MPA vs. MPP: A Distinction Without a Difference?

Public service motivation and socialization in graduate education

“…However, despite these arguments, most studies have failed to find a meaningful connection between the curricular characteristics of degree programs, and the attitudes of students (De Soto et al, 1999;Hur and Hackbart, 2009;Infeld and Adams, 2011). Likewise, one could expect that students who are directly exposed to opportunities to interact with community members to solve meaningful problems as a part of the requirements of their degree program may develop higher levels of PSM.…”

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

“…It is the case that public administration is treated as a distinct discipline in North American contexts with its own conferences, professional associations and curricula. However, we cannot do more than note here the grey areas between fields of study and suggest that the fine-grained distinctions that are made between 'public administration', 'public sector management' and 'public policy' (eg Hur and Hackbart, 2009) are not only being whittled away by the forces of globalization but, more to the point, such distinctions are the subject of another contribution to the Forum. Instead, our preference is to advocate the benefits of 'disciplinary trespass' (Hirschman, 1981) and to borrow from other fields of study (Szostak, 2005) -like global administrative law (Kingsbury, 2005) or global social policy (Artaraz and Hill, 2016;Deacon, 2007) as well as IR and IPE (Higgott and Woo in Stone and Moloney, 2019) -that also have very much to say about policy making by transnational actors and the administrators of global governance.…”

Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy degrees: Differences and similarities in the curricula and course contents

“…A group of researchers found that in their core curricula, public administration programs emphasized the topics of the management of people and public organizations (budget and finance, human resources, leadership, management, public administration, and organizational theory), whereas public policy programs emphasized economics and analytical methods (Elmore, 1986;Henry et al, 2009;Hur and Hackbart, 2009;Koven et al, 2008;Roeder and Whitaker, 1993). Some also found that the curricular differences between them were not substantial (Averch et al, 1992;Ellwood, 2008;Henry et al, 2009;Koven et al, 2008) and the differences between their curricula had eroded over time (Lowery, 1994).…”

“…Some institutions offer similar degrees with other names, such as Master of Public Affairs and Master of Public Policy and Administration. As the programs and their names evolved, a group of researchers investigated the differences and similarities between MPA and MPP programs, particularly in the last three decades (Averch et al, 1992;Elmore, 1986;Henry et al, 2009;Hur and Hackbart, 2009;Infield and Adams, 2011;Koven et al, 2008;Lowery, 1994;Roeder and Whitaker, 1993). A key question some of them asked was, are the contents of MPA and MPP programs substantially different from each other?…”