2004/02/01 by Beth A. Simmons, Zachary Elkins · 1,631 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies #Policy Transfer and Learning #International Development and Aid #Liberalization #Economics #Politics #Construct (python library) #Globalization #Sociocultural evolution #Economic system #Competition (biology) #Foreign policy #International economics #Political economy #Political science #Market economy
paper · open access · doi:10.1017/s0003055404001078
published in American Political Science Review 98(1), 171-189 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2004/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
One of the most important developments over the past three decades has been the spread of liberal economic ideas and policies throughout the world. These policies have affected the lives of millions of people, yet our most sophisticated political economy models do not adequately capture influences on these policy choices. Evidence suggests that the adoption of liberal economic practices is highly clustered both temporally and spatially. We hypothesize that this clustering might be due to processes of policy diffusion. We think of diffusion as resulting from one of two broad sets of forces: one in which mounting adoptions of a policy alter the benefits of adopting for others and another in which adoptions provide policy relevant information about the benefits of adopting. We develop arguments within these broad classes of mechanisms, construct appropriate measures of the relevant concepts, and test their effects on liberalization and restriction of the current account, the capital account, and the exchange rate regime. Our findings suggest that domestic models of foreign economic policy making are insufficient. The evidence shows that policy transitions are influenced by international economic competition as well as the policies of a country's sociocultural peers. We interpret the latter influence as a form of channeled learning reflecting governments' search for appropriate models for economic policy.