Learning From Others

Abstract

The increase in health care expenditures is a major problem of all welfare states. To counter this trend, since the early 1980s, most OECD countries have changed the way hospitals are financed. Although these reforms are certainly linked to country-specific factors, the authors' main argument is that they are in part due to a diffusion process: Policy change in one country is influenced by previous changes in other countries. More specifically, the authors argue that policy makers learn from the experience of others. Using an original data set and event—history methods to test arguments, their results show that policy change is more likely when the existing policy is ineffective and when the experience of other countries suggests that the reform leads to the desired results. In addition, the authors find that the effects of learning grow over time and that early adopters tend to be countries with few veto players.

Learning in Political Analysis

“…For instance, Shipan and Volden (2008) show how coercion, imitation, learning, and competition affect the diffusion of tobacco control policies from US cities to the states. Other analyses have especially emphasized the learning effects in diffusion processes (Füglister, 2012; Gilardi, 2010; Gilardi et al, 2009; Meseguer, 2004, 2005; Shipan and Volden, 2014).…”

“…These are lottery adoption (Berry and Berry, 1990), Indian gaming (Boehmke and Witmer, 2004), privatization policies (Meseguer, 2004), hospital reforms (Gilardi et al, 2009), health insurance contributions and benefits (Füglister, 2012; Volden, 2006), smoking bans (Shipan and Volden, 2006, 2008, 2014), as well as unemployment benefits (Gilardi, 2010) to name a few. In the empirical analyses of learning, authors have modeled the success of policies (Gilardi et al, 2009: 559), to understand whether the performance of policies in other countries has an impact on adoption abroad or in neighboring states. However, it is not always possible to empirically implement this approach, and the strategies of operationalizing learning vary greatly in the literature.…”

Hacia una teoría ideacional de la difusión institucional. La adopción y adaptación del presidencialismo en América Latina durante el siglo XIX

“…Es imposible dar cuenta de la producción sobre difusión de políticas en apenas un párrafo. De todos modos, vale la pena mencionar algunos ejemplos para ilustrar la enorme variedad de procesos de difusión que han venido siendo estudiados durante los últimos años: transferencias condicionadas (Sugiyama, 2011), procesos de privatización de la seguridad social (Brooks, 2005), mecanismos de financiación de hospitales (Gilardi et al, 2009), políticas y tecnologías de regulación en los capitalismos contemporáneos (Levi-Faur, 2005), tratados bilaterales de inversión (Elkins et al, 2006), privatización de telecomunicaciones (Schmitt, 2011), políticas económicas promercado (Simmons y Elkins, 2004), instrumentos de política ambiental (Tews et al, 2003), políticas laborales en la Unión Europea (Casey y Gold, 2005), políticas antilavado de dinero en países en desarrollo (Sharman, 2008), control del tabaquismo (Shipan y Volden, 2006) y políticas energéticas en los Estados Unidos (Matisoff y Edwards, 2014).…”

Why Study the Spread of Culture-led Development Strategies?

“…Diffusion theory is often applied in studies by comparativists or international relations scholars seeking patterns of diffusion related to regulations and regulatory capitalism (Elkins and Simmons, 2005;Gilardi, 2005;Jordana and Levi-Faur, 2005;Levi-Faur, 2005;Levi-Faur and Jordana, 2005;Radaelli, 2005), privatization and liberalization (Simmons and Elkins, 2004;Gilardi, 2005;Meseguer, 2005;Simmons et al, 2006), and welfare state reform (Brooks, 2007;Gilardi et al, 2009) where states are often the units of analysis. This article will apply diffusion theory to another field, with individuals as the units of observations.…”