Policy Diffusion Speed: A Replication Study Using the State Policy Innovation and Diffusion Database
| Author | Aravind Menon,Daniel J Mallinson |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211052828 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | The Null Hypothesis |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211052828
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(4) 702 –716
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299211052828
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Policy Diffusion Speed: A
Replication Study Using the
State Policy Innovation and
Diffusion Database
Aravind Menon and Daniel J Mallinson
Abstract
Data accumulation efforts are pushing the study of policy innovation diffusion in new directions.
This replication study uses one such effort, the State Policy Innovation and Diffusion database, to
interrogate the claim that policy attributes like salience and complexity condition the speed of
innovation adoption. The study finds that policy complexity does push the effect of policy salience
in a negative direction. However, it also finds substantial heterogeneity in these conditional effects
across State Policy Innovation and Diffusion’s major constituent datasets. In addition, while not
completely answering questions about convenience sampling bias, the study shows that the
fundamental results do not change with one re-weighting of the results to capture a hypothetical
distribution of the population of state policy innovations. The article concludes with future
directions for the study of both policy diffusion within American federalism and cross-national
diffusion.
Keywords
policy diffusion, replication, American states, policy innovation, measurement
Accepted: 9 September 2021
Society is changing at a faster pace than ever before. Globalization, improvements in
communications, and access to technology allow individuals and societies to adapt and
respond to environmental changes faster. Studying changes in how quickly policy inno-
vations spread is critical for understanding how our changing world shapes policy pro-
cesses and transfer. Both within the United States and internationally, scholars have begun
to better measure the characteristics of policy innovations and test how they affect diffu-
sion (Boushey, 2010; Mallinson, 2016; Moehlecke, 2020; Nicholson-Crotty, 2009). There
is also an emerging understanding of how diffusion patterns change over time (Mallinson,
2016, 2021b). The State Policy Innovation and Diffusion (SPID) database, which includes
School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg, Middletown, PA, USA
Corresponding author:
Daniel J Mallinson, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown,
PA 17057-4846, USA.
Email: mallinson@psu.edu
1052828PSW0010.1177/14789299211052828Political Studies ReviewMenon and Mallinson
research-article2021
The Null Hypothesis
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