The Diffusion of Policy Innovations. An Experimental Investigation

Jean-Robert Tyran and Rupert Sausgruber

University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2003 from Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen

Abstract: What causes a government to adopt a new program or policy? Despite a large number of empirical studies available to date, the relative importance of various determinants remains obscure because of difficulties of statistical identification. We present an experimental setting to study the diffusion of policy innovations in the laboratory. Our approach discriminates between experimentation, experience, and emulation as determinants of policy adoption. The policy innovation we study is an internalization tax to mitigate a local market externality. Our results demonstrate the importance of information about innovations in other states in the diffusion of policy innovations.

Keywords: Policy emulation; policy experimentation; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D7 H7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2003-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-ino
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The diffusion of policy innovations -an experimental investigation (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usg:dp2003:2003-14

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