Urban Institute researchers evaluate federal, state, and local government programs and policies. Early on, we pioneered performance-management techniques government agencies still use to evaluate and improve public services, from economic development to garbage collection. And now we're adapting those strategies for the nonprofit sector—at home and abroad. Read more.
HUD's proposal for transforming federal rental assistance expands subsidy recipients' freedom to choose where to live. This essay summarizes research evidence showing that: 1) project-based housing programs limit families' choices about where to live; 2) families benefit when they move with vouchers; 3) assisted mobility programs further expand families' options; and 4) "opportunity moves" can improve families' life chances. Although many families living in federally subsidized housing projects will choose to stay (especially if new investments improve the quality and safety of these communities), expanding opportunities for families to move strengthens federal housing policy by improving the well-being of assisted households.
Organizations face increasing pressures to improve, and document, their performance. Good performance management systematically identifies desired ends, selects reasonable indicators of progress through means to those ends, and promotes continuous improvement over time. Key preconditions include assessing organizational measurement-readiness and overcoming inertia—and fear—among middle managers and front-line staff. To succeed, performance measurement must be seen as helping people do their jobs better, not creating new chains for yanking. Nurses and their employers have far to go to figure out how best to organize their caregiving and their administrative supports so as to improve quality and safety while constraining costs. Journal of Nursing Regulation 1(2):60 (July 2010); Marr, Bernard. Managing and Delivering Performance. Elsevier Ltd, 2009
In this interview for the Istituto Regionale di Ricerca della Lombardia, Eugene Steuerle explains how balance among various principles is required when engaging in public finance policies. In particular, he stresses the need for balance in a federal system: the goals of uniformity and equality often lead toward centralized solutions, while experimentation and diversity often call for decentralized decision-making.
Decades ago, my parents taught me a simple lesson: when something goes awry and its outcome remains uncertain, do what you can and should do to the best of your capability. The future may not be entirely in your control, but by setting some good things in motion you make tough issues easier to handle.
As long as societies have governments, citizens will face off -- sometimes peacefully, sometimes not -- about the proper size and role of its centers of power. In his new book, the Cato Institute’s John Samples examines the high and low points of the nearly three-decade domestic struggle, from the Reagan revolution to the Obama administration, to limit government, chronicling the battle’s history and likely future.
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Urban Institute researchers evaluate federal, state, and local government programs and policies. Early on, we pioneered performance-management techniques government agencies still use to evaluate and improve public services, from economic development to garbage collection. And now we're adapting those strategies for the nonprofit sector—at home and abroad. 