Building a Better Speed Trap: Innovation Attributes and the Measurement and Modeling of Diffusion Speed∗
Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Abstract: Recent research demonstrates how characteristics of policy innovations condition the likelihood they will spread throughout the American states, as well as the likelihood that they will be adopted quickly. I build on this work in two ways. First, I develop a continuous measure of speed that allows researchers to examine how innovation attributes affect how quickly a policy spreads. Second, I propose measures of four general innovation attributes --- relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and observability --- and test their relationship with diffusion speed using a dataset of 116 policies from 15 different policy domains. I am able to confirm the interactive effect of complexity and observability on diffusion speed, while also identifying the positive impact of both relative advantage and compatibility. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that attributes can be measured reliably for a broad range of policies.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Daniel J. Mallinson
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Topic: Policy Transfer and Learning
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2401870474