Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper grapples with the question of why non-democratic countries are adopting gender quotas, as many of these states have serious gender discrimination. Building upon norm and policy diffusion literature, I propose a re-conceptualization of norm dif

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We introduce a new statistical method – Multilevel Diffusion Curves – to model how multiple innovations spread through an industry. Specifically, we analyze when radio stations begin broadcasting 534 pop singles. Ordinarily radio stations imitate one another, an endogenous process producing a characteristic “s-curve.” However, payola can dwarf this process and produce a characteristic negative exponential curve, controlling for the song artist's number of successful songs in the past year. Therefore the shape of a song’s cumulative adoption function indicates whether its rise involved corruption. We validate this heuristic against a panel of songs with a documented history of payola and a comparable set of songs with no such allegations. Compared to earlier methods, Multilevel Diffusion Curves allow testing of more types of hypotheses, model a greater range of data, and are statistically more efficient and precise.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: State policy diffusion scholars often treat regional diffusion and leader-laggard diffusion as mutually exclusive. Indeed, diffusion scholars rarely discuss the possibility that either form of diffusion could equally explain the same phenomenon. Are these competing explanations actually mutually exclusive? This project extends the recent work of Stoutenborough and Beverlin (2008) to determine the relationship between leaders and laggards within set geographical regions. Theoretically, there is no reason to presume that a leader would not have a greater impact on states within a geographical region, particularly if that leader happens to be in a region with some sort of a body that provides regional oversight (e.g. EPA regions). Would this combination of leaders and oversight cause that region to adopt faster than they might otherwise? If leader-laggard diffusion is taking place within our regions, can we create a hybrid diffusion model that can reflect the simultaneous influence of these factors? Preliminary evidence suggests that these concepts are not mutually exclusive, and that a hybrid diffusion model can provide a stronger explanation than either regional or leader-laggard diffusion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Much of the literature on international policy diffusion emphasizes the effect of conjunctural features of policy choice such as cross-border information flows, characteristics of the innovation itself, or of the international social system in which the p