The New Jersey State Policy Lab returned to the New Jersey League of Municipalities Annual Conference, which is hosted at the Atlantic City Convention Center. The Policy Lab team sponsored a booth to meet with attendees from all across the state and discuss the important work their researchers have recently published.

The theory of representative bureaucracy has gone through a series of major reformulations in the past ten years supplemented with an additional 120 empirical manuscripts published or presented in the last five. This lecture discussed the new theories to sketch an empirical agenda for representative bureaucracy focusing on behavioral choices, contextual influences, cross-national generalization, the interrelationship of symbolic and active representation, and the meaning of representation.

Dr. Kenneth Meier, Distinguished Scholar in Residence from American University, held a presentation and Q&A on the topic of representative bureaucracy at the Rutgers-Newark campus in the Center for Urban and Public Service.

The New Jersey State Policy Lab Summer Interns toured the NJ statehouse along with Mayors Paul Muir and Jason Cilento and New Jersey Conference of Mayors (NJCM) Executive Director Kerry Kirk Pflugh. Assemblyman Dan Benson met with the group afterwards to give a behind-the-scenes look at state-level legislative process. Afterward, the NJSPL held a luncheon at the NJCM headquarters.

The New Jersey State Policy Lab Summer Interns met with several mayors from the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, which included Mayors Paul Muir, Janice Mironov, Michael Stanzilis, Jason Cilento, and Janice Kovach, and NJCM Executive Director Kerry Kirk Pflugh. The students were able to present their subjects of public policy research, and solicit feedback and other insights from mayors representing municipalities across the state.

Dr. Mary Feeney presented an overview of the Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES) in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate at the NSF. She then led a discussion about review criteria (intellectual merit, broader impacts, education outcomes – for CAREER grants), grant review processes, proposal strategies, and opportunities to get more involved with the NSF as a reviewer, panelist, or program officer.

Dr. Mary Feeney presented an overview of the Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES) in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate at the NSF. She then led a discussion about review criteria (intellectual merit, broader impacts, education outcomes – for CAREER grants), grant review processes, proposal strategies, and opportunities to get more involved with the NSF as a reviewer, panelist, or program officer.

The COVID-19 pandemic promoted major federal investments in state and local government through several rounds of intergovernmental aid. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided state governments the opportunity to offset losses during the pandemic in invest in recovery, and the legislation required detailed performance reporting for accountability. Does variation in state reporting capacity shape our understanding of the performance of intergovernmental aid? With primary data from state reports and key informant interviews, this presentation illuminates ongoing challenges in American federalism and public administration.

Dr. Eric Zeemering, Associate Professor and MPA Director for the University of Georgia, will be holding this discussion at the Center for Urban and Public Service at Rutgers University-Newark.

For the first year, the New Jersey State Policy Lab attended the New Jersey League of Municipalities Annual Conference, hosted at the Atlantic City Convention Center. The Policy Lab team sponsored a booth where they met with attendees from all across the state and discussed the important work their researchers have recently published.

The New Jersey State Policy Lab hosted a meet and greet presentation at the New Jersey State House. This event was an opportunity for NJSPL researchers to present their findings to state legislators and discuss what future work can be done to best assist the state with policy research.

Dr. Elizabeth Cooner, Executive Director of the NJSPL and Dr. Stuart Shapiro, the Principal Investigator of the NJSPL and the Interim Dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, shared insights about a wide range of research the New Jersey State Policy Lab is conducting. Dr. Gregory Porumbescu (co-Principal Investigator of NJSPL), Dr. Vandeen Campbell, Dr. Michael Hayes, and Dr. Charles Payne presented findings from their research on digital and technological equity, cannabis legalization, and disparities in access to education.