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Social Equity

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Social equity is the fair and just management of all institutions serving the public, distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy; and the commitment to promote fairness, justice, and equity in policymaking. RAND research examines the compounding effects of racial bias; equity in schools, workplaces, the military, and the justice system; equity in disaster preparation, response, and recovery; equity in infrastructure planning; and equity in climate resilience.

Essay
What Would It Take to Close America's Black-White Wealth Gap?
White Americans hold ten times more total wealth than Black Americans, a disparity that has worsened in recent decades. RAND researchers modeled wealth across millions of households and tested several funding scenarios to see which could most effectively close the gap.
May 9, 2023
Multimedia
What Does Environmental Justice Look Like?
Videos describe the impact of grassroots environmental justice campaigns in two redlined neighborhoods. This work features RAND research that shows how a shared community vision can help residents, organizers, and policymakers understand the root causes of injustices and identify actionable responses.
Apr 19, 2023

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Explore Social Equity

News Release
Repurposing Commercial Buildings Could Help L.A. Meet Housing Needs, but Financial, Regulatory Barriers Exist
Repurposing underutilized commercial properties such as hotel/motels and vacant office buildings could provide about 9% to 14% of the housing Los Angeles County needs to produce over the next eight years.
Apr 6, 2022
Report
Could Adaptive Reuse of Commercial Buildings Address L.A.'s Housing Crisis?
Repurposing underutilized commercial properties could provide 9 to 14 percent of the total housing Los Angeles County needs to produce over the next eight years. Conversion of hotels/motels is feasible, but reuse of office buildings depends on area-specific real estate prices and the size of new units.
Apr 6, 2022
Commentary
The Marriage Plot
For more than a quarter century, the U.S. government has been sending an unmistakable message to poor, single mothers: Get married. If America genuinely wants to address poverty and achieve gender equality, this has to change.
Apr 4, 2022
Report
Gender Differences in Health Among U.S. Service Members: Unwanted Gender-Based Experiences as an Explanatory Factor
This report examines how experiences of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and sexual assault among military service members relate to general health and symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Apr 4, 2022
Blog
Helping Ukrainian Refugees, Truth Decay, Algorithmic Inequity: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on how to help Ukrainian refugees, the link between cognitive processes and Truth Decay, tracking wastewater to understand the spread of COVID-19, and more.
Apr 1, 2022
Project
Environmental Racism
Past housing policies—such as redlining—have an enduring legacy on urban neighborhoods today, and have contributed to which communities enjoy more trees, less traffic, and better air quality, and which face hazards such as pollution, toxic waste sites, and flooding risk.
Mar 31, 2022
Tool
Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments
Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).
Mar 31, 2022
Journal Article
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy Response on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from County-Level Medical Claims and Cellphone Data
Shelter-in-place policies during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with reductions in the use of preventive care, elective care, and the number of weekly visits to physician offices, hospitals and other health care-related industries.
Mar 31, 2022
Journal Article
Perceived Discrimination, Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy, and HIV Care Engagement Among HIV-positive Black Adults: The Mediating Role of Medical Mistrust
Perceived discrimination and mistrust have indirect negative effects on adherence to antiretroviral therapy among HIV-positive Black adults.
Mar 31, 2022
Commentary
Algorithms Teach Us Why Equity Is Hard
If all the shortcomings of humanity were stripped away, equity would still be an elusive goal for algorithms for reasons that have more to do with mathematical impossibilities than backward ideologies. But even if attaining equity is fundamentally difficult, seeking it is not futile.
Mar 28, 2022
Blog
Insights on Russia's War in Ukraine, Global Citizenship, Vaccination Equity: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on Russia's war on Ukraine, medication treatment for patients with opioid use disorder, promoting global citizenship in America, and more.
Mar 25, 2022
Journal Article
Ongoing Disparities in Digital and In-Person Access to Child Psychiatric Services in the United States
Although telehealth holds promise for promoting access to child and adolescent psychiatric services, large disparities in overall access to services persists in rural and low-income communities.
Mar 24, 2022
Project
Promoting Vaccination Equity
RAND's analysis of the Equity-First Vaccination Initiative inspired Juan Delcan and Valentina Izaguirre, the artist team known as V+J, to create a unique visual story about how to support equitable access to COVID-19 information and vaccinations.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
Evaluation of Los Angeles County's 2021 WhyWeRise Mental Health Campaign
RAND researchers describe a survey conducted to evaluate the reach and impact of a 2021 Los Angeles County social marketing campaign promoting awareness of county mental health resources and communicating messages of resilience, support, and hope.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Mitigation Grant Program
Natural disasters have become more frequent and destructive, with the damage from disasters affecting some communities—most notably, low-income and disadvantaged communities—more than others. Hazard risk mitigation could reduce disruption and damage, and equity issues are important in helping communities' mitigation efforts.
Mar 23, 2022
Commentary
A Promising Era for Women of Color in U.S. Elections, but Gains in Broader Workplace Leadership Remain Elusive
Women of color remain significantly underrepresented in workplace leadership and along the promotion pipeline in comparison to white women, as well as to black and white men. How much more work needs to be done to achieve the combination of race and gender equity in leadership?
Mar 22, 2022
News Release
Audio-Only Telehealth Remains Common at Safety Net Health Clinics; Trend Raises Questions About Quality
Rapid adoption of telehealth helped safety net clinics in California to maintain consistent levels of service after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the use of audio-only care has persisted in the clinics longer than in other types of health care settings.
Mar 15, 2022
News Release
Research Project Will Probe Role of Structural Racism in Development of Dementias and Cognitive Decline Among African Americans
The RAND Corporation and the University of Pittsburgh will study residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh to examine how exposure to the legacies of structural racism at the neighborhood and individual levels may contribute to the risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia in African Americans.
Mar 14, 2022
Report
Audio-Only Telehealth Remains Common at Safety Net Clinics; Raises Questions About Quality
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid adoption of telehealth helped safety net clinics in California maintain service. But the use of audio-only care has persisted in the clinics, raising questions about the quality of care and equity for low-income patients.
Mar 14, 2022
Commentary
What the Media Might Have Missed About South Korea's Elections
The toxicity of the anti-feminist discourse in South Korea does not accurately reflect the gender-related tensions and problems that most Koreans currently face. The obstacles to improving gender equity are more mundane and more ubiquitous than the hyperbole of anti-feminism suggests.
Mar 10, 2022

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Heather Gomez-Bendaña

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND, and Ph.D. Candidate, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Heather Gomez-Bendaña (she/her/ella) is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include social determinants of health, special needs population, people with disabilities, health care access, health disparities, health…
Sarah Zelazny

Policy Analyst

Sarah Zelazny (she/her) is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Her background includes: patient experience; racial equity; community-level and clinical-level injury and violence prevention program development, implementation, and evaluation; gender-based violence research; harm reduction;…

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