A new research brief, Exploring 2024 and 2020 Election-Year Longitudinal Trends in Support for Minimum Wage, College Loan Forgiveness, and Paid Leave Among U.S. Workers: Republicans Appear More Supportive of Policies for Some Americans Over Time, features findings from a December 2024 survey of U.S. workers about policy proposals related to the economy, education, and work.
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News
NJSPL Report: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds
The study’s findings have two key implications for future federal aid programs. First, many local governments allocated ARPA funds in alignment with the policy’s primary goals—responding to the economic and health crises. This suggests that maintaining flexibility in future federal aid programs would enable local governments to tailor spending to their unique needs. Second, ARPA funds were allocated to more distressed local governments, demonstrating a potential model for future federal aid programs to ensure resources reach areas with the greatest need.
Dr. Grafova Presented Posters from the VSR Research
“It was an honor to represent our amazing research team — Pamela de Cordova, Jennifer Polakowski, and Jessica Anderson. Huge thanks to the New Jersey State Policy Lab for funding this research and making this work possible.”
Heldrich Report: Analysis of NJ Life Sciences, Tech Sectors
The Heldrich Center, in conjunction with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), is pleased to share a new workforce analysis of the life sciences and technology sectors in New Jersey, with a particular emphasis on the sectors’ intersection with...
Restrepo-Mieth Researches Tree Inventories in Galápagos, Ecuador
Through a review of provincial and municipal plans and national policies, as well as interviews with key informants in Galápagos, Ecuador between 2023 and 2024, Dr. Andrea Restrepo-Mieth looks at what motivates urban governments to pursue a tree inventory.
NJSPL: Georeferencing Historical Maps for Geospatial Analysis
As part of ongoing research to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey, researchers have begun locating and charting these historical water bodies with the use of atlases from the David Rumsey Map Collection. The digitized maps in these atlases were then georeferenced, a process of determining the precise location of these maps on the Earth’s surface. The ultimate goal is to trace water bodies in order to evaluate flood vulnerability across the state.
Job Opportunity: Asst. Professor in Urban Planning
The Bloustein School seeks to hire a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor for appointment beginning July 2026. Candidates should have a specialty in housing and quantitative methods.
“Work Trends RU” Podcast with Urban Institute’s Todd Greene
This week's guest on the Heldrich Center's Work Trends RU podcast is Todd Greene, Vice President of the Work, Education, and Labor Division at the Urban Institute and Executive Director of WorkRise. Todd is also Chair of the Heldrich Center's National Advisory Board....
NJ primary 2025: Results highlight weaker party machines
Julia Sass Rubin noted that for decades, the county line had been the key tool enabling political machines to dominate elections, but this year’s results—where party-endorsed candidates lost in multiple counties and Assembly races—demonstrated that voter choice was no longer being structurally constrained.
Will Payne Maps NYC’s “Gourmet Gentrification” Trends
Using a novel dataset assembled from print Zagat Survey guidebooks, the first crowdsourced restaurant guide and the direct antecedent of contemporary local review platforms like Yelp and Google Maps, this article traces the contours of ‘gourmet gentrification’ in New York City using quantitative and spatial analysis from 1990 to 2015.