All Published NJSPL Reports

Report Release: Examining Low- and Moderate-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

November 27th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Examining Low- and Moderate-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

Read Report By Sania Murtuza, Tai Vu, Biplav Pokhrel, and Yao Sun, Ph.D.   This research project investigated the effectiveness of low- and moderate-income (LMI) community solar programs in New Jersey, where we focused [...]

Report Release: Reengaging COVID-Disconnected College Students in Newark

August 26th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Reengaging COVID-Disconnected College Students in Newark

By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D., Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., and Robyn Ince, Ed.M. The New Jersey State Policy Lab, in collaboration with the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC), is releasing a report that examines barriers and opportunities to reengaging COVID-disconnected college students [...]

Report Release: R/ECON Forecast Summer 2024

July 8th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: R/ECON Forecast Summer 2024

By Will Irving Read Report   R/ECON’s economic forecast for New Jersey as of June 2024 continues to show a slowing trajectory, though the decline in annual GDP growth is not as pronounced as [...]

Report Release: Digital Skills for Accessing Local Government Services

June 6th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Digital Skills for Accessing Local Government Services

By Vishal Trehan, Stephanie Walsh, Gregory Porumbescu, and Andrea Hetling. Digital skills are increasingly essential for citizens to access and utilize online government services effectively. However, there are also reports of disparities in digital skill levels [...]

Report Release: Can Reducing Learning Costs Improve Public Opinion of Means-Tested Benefit Programs?

May 16th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Can Reducing Learning Costs Improve Public Opinion of Means-Tested Benefit Programs?

By Gregory Porumbescu, Stephanie Walsh, and Andrea Hetling. Means-tested public benefit programs, such as SNAP, are intricate and subject to a large number of rules and eligibility requirements. The high learning costs associated with these programs [...]

Report Release: Senior Connect: A Community-Engaged Approach to Promote Digital Equity for Older Adults

May 2nd, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Senior Connect: A Community-Engaged Approach to Promote Digital Equity for Older Adults

By Diane Hill, Ph.D., Donita Devance, MCRP, and Epiphany Munz, B.A. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way that we communicate and interact as a society. Importantly, it highlighted the need for digital literacy [...]

Report Release: 15-Minute Neighborhoods: A Pathway to Creating Healthier, More Just, Resilient, & Sustainable Communities in New Jersey

April 15th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: 15-Minute Neighborhoods: A Pathway to Creating Healthier, More Just, Resilient, & Sustainable Communities in New Jersey

By Jon Carnegie, June Greeman, and Jacob Thompson Read Report   Over the past several years, several policy threads have gained prominence in New Jersey. These include adapting to climate change, advancing social justice, [...]

Report Release: Resilience Through Functionality: Outcome-Driven Quantification Approach with Stakeholders-Based Calibration

April 4th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: Resilience Through Functionality: Outcome-Driven Quantification Approach with Stakeholders-Based Calibration

By Michel C. Boufadel, Ph.D., P.E., Firas Gerges, Ph.D., Hani Nassif, Ph.D., P.E. In the face of escalating challenges posed by climate change and rapid urbanization, community resilience is of paramount importance. Quantifying resilience is a crucial step in identifying vulnerabilities [...]

Report Release: The Transportation Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic

February 29th, 2024|Comments Off on Report Release: The Transportation Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Robert Noland, Hannah Younes, Evan Iacobucci, and Wenwen Zhang. The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on transportation behavior in New Jersey and throughout the world. Our research sought to examine these changes and whether any changes will be long-lasting [...]

  • A collection of items on a table, including a magnifying glass, a stack of coins, a dollar sign magnet, a calculator, and a ceramic piggy bank

Report Release: Who Experienced the Greatest Financial Burden from Inflation in NJ?

November 13th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Who Experienced the Greatest Financial Burden from Inflation in NJ?

By Jocelyn Fischer, Ph.D. and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Ph.D. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey has experienced record high levels of inflation.  These price increases raise concerns about New Jerseyans’ financial well-being.  However, inflation [...]

  • R/ECON Summary of New Jersey Economic Forecast Table, November 2023

Report Release: R/ECON Forecast November 2023

November 9th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: R/ECON Forecast November 2023

By Will Irving. R/ECON’s economic forecast for New Jersey as of November 2023 shows slow or stagnant growth over the next five to six quarters, with GDP recovering to a steady but tepid rate of increase in 2025. This largely mirrors the U.S. trajectory [...]

  • An older woman sits at a table in a library, reading a document in front of a laptop with a stack of books resting on the table to her side

Report Release: The Relationship Between New Jerseyans’ Digital Literacy, Perceptions of E-Government, & Trust in the State Government

October 5th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: The Relationship Between New Jerseyans’ Digital Literacy, Perceptions of E-Government, & Trust in the State Government

By Seulki Lee-Geiller and Abigail Alcala. Public trust in government is crucial for a functioning democratic society as it signifies a belief that government has the right to govern and make decisions on behalf of the population [...]

  • Photo of the skyline of Newark, New Jersey on a clear, sunny day

Data Brief Release: Inflation Hurts Everyone but Some More than Others in New Jersey 

September 28th, 2023|Comments Off on Data Brief Release: Inflation Hurts Everyone but Some More than Others in New Jersey 

By Jocelyn Fischer and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers. Inflation levels in the U.S. have reached decades-long highs during the COVID-19 pandemic and in its wake.  Because inflation can erode people’s ability to afford the goods and services they need, the recent uptick in inflation has raised concerns [...]

  • Photo of a white man signing legal documents with a gavel resting on the table with an overlay of computer code across the image

Report Release: First, Do No Harm: Algorithms, AI, and Digital Product Liability

September 21st, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: First, Do No Harm: Algorithms, AI, and Digital Product Liability

By Marc Pfeiffer. The relatively recent introduction of publicly accessible artificial intelligence driven chatbots (e.g., Bard, Bing, ChatGPT, Claude) have focused public attention on the broader individual and societal harms that can result from algorithms [...]

  • Analyzing Child-Care Provider Subsidies in New Jersey: Issues, Impacts, and Options

Report Release: Analyzing Child-Care Provider Subsidies in New Jersey: Issues, Impacts, and Options

August 7th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Analyzing Child-Care Provider Subsidies in New Jersey: Issues, Impacts, and Options

By Andrea Hetling. Public child-care subsidies are designed to reduce the financial burdens of child care for households that meet certain income thresholds in order to improve employment and/or educational opportunities for parents and other legal guardians. In New Jersey, child-care subsidy payments [...]

  • Photo of a man in an all-terrain wheelchair speaking to a woman standing next him on a trail overlooking a body of water. They appear to be discussing a sign on the side of the trail that identifies local flora.

Report Release: Access to Nature for People with Disabilities: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities

August 3rd, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Access to Nature for People with Disabilities: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities

By Josephine O’Grady. In New Jersey, 24% of the population has a disability. People with disabilities suffer from a wide range of health disparities, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Through the Inclusive Healthy Communities (IHC) Grant Program, initiatives in New Jersey are underway [...]

  • Youth Mental Health in New Jersey Report

Report Release: Youth Mental Health in New Jersey: Current Status and Opportunities for Improved Services

June 15th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Youth Mental Health in New Jersey: Current Status and Opportunities for Improved Services

By Karen Lowrie and Brooke Schwartzman. Teens of today have faced major shifts in societal, environmental, community, familial, and individual spheres, heightened by racial and school-based violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, creating challenges [...]

  • New Jersey School Aid Formula

Report Release: The Impact of Eliminating Adjustment Aid for School Districts in New Jersey

June 8th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: The Impact of Eliminating Adjustment Aid for School Districts in New Jersey

By Michael S. Hayes. In 2018, New Jersey implemented the S-2 bill, which aimed to reduce adjustment aid to school districts in the state. The objective of this policy was to end a practice of “overfunding” school districts, which had it not been for the adjustment aid [...]

  • One Million More Acres Report

Report Release: One Million More Acres: We’re One-Third of the Way There…

May 17th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: One Million More Acres: We’re One-Third of the Way There…

By Thomas G. Dallessio. As the nation’s most densely populated state, New Jersey has a reputation for suburban sprawl development that belies its nickname, “The Garden State.” “You’re from Jersey? What Exit?” is both a joke and a truism for many [...]

  • The Status of New Jersey's Childcare Infrastructure Report

Report Release: The Status of New Jersey’s Childcare Infrastructure

May 10th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: The Status of New Jersey’s Childcare Infrastructure

By Jocelyn Fischer and Debra Lancaster. While children, parents, and employers have felt the sting of childcare market failures for several decades, deficiencies in the market were made more apparent and were more deeply felt as a result of pandemic-related closures and labor shifts [...]

  • Using Technology to Reduce SNAP Learning Costs Report

Report Release: Using Technology to Reduce SNAP Learning Costs: Lessons from a Survey Experiment

April 27th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Using Technology to Reduce SNAP Learning Costs: Lessons from a Survey Experiment

By Stephanie Walsh, Ph.D. Interactions with government processes, whether to renew a driver’s license or apply for public assistance, commonly include frictions referred to as administrative burdens [...]

  • Garden State Open Data Index

Report Release: Garden State Open Data Index

February 16th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Garden State Open Data Index

By Jim Samuel. Open data and artificial intelligence (AI) are vital for future value creation. The value of aligning open data with AI development and deployment requirements has been elaborated upon in the Garden State Open Data Index (GSODI) 2023 report [...]

  • ARez Community Resilience in New Jersey

Report Release: Enhancing the Resilience of New Jersey Communities Using ARez

January 12th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Enhancing the Resilience of New Jersey Communities Using ARez

By Michel C. Boufadel, Ph.D., New Jersey Institute of Technology; Firas Gerges, Ph.D., Princeton University; and Hani Nassif, Ph.D., Rutgers University – New Brunswick. The New Jersey State Policy Lab has released a new report in collaboration with researchers [...]

  • Math Course-taking in New Jersey High Schools

Report Release: Disparities in High-Leverage Mathematics Course-Taking in New Jersey, 2016-2020

January 5th, 2023|Comments Off on Report Release: Disparities in High-Leverage Mathematics Course-Taking in New Jersey, 2016-2020

By Vandeen A. Campbell, Ph.D. The New Jersey State Policy Lab, in collaboration with the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, is releasing a report that examines patterns in high school math course-taking across New Jersey [...]

  • Childcare Supply-Demand in New Jersey

Data Brief Release: A Supply-Demand Model Informs Childcare Market Deficits in New Jersey: Estimates Point to Need for More Data

December 8th, 2022|Comments Off on Data Brief Release: A Supply-Demand Model Informs Childcare Market Deficits in New Jersey: Estimates Point to Need for More Data

By Sarah F. Small and Debra Lancaster. Failing childcare markets have been detrimental to the US economy in recent years.[1] We have examined the childcare crisis in New Jersey from both the supply side and the demand side [...]

  • Adjusted Intercounty Equalized Municipal Tax Rates in New Jersey, 2020

Report Release: What Influences Differences in New Jersey’s Municipal Tax Rates?

September 12th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: What Influences Differences in New Jersey’s Municipal Tax Rates?

By Michael Lahr, Tia Azzi, and Maia de la Calle, Rutgers Economic Advisory Service. It is vital for New Jersey policymakers to understand what affects municipal tax rates. In this brief, we analyze local government spending [...]

Report Release: Does the Decision to Allow Local Cannabis-Related Businesses Impact Home Sale Prices?

September 1st, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Does the Decision to Allow Local Cannabis-Related Businesses Impact Home Sale Prices?

By Michael S. Hayes, Associate Professor, Rutgers University-Camden and Prakash Kandel, Ph.D. Student, Rutgers University-Camden. During the 2020 general election, New Jersey voters approved a ballot question to amend the state constitution to allow residents [...]

Data Brief Release: New Jersey’s Changing Population and Childcare Needs

August 24th, 2022|Comments Off on Data Brief Release: New Jersey’s Changing Population and Childcare Needs

By Sarah F. Small and Debra Lancaster. Like many parents in the United States, New Jersey parents have faced some formidable obstacles finding accessible quality childcare. This is particularly true given changes in the childcare landscape during COVID-19, as documented in our recent report [...]

  • Freshman Science Course Taking

Report Release: Equal Access to STEM Pathways? A Closer Look at Science Course-taking Trends in New Jersey’s High Schools

July 28th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Equal Access to STEM Pathways? A Closer Look at Science Course-taking Trends in New Jersey’s High Schools

By Vandeen Campbell. New Jersey students in high schools segregated by both race and poverty tend not to take advanced science courses.  Only about one-quarter (25%) of high school freshmen in schools segregated by both race [...]

  • Childcare worker and children

Data Brief Release: New Jersey’s Childcare Landscape During COVID-19: A Slow and Uneven Recovery

July 18th, 2022|Comments Off on Data Brief Release: New Jersey’s Childcare Landscape During COVID-19: A Slow and Uneven Recovery

By Sarah Small and Debra Lancaster. Many New Jersey parents felt the sting of reduced childcare access during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the childcare landscape has not made a recovery [...]

  • Graphic of diverse hands all reaching together over a multicolored painted heart

Report Release: State Equity Initiatives

June 2nd, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: State Equity Initiatives

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 [...]

  • Grandmother, mother and daughter unpacking groceries in the kitchen

Report Release: Pandemic’s Impact on Women in NJ: Domestic Violence, Access to Healthcare and Housing

May 19th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Pandemic’s Impact on Women in NJ: Domestic Violence, Access to Healthcare and Housing

By Sarah Small and Debra Lancaster. With so much economic precarity brought on by the pandemic, many women in New Jersey have been confronted with issues of homelessness and inaccessible healthcare [...]

  • women workers

How has COVID Affected Women and Work in New Jersey? Our New Report Investigates

April 27th, 2022|Comments Off on How has COVID Affected Women and Work in New Jersey? Our New Report Investigates

Sarah Small and Debra Lancaster. Women’s work lives have been disrupted in profound ways during COVID-19: in their roles as frontline workers confronting the virus, as caregivers taking on even more unpaid care work at home due to childcare disruptions [...]

  • asian chinese mother videocall working from home at dining table with her daughter drawing

Report Release: COVID-19 and the Gender Wage Gap in New Jersey

March 24th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: COVID-19 and the Gender Wage Gap in New Jersey

With childcare disruptions, deep unemployment, and job changes, women in New Jersey have faced turbulent economic prospects worse than men’s along several dimensions throughout the pandemic. However, New Jersey women are no stranger to economic inequities [...]

  • Evaluation with woman using her smartphone on a couch

Release of “Evaluating Evaluations” Report

March 21st, 2022|Comments Off on Release of “Evaluating Evaluations” Report

By Tracy P. Glova. The New Jersey State Policy Lab today issued a report on evidence-based policymaking and program evaluation in New Jersey. “Evaluating Evaluations: Analyzing Evidence‐Based Policymaking in New Jersey and Insights from other Leading States” compares evidence-based practices [...]

Report Release: Enhancing Child Tax Credits’ Support of New Jersey’s Neediest Families

March 16th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Enhancing Child Tax Credits’ Support of New Jersey’s Neediest Families

By Sarah Small and Debra Lancaster. Many New Jersey parents breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving their Child Tax Credit Payments in late 2021. Our new report at the Rutgers Center for Women and Work, in partnership with the New Jersey State Policy Lab [...]

  • Organic Food in Bag

Report on Food Security and Organic Waste Reduction

March 3rd, 2022|Comments Off on Report on Food Security and Organic Waste Reduction

By Jeanne Herb. The New Jersey State Policy Lab and the Organics Workgroup of the NJ Climate Change Alliance have partnered to inform the development of statewide public policy aimed at reducing food waste, contributing to food security, and reducing landfill organic wastes [...]

  • Rent relief sign and almost empty jar with money.

Report Release: The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era

February 24th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era

By Katharine Nelson. Affordable housing is increasingly scarce within the United States, and COVID-19 has dramatically exacerbated the simmering crisis in affordable housing. In New Jersey, the risk of eviction is greater than across the country [...]

Report Release: Cannabis Legalization: A Baseline Study

February 14th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Cannabis Legalization: A Baseline Study

Today, we’re releasing our report, Cannabis Legalization: A Baseline Study, as part of a project led by Dean Charles Menifield, one of the Policy Lab’s Co-Principal Investigators. This report explores education, health, and law enforcement outcomes associated with the legalization of marijuana [...]

  • New Jersey Magnified

Our First Report: Encouraging Activation of Vacant Commercial Properties

February 11th, 2022|Comments Off on Our First Report: Encouraging Activation of Vacant Commercial Properties

The New Jersey State Policy Lab is publishing our first report, Vacant Commercial Property in New Jersey: Causes and Solutions, written by Michael Hayes and Pengju Zhang. The economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in vacant [...]