Situating public management’s contributions to social equity: using decomposition analysis to examine U.S. child welfare outcome disparities

Dallas J. Elgin, David P. Carter and Anthony M. Starke

Public Management Review, 2025, vol. 27, issue 2, 428-451

Abstract: Despite the importance of social equity as an ideal and goal, much work remains in understanding how public services may help foster greater equity – or create and sustain social inequities. Leveraging the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method, we examine the extent to which administrative centralization and privatization contribute to outcome disparities between Black and White children in the U.S. foster care system. We find that centralized systems tend to narrow the outcome gap, as do those with higher degrees of privatization. The paper’s discussion considers how these findings compare to prior work, and the implications for social equity theory and practice.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2023.2219682

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