Equity Analytics

A framework for identifying, understanding, and addressing inequities in opportunities and outcomes — the research behind it, ten interactive tools, and what it looks like applied.

Framework

I originated the Equity Analytics framework (allocation and valuation as separable mechanisms, crossed against differential treatment and disparate impact) and set it out with my collaborator Ray Reagans in Achieving Diversity Through Equity Analytics (AACSB Insights, 2022).

PROCESS TREATMENT DIFFERENTIAL DISPARATE IMPACT ALLOCATION VALUATION Differential allocations People sorted into opportunity based on identity; different behaviors produce different outcomes. Disparate allocations Neutral assignment rules produce unequal access because inputs correlate with identity. Differential valuations The same contribution judged or rewarded differently depending on who performed it. Disparate valuations Neutral evaluation criteria encode structural disadvantage through correlated inputs.
The Equity Analytics diagnostic. The mechanism dictates the intervention — misclassify it and the intervention fails or backfires.

Explore the interactive 2×2 →

Research

Four papers apply the framework directly. Full summaries, scholarly contributions, and practical relevance notes for each are on the Research page.

Racial disparity in leadershipRider, Wade, Swaminathan & Schwab · AJS 2023
Achieving diversity through equity analyticsRider & Reagans · AACSB Insights 2022
Beyond good intentions: an Equity Architecture blueprintRider & Szymanski · SBM 2026
Career mobility and racial diversity in law firmsRider, Sterling & Tan · Cambridge 2016
Teaching

Equity Analytics

Inequality is generated through two mechanisms: allocations — access to opportunity — and valuations — assessment of worth. Students learn to separate privilege from merit using data from the NFL, Glassdoor, Airbnb, Hollywood, and U.S. venture capital.

Undergraduate and MBA · Featured in Poets & Quants and AACSB Insights · Full course and case list →

In practice

Pro bono equity-analytics advisory to the leadership of major sport and social organizations, where the research moved policy and practice.

Fritz Pollard AllianceNFL — analysis behind Rooney Rule reform
NBCANational Basketball Coaches Association — interview-denial study; informs the Commissioner's Office
USA GymnasticsJudging-equity analysis; recommendations to the CEO and board
Black Footballers PartnershipUnited Kingdom — report informing the football regulator
Axis BankEquity Analytics Workshop; CHRO-in-Finance keynote
For leaders

Equity Analytics for Leaders

The NFL work is the most visible application of this framework (AJS-published, cited by the Fritz Pollard Alliance in the 2019 Rooney Rule expansion), but it's one instance, not the argument. The same allocation/valuation logic runs across the ten interactive tools above: workforce reductions, college admissions, algorithmic classification, consumer pricing, and lending, alongside the NFL's coaching pipeline. What generalizes is the mechanism, not the industry. The same diagnostic questions apply wherever opportunity or reward gets distributed unevenly.

Keynotes

Talks on the framework and its applications, for conferences and leadership offsites. See Speaking on Work With Me for confirmed titles.

Workshops

For leaders and teams: appreciate the disparity-generating processes at work in their own organization, diagnose where the gaps sit, and design more equitable practices, policies, and structures in response.

Fairness assessments

Applying the allocation/valuation diagnostic to an organization's own data. Prior work of this kind has included equity audits for the leadership of major professional and Olympic sports organizations, described here without naming them.

Advisory services

Ongoing relationships that typically grow out of an initial workshop or assessment. See Advisory relationships on Work With Me.

Training

Teaching an organization's own HR and DEI professionals to conduct equity analytics themselves — building internal capacity for the diagnostic work, not delivering it as a one-time report.

Bring this framework to your organization →