The Public Management and Policy Department supports public institutions and their managers through the development of new knowledge and the consolidation of existing knowledge on rigorous methodological bases.
In terms of research, the Area devotes particular attention to the connection between theoretical and applied research. This approach facilitates the development of projects which, in terms of content and method, have a high impact with regard to the logic, the processes, the practices and the techniques of public management.

The main areas of research are: 

Within the Public Management and Policy Area is the OCAP (Observatory of Public Administration Change) which promotes multidisciplinary studies and comparative research in various areas of Italian and European public administration.

OCAP (Observatory of Public Administration Change)
In addition, it conducts research in the healthcare sector in collaboration with CERGAS through OASI (Observatory of Italian Healthcare).

OASI (Observatory of Italian Healthcare)


Generally speaking, the research methodologies encompass:

• Qualitative research: investigation that goes beyond manifest data and indentify deep individual mechanisms that lie at the root of attitudes and behaviors; complementary to quantitative research;
• Quantitative research: measuring the characteristics and properties of phenomena in the form of data, elaborated according to methods best suited to the complexity of the phenomena and the requirements of the client;
• Book research: assembling existing economic, social and legal data from the literature, studying and comparing it, usually through statistical methods of both the predictive and descriptive types;
• Field research: the direct study of a phenomenon (e.g. consumer behavior, the use of a computer application) through direct observation, participation or in-depth interviews;
• Experimental research: testing the reactions and behaviors of groups to experimental stimuli designed by researchers, based on the comparison of control groups and experimental groups in a controlled environment.