Networks of Global Social Policy Diffusion: The Effects of Culture, Economy, Colonial Legacies, and Geographic Proximity

Abstract

The introductory chapter to the volume by Mossig, Windzio, Seitzer and Besche-Truthe defines the core concepts, such as diffusion and contagion, and gives an example of an application diffusion and contagion in epidemiology. The most important underlying functions, namely the logistic density and cumulative logistic density function, are explained, followed by a very brief introduction to the core concepts of event history analysis. In the network diffusion model, contagion, or, in other words, the adoption of information or innovation, is based on the concept of exposure which will be elaborated in this chapter. Finally, after describing and visualizing the four different networks and their correlations, exponential random graph models are used to analyze structural and substantive properties of these networks. The introduction concludes with a brief overview of the chapters.

Does proximity matter? The effect of financial sector development on economic growth in the EAC and SADC regional blocs

“…In measuring geographic proximity, trade cost is often preferred to sheer miles, although data constraints may hamper this option (Harris, 1954). Trade cost includes not only the expense of physically moving products but also all information, communication, monitoring, and policy costs associated with transacting at a distance (Redding and Scott, 2003;Mossig et al, 2022). Limao and Venables (2000) show that increasing trade costs by 10%, reduces trade volume by more than 20%.…”

“…In these contexts, proximity is considered to increase the diusion eect of best practices from nearby countries. Along with it, the risk of negative adoption from neighboring countries is also higher with closer proximity (Mossig et al, 2022;Amidi and Majidi, 2020). The importance of economic proximity in economic growth is further reinforced by regional growth.…”

“…Alternatively, geographic proximity through sharing a border has also been observed to increase bilateral trade in the respective countries (Mossig et al, 2022;Bhupatiraju and Verspagen, 2013). For Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, between 1% and 5% of trade by value is from land-neighboring countries.…”

“…In eect, geographic proximity makes sense only if those involved do trade regularly (Mossig et al, 2022). This means one or both of them have a relatively higher centrality index.…”

Crossing the boundaries: reimagining innovation and diffusion

“…The most concise and clear definition of the boundary is a physical border such as geographic boundaries. Lots of scholars have already studied this aspect (Mossig et al, 2022;Simmons & Elkins, 2004;True & Mintrom, 2001). They provide rich and reliable evidence that especially global policy innovation and diffusion is achieved by crossing borders.…”