Policy Innovation, Decentralised Experimentation, and Laboratory Federalism

Nudging Federalism towards Productive Experimentation

Formal constitutional amendment can be difficult to achieve and, without the confidence of experience, may introduce changes that too quickly and too rigidly alter the balance of authority between federal and state governments. Therefore, in federal systems it is preferable to experiment with alterations prior to formal adoption. In this article I address how federal systems encourage two types...

Innovation Adoption and Collective Experimentation∗

I study a game in which individuals gather costly information about an innovation and share their knowledge through social ties. A person’s incentive to experiment varies with her position in the network, and strategic interactions lead to counterintuitive behavior among the most connected players. The structure of the social network and the distribution of initial beliefs jointly determine lon...

Rationalizing Drug Policy under Federalism

Contested Federalism and American Climate Policy

Climate change has routinely been framed as an issue to be addressed through an intergovernmental regime guided by a set of large nations. The evolving reality of climate change policy development, in the U.S. and abroad, relies heavily on sub-national initiative. This article reviews the American climate policy odyssey, examining distinct periods in which respective intergovernmental roles hav...

Experimentation, Patents, and Innovation Accessed Terms of Use Detailed Terms Experimentation, Patents, and Innovation *

This paper studies a simple model of experimentation and innovation. Our analysis suggests that patents may improve the allocation of resources by encouraging rapid experimentation and efficient ex post transfer of knowledge across firms. Each firm receives a private signal on the success probability of a research project and decides when and which project to implement. A successful innovation ...