Laboratory for Public Management & Policy

About Us

Since 2013, the primary aim of the Laboratory for Public Management & Policy (LaMP) has been to use rigorous research to enhance the performance of public services. We are a group of faculty studying policy and organizational design, management practices, and interactions between citizens, interest groups, and public organizations. We particularly focus on experimental designs, systematic research synthesis, and careful analysis of observational data.

Learn more about us from some of our wonderful alumni, who we brought back in May 2023 for our ten-year anniversary:

Laboratory Facility

Our laboratory facility in the Li Building has space for experiments involving a handful of subjects at a time. It also includes a one-way mirror for experimental designs involving detailed observations. Our laboratory facility also has a Mac Pro computer, allowing for the analysis of large data sets and the usage of complex estimation techniques.

Ranking

Public administration research at LaMP is ranked 1st in Hong Kong, 2nd in Asia, and 23rd in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (2023) by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Details can be found here. Also, we are ranked 50th in the world in the 2023 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings by Subject in Social Policy & Administration. Details can be found here.

Postgraduate Studies

LaMP has an active group of students who contribute vitality and enthusiasm. There are typically around 15 doctoral students who study in our four-year programmes. Opportunities for PhD scholarship are available, funded through the Department of Public and International Affairs, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme and a variety of joint-PhD programmes. Further enquiries can be made through the School of Graduate Studies. Master’s students study on the MA in Public Policy and Management in streams in public policy, public management, smart cities and governance in China.

International Collaboration

LaMP has very strong international collaborative relationships. Members are very active in a range of professional academic associations - Public Management Research Association, International Research Society on Public Management, Asia-Pacific Public Policy Network, and American Society of Public Administration - presenting at conferences and contributing towards the management of the association by serving on boards, association journals, or organising conferences. LaMP members are editors at Public Administration and Public Administration Review and sit on the editorial boards of all leading journals including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Public Management Review. We often publish and engage in grant-funded projects in association with researchers in mainland China, Taiwan, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and the USA.

Workshops and Special Issues

LaMP is co-hosting an international online workshop on public service motivation, which aims to subsequently lead to multiple publications. We are also co-editing a special issue of Public Management Review on citizen satisfaction and held a developmental workshop as part of it earlier this year. We also frequently host guest speakers via Zoom.

News

November 1, 2023
We're up 15 spots in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 🎉 Now #23 - top in Hong Kong, and 2nd in Asia!

July 4, 2023
Big congratulations to LaMP members Bert George (effect of red tape on emotions), Nick Petrovsky (satisfaction mirror between public servants and citizens), Yanto Chandra (governance of decentralized autonomous organizations), and Lin Zhang (climate financing) for getting competitive GRF grants!

July 4, 2023
Our Twitter news feed is still up and running but sadly Twitter currently requires a login to read it, so it can't be shown here for now.