Publications

In 1992, political strategist James Carville famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” in reference to the messaging needed to get Bill Clinton elected. Carville’s admonition applied just as much to this year’s state and local elections. There is broad consensus that Mikie Sherrill and other Democrats swept the polls because they centered their campaigns on […]

As part of our ongoing evaluation of the certificate program offering advanced training to professionals addressing interpersonal violence within families, our team has entered the next phase of this mixed-methods project—qualitative data analysis. Rutgers University’s Center for Research on Ending Violence developed the program in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families […]

The New Jersey State government proactively advances equity through its Office of Equity in the Office of the Governor, and through budget initiatives such as the “Cover all Kids” program ensuring that the state’s children receive access to quality health care coverage. However, the state’s executive branch departments are not required to specifically account for […]

The New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel, based on Equifax data, provides insights into consumer credit trends, both nationally and by state. More specifically, the survey computes national and regional aggregate measures of individual- and household-level credit balances, and delinquencies by product type. The Consumer Credit Panel also provides new insights into the extent and […]

According to the National Student Clearinghouse, more than 790,000 New Jersey residents have earned some college credit but left school before completing their credential or degree. In Spring 2023, New Jersey launched a multi-faceted statewide ‘Some College, No Degree’ (SCND) initiative. Through this effort, the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) is working […]

Health insurance literacy is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach to address. Our goal throughout this project was to better understand health insurance literacy, its impact on people across the country, identify available resources, and propose steps to improve understanding of health insurance. This report will be valuable to policymakers aiming to grasp […]

As New Jersey prepares to elect our next governor tomorrow, November 4th, the months ahead offer a pivotal opportunity to chart a path toward a more innovative and resilient state. To help inform this transition, the New Jersey State Policy Lab invited affiliated faculty and staff to identify the most pressing priorities for the next […]

We continue to showcase preliminary findings from our survey of New Jersey residents on their support for sentencing reform in four key areas. The second area concerns public support for establishing rehabilitative release programs that allow incarcerated persons who have reached a certain age and served a specified portion of their sentence to petition a […]

Over the past several years, Governor Phil Murphy’s administration has instituted several nationally innovative environmental justice initiatives. In 2018, early in his first administration, Governor Murphy issued Executive Order No. 23 (E.O. 23), which acknowledged that “historically, New Jersey’s low-income communities and communities of color have been exposed to disproportionately high and unacceptably dangerous levels […]

At the state and national levels, there is a growing recognition that improving college access in isolation is not sufficient. The focus on ensuring that students have the support they need to succeed has shifted the focus to persistence and completion. In research conducted with the New Jersey State Policy Lab and the Newark City […]

Community colleges play a vital role in expanding access to higher education, especially for students from historically underserved communities. Understanding how students navigate the transfer pathway from two-year to four-year institutions is essential for improving educational outcomes. This blog highlights findings from the National Student Clearinghouse’s Tracking Transfer report, comparing New Jersey’s community college students […]

Over the past 10 years, many U.S. states have implemented mandatory paid family leave policies to help address the lack of such policy on the national level. In this post, we examine how paid family leave enrollment among parents in the U.S. has changed. We use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation […]