Publications

In New Jersey, the state government has been proactively advancing equity for several years through a range of initiatives including the creation of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Office of the Governor in 2021. However, success in addressing inequities in government services across population subgroups is difficult to track as […]

Actions taken by many states across the U.S. are fundamental in advancing social equity for all residents. New Jersey is in the forefront of these efforts as enunciated by Governor Murphy in his 2024 State of the State address in which he specifically called for New Jersey to be a state that is not just stronger or fairer but is both.

In this project, we are looking to see how the states are following the federal government’s path to advancing equity across agency policies and programs. We are particularly interested in whether agencies are including equity in their performance assessments but are also identifying related agency actions to advance equity.

Equity measures as part of department/agency performance assessment are essential to government efforts to incorporate equity into decision-making, programming, and service delivery. Equity in agency performance assessments helps to ensure that public dollars do not fund programs, projects, or policies that exacerbate inequities. In New Jersey, the state government is proactively advancing equity through several […]

Equity measures as part of agency performance assessment are integral to the growing focus of governments throughout the United States on equity in decision making, programming, and service delivery. In this project, we are studying how state governments in the U.S. are using equity measures as part of agency performance assessment protocols.

By Marilyn Rubin. Government actions have the potential to make a substantial and lasting impact on equity for all residents. One of government’s most powerful levers for advancing equity is its budget [...]

Opening the core routines of budgeting to include an equity dimension can make government more responsive to all its residents and can provide a pathway to a more equitable society. In this project, we are looking to see if, and how, city and state governments in the United States are using their budgets to advance […]

One of the most powerful levers that governments have to advancing equity for all residents is their budgets, “the medium through which [flows] the essential life of support systems of public policy” (Wildavsky & Caiden, 2001, xxvii). Acknowledging the importance of budgets in advancing equity, on his first day in office, President Biden issued Executive […]