Research Seminar Series: Social Equity in Public Budgeting: An Analysis of Maryland’s Counties

Abstract: This research aims to enhance the understanding of how social equity considerations are incorporated into the formulation and execution of public budgets and to identify the key factors that explain variations in the use of social equity considerations across different governments. We follow a qualitative comparison of multiple county governments in the State of Maryland. A predetermined theoretical framework guides the study, and the data comes from a survey of government officials, databases and government documentation. We find that nearly half of the counties in our study routinely include equity information in budget processes like spending analysis, contracting, grants and hiring. Political ideology and budgetary institutions are key predictors of whether a government considers equity information. These findings contribute to the growing literature on social equity in public budgeting by expanding the understanding of how equity is introduced in decision-making and which factors influence its prominence.