Record Details

Replication data for: Competitive Learning in Yardstick Competition: Testing Models of Policy Diffusion With Performance Data

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Replication data for: Competitive Learning in Yardstick Competition: Testing Models of Policy Diffusion With Performance Data
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/B4VBVM
 
Creator Ward, Hugh
John, Peter
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Organizations that learn from others’ successful policies not only become more competitive because their policies improve but also avoid the costs of policy innovation. While economists have widely recognized latecomer advantage, the policy diffusion literature in political science has failed to emphasize the connection between learning and competition. This article distinguishes competitive learning from learning that is not driven by competitive pressure (that is, ‘pure learning’). It models policy diffusion as a game played on social networks that govern competitive pressure and the possibilities of information transfer. The article develops an empirical test for competitive learning using spatial lags, which are applied to data on the performance of larger English local authorities from 2002 to 2006. Evidence is found for both competitive learning and pure learning. The sharper distinction between causal mechanisms proposed in this article should be widely applicable to diffusion across international boundaries and sub-national units.
 
Date 2013