On Wednesday, August 5th, the New Jersey State Policy Lab hosted the end-of-summer presentations for the 2026 intern cohort at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
Topic
New Jersey State Policy Lab
NJSPL Report: Historical Water Bodies, CSO, and Flood Vulnerability in NJ
As urban areas have developed in New Jersey, some water bodies such as ponds, streams, and wetlands have been filled in, developed over, or rerouted through stormwater systems. In some cases, this process may have increased local flooding.
NJSPL: Making Sense of NJ Hospital Consolidation in a Challenging Policy Environment
The recent wave of hospital consolidation has affected all of New Jersey’s Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs), which represent the distinct markets where most patients receive their hospital care.
NJSPL: Building Safer Streets: Rapid Response, Emergency Streets, and Lessons for NJ
New Jersey’s own Target Zero Action plan, adopted in 2025, identified a need to implement a Rapid Response program for municipalities to enable emergency services to deploy safety countermeasures immediately after a fatal or serious injury crash. Researchers recently interviewed a variety of transportation experts within the city of Denver, which adopted its own Vision Zero Action plan in 2017.
Report Release: R/ECON Forecast Summer 2026
The Garden State’s economic outlook for Summer 2026 presents a picture of tempered growth and a labor market that, while stabilizing, remains under pressure. The state closed out 2025 with solid GDP growth but is expected to ease to considerably to 0.9% in both 2026 and 2027, roughly a full percentage point below the national levels.
NJSPL: Why Do Eligible Workers Still Not Use Paid Family Leave?
Researchers found that when state paid family leave policies were in effect, like the one in NJ, women were much more likely to take paid leave only (60.4% to 33.8%), and less likely to take unpaid or a combination of paid and unpaid leave.
NJSPL Interns Join Eagleton, Rutgers Scarlet Service at New Jersey State House
On Monday, June 22nd, the New Jersey State Policy Lab’s summer intern cohort joined with students from the Eagleton Institute of Politics, the Rutgers Democracy Lab, and the Rutgers Scarlet Service Internship program as part of an immersive, one-day civics program at the New Jersey State House in Trenton.
NJSPL: Are Data Centers Raising Your Electric Bill? Mostly Not. Yet.
For now, the evidence suggests that data centers haven’t yet produced large, detectable increases in local electricity bills, but “not yet” is not the same as “nothing to worry about.” New Jersey has the time and opportunity to design rules that protect ratepayers before the next wave of electricity demand arrives at full scale.
What Do People Think of E-bikes? A Closer Look by Younes and Xie
Sixty-four percent (64%) of respondents from a recent survey on e-bike use and perception agreed that the government should do more to support e-bike use. Researchers conducted this survey (N=998) in Fall 2025 to adult, non-users of e-bikes in the U.S. Over 70% of the respondents were from NJ, with a smaller percentage from surrounding states, and 443 were non-owners.
NJSPL Report: Reducing Opioid Overdose Risk in New Jersey
Researchers found that incidents of NJ Medicaid beneficiaries who received buprenorphine immediately and/or shortly after an opioid-related emergency department visit increased from 4.0% in 2018 to 14.4% in 2022. The team also conducted a series of interviews with medical professionals and discussed the challenges to buprenorphine provision, including patient resistance, insurance and pharmacy obstacles, and limited training and stigmatization.