The “Spread” of Merit-Based College Aid

Abstract

Many political scientists maintain that public policies diffuse across states and that proximate states, in particular, influence one another's policy activities. Using state-funded merit aid for college as its case, this article takes a new approach to the study of the diffusion phenomenon, leaving behind conventional techniques used by generations of innovation/diffusion scholars, and asks policy makers themselves to what they attribute state policy adoption. The authors' findings suggest that merit aid programs diffuse as a function of competition among neighboring states not only for students but also for revenue and ideas. Close policy communities and personal contacts among state policy makers and agency staff also condition policy adoption by spreading information about, and assessments of, educational innovations.

Policy transfer routes: an evidence-based conceptual model to explain policy adoption

“…Pressured policy transfer ranges from transfer through peer-pressure (Cohen-Vogel and Ingle 2007) to transfers based on limited sovereignty or full dependency of adopting actors. Conditional transfers often involve third-party actors, such as IGOs.…”

How Do Affirmative Action Bans Affect the Racial Composition of Postsecondary Students in Public Institutions?

“…To construct comparison states, I rely on regional interstate compacts for higher education. Previous literature suggests that such regional compacts provide opportunities for state actors to cooperate and share resources, thus facilitating the dissemination of practices and ideas across states and postsecondary institutions within the same compact (Cohen-Vogel et al, 2008). Such compacts have been used in previous studies to select comparison states and evaluate state-level policy changes (e.g., Flores, 2010; Zhang and Ness, 2010).…”

Accountability, Affordability, Access: A Review of the Recent Trends in Higher Education Policy Research

“…(2005), however, found a strong pattern of the adoption of postsecondary finance reform in one state and the “spread” of such policies to neighboring states within the first three to five years afterwards. Building upon this previous body of work, Cohen‐Vogel, Ingle, Levine, and Spence (2008) looks at the migration of merit aid policies across the American states. Cohen‐Vogel et al.…”

“…Building upon this previous body of work, Cohen‐Vogel, Ingle, Levine, and Spence (2008) looks at the migration of merit aid policies across the American states. Cohen‐Vogel et al. 's work is unique, however, to the study of diffusion in that the authors utilize in‐depth qualitative interviews with state policymakers to explore what led them to adopt merit aid policies in the first place.…”