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Information Exchange and Policy Adoption Decisions in the Context of U.S. State Energy Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Sean Nicholson-Crotty Open the ORCID record for Sean Nicholson-Crotty [Opens in a new window]  and
Sanya Carley
Sean Nicholson-Crotty*
Affiliation:
Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
Sanya Carley
Affiliation:
Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
*
Sean Nicholson-Crotty, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington, 1315 E. 10th, #325, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. Email: seanicho@indiana.edu
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Abstract

A persistent question in the literature on policy adoption and diffusion focuses on the ways in which jurisdictions gather policy information. Decades of research have offered numerous conclusions regarding knowledge transfer mechanisms assumed to drive diffusion. While important, we suggest that the characteristics of existing work may have limited what we know about the exchange of policy information among peers. Most studies infer learning indirectly, and as a result, the literature has tended to focus on exchange between geographic and ideological peers, to the exclusion of other channels. As an alternative, this study takes a more direct approach and draws on a survey of 112 U.S. expert informants in the area of energy policy. We use the information exchange channels revealed by these informants to predict the diffusion of state renewable portfolio standards and electricity deregulation among the American states to determine whether they offer explanatory leverage beyond the “traditional” channels.

Keywords

policy diffusioninformation exchangeenergy policypolicy adoption
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 122 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018

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