Social Learning and Policy Adoption: Evidence from an Education Reform in Brazil

Thomaz M. F. Gemignani and Ricardo A. Madeira

Journal of Development Studies, 2022, vol. 58, issue 2, 310-332

Abstract: We investigate the role of social learning among local government officials in fostering the diffusion of an education programme presented with a reasonable degree of technological and political uncertainty about its outcomes, the schooling decentralisation reform in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. We consider different natures of the exchange of information on the newly adopted tasks, and assess which aspects of the returns to programme participation were most valued by officials in their learning process. Specifically, we attempt to determine the extent to which adherence to the reform resulted from electoral motivations rather than from concerns regarding the quality of education. We present evidence that social learning constitutes a key factor to policy implementation, and we find that mayors that could run for re-election became more likely to support the programme upon receiving good news about its electoral returns. By contrast, information on experiences that were successful in improving the quality of education appears to have been valued and effectively put to use only by term-limited officials or when conveyed by copartisan neighbours.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2021.1965128 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:58:y:2022:i:2:p:310-332

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2021.1965128

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().