This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0010414008327428v1 42/4/549    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gilardi, F. Articles by Luyet, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Learning From Others: The Diffusion of Hospital Financing Reforms in OECD Countries

¹ University of Zurich, Switzerland
² University of Lausanne, Switzerland

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: giilardi{at}ipz.uzh.ch.

	Abstract

The increase in health care expenditures is a major problem of all welfare states. To counter this trend, since the early 1980s, most OECD countries have changed the way hospitals are financed. Although these reforms are certainly linked to countryspecific factors, the authors’ main argument is that they are in part due to a diffusion process: Policy change in one country is influenced by previous changes in other countries. More specifically, the authors argue that policy makers learn from the experience of others. Using an original data set and event–history methods to test arguments, their results show that policy change is more likely when the existing policy is ineffective and when the experience of other countries suggests that the reform leads to the desired results. In addition, the authors find that the effects of learning grow over time and that early adopters tend to be countries with few veto players.

First published on January 26, 2009, doi:10.1177/0010414008327428

Comparative Political Studies 2009;42:549.

A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2009


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?