Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Founder	Harvard Kennedy School
Established	2000
Mission	To improve the governance of Greater Boston by strengthening connections between the region's scholars, students, and civic leaders.
Director	Edward Glaeser
Key people	Jeffrey Liebman, Director
Address	15 Eliot Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Website	Official website

The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston is a research and policy center housed at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The director is Jeffrey B. Liebman, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

History

The Rappaport Institute began operations in 2000 under the leadership of Professor Alan Altshuler, the faculty director, and Charles Euchner, the executive director.

The Rappaport Institute developed an ambitious set of programs for research, public service, lectures and conferences, executive training, and information. The institute produced two comprehensive overviews of public policy in the region,^[1] studies of housing regulation,^[2] home rule,^[3] the economic drivers of growth, government management tools like CitiStat, public transit, parks management, and more.

Each academic year, the Institute funds 12 Rappaport Public Policy Fellows, who are graduate students from Boston-area universities studying policy-related topics, providing funding for 10-week internships at government and public service entities in the Boston area. Law students are eligible for a separate Rappaport Fellowship in Law and Public Policy administered by the Institute's sister institution, the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service at Suffolk University.^[4]

The Institute also supports courses, the development of teaching materials, and encourages faculty and student research on issues of importance for Greater Boston. In addition, the Institute sponsors public events, maintains an online database on scholarly research about the region, and produces publications that summarize new scholarly research. The Institute also houses the Rappaport Urban Scholars program, which since 1981 has provided local elected and appointed officials with scholarships to Harvard Kennedy School’s mid-career master's degree program.^[5]

References

1. Charles Euchner, editor, Governing Greater Boston: The Politics and Policy of Place (2002) [1] and Governing Greater Boston: Meeting the Needs of the Region's People (2003) [2]
2. Charles Euchner, "Getting Home: Overcoming Barriers to Housing in Greater Boston [3]
3. David Barron, Gerald Frug, and Rick Su, Dispelling the Myth of Home Rule: Local Power in Greater Boston [4]
4. "Twelve grad students named Rappaport Fellows," Harvard University Gazette, June 12, 2008
5. Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston - Mission

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