MDs who are doing internships and residencies in hospitals are surrounded by their clients, the patients.



Graduate students and junior faculty in university Departments of Economics are also surrounded by the customers for their scholarship: the senior faculty who (along with colleagues around the world) determine what merits publication.



MPAs and junior faculty in public-policy schools are in a position similar to economists, in that they are surrounded by senior professors. But, unlike the case of junior economics professors (and of medical interns), these are not their clients, the institutions that can use advice and training on public policy.



I agree with Prof. Hausmann that this is unfortunate. To change it, the relationship between university schools of public policy and their clients probably needs to change.



There probably needs to be greater, career-long intermingling between the corps of university faculty and the corps of senior staff in the institutions that are their clients.



Degree programs probably need to be, not one-and-done propositions, but a series of degrees (and certificates), separated by work in the institutions, that respond to the evolving needs of professionals as they go down their career paths.