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Taken For Granted? Managing For Social Equity In Grant Programs., Brian Collins, Brian Gerber
Taken For Granted? Managing For Social Equity In Grant Programs., Brian Collins, Brian Gerber
Brian K. Collins
Managing for social equity performance has long been a goal without much guidance for public managers. We examine social equity performance in the context of indirect governance through the administration of grant programs and, more specifically, the matching of policy responses (grant funding) to social needs. Grant program managers must allocate funding to match needs while also ensuring accountability, but common administrative models that rely on competition can undermine social equity performance. We develop a unique framework to analyze the relative social equity performance of four models of grant administration in general. These models are defined by whether competitions or …
Redistributive Policy And Devolution: Is State-Administration A Road Block (Grant) To Equitable Access To Federal Funds?, Brian Collins, Brian Gerber
Redistributive Policy And Devolution: Is State-Administration A Road Block (Grant) To Equitable Access To Federal Funds?, Brian Collins, Brian Gerber
Brian K. Collins
Over the last several decades, block grants have been a key instrument by which policy authority is devolved from federal to state governments. Whether the block grant approach produces more effective redistributive policy management (on equity or efficiency grounds) is an open and central question. We focus on the equity dimension by positing an explanatory framework that links access to federal block grant funding to the transaction costs associated with intergovernmental grant contracting. We argue that grant access is a function of both state-level institutional choices and the administrative capacity of local governments—which combine to influence the salient transaction costs …