digitally Generated Image of Online Security Concept

    Science, Technology & Innovation

    Science, technology and innovation policy is a small but diverse area of ongoing work for students at Pardee RAND. Students frequently make substantive contributions to this field of research at RAND, either through probject-based research training or via dissertation research.

  • U.S. Air Force captain shakes hands with an Afghanistan National Army warehouse supervisor as they discuss storage and distribution for equipment and supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 26, 2017

    Security & Defense

    The RAND Corporation helped create the field of defense analysis after World War II. Modern researchers at RAND, including Pardee RAND students, carry on this tradition. Common topic areas include strategy and policy, technology and acquisition, logistics, and personnel.