Information and Policy Innovation in U.S. States

• Author: Karen Mossberger,Scott J. LaCombe,Caroline Tolbert
• DOI: 10.1177/10659129211006783
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Date: 01 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 75(2) 353 –365

Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211006783

Political Research Quarterly

© 2021 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211006783

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How has the growth of broadband access and digital

information affected the diffusion of public policies

across the U.S. states over time? Over the past two

decades, broadband, or high-speed Internet, has funda-

mentally transformed how information is consumed and

spreads. The changes are comparable with the invention

of the printing press, telegram, and telephone (Chadwick

2017; Shirky 2008; Silver 2015). Each of these new tech-

nologies transformed society and structurally altered how

information flows. Former Organisation for Economic

Co-operation and Development (OECD) chief economist

Ignazio Visco has argued that because of broadband

The dramatic fall in communication costs [. . .] and the

technological breakthroughs behind it, have led to a diffusion

of ideas, technological know-how and a general spread of

information at a pace that is quite unprecedented in the

history of humankind. (Clark and Thompson 2012)

This study examines how variation in household

broadband subscription rates has influenced the spread of

policy adoptions across U.S. states. Information plays a

central role in the diffusion of policy solutions, and states

with higher rates of broadband subscriptions operate in a

more information-rich, nationalized environment.

Measuring broadband subscriptions, or the percent of the

population with high-speed Internet access, provides an

indicator of how widespread and inclusive information

networks are within states, potentially enriching the flows

of information. Despite the critical significance of the

Internet for information and communication, the role of

broadband access and use has not previously been con-

sidered in a systematic way to explain the diffusion of

policies across the states.

Some diffusion scholars have documented that states

have become more innovative over time (Boehmke and

Skinner 2012), with others offering digital information

and communication technologies as an explanation for

this trend because they increase the speed at which

1006783PRQXXX10.1177/10659129211006783Political Research QuarterlyLaCombe et al.

research-article2021

1Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

2The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA

3Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

Corresponding Author:

Scott J. LaCombe, Department of Government and Department

of Statistical and Data Sciences, Smith College, 201 Wright Hall,

Northampton, MA 01060, USA.

Email: lacombe129@gmail.com

Information and Policy Innovation

in U.S. States

Scott J. LaCombe1, Caroline Tolbert2,

and Karen Mossberger3

Abstract

Information is a critically important, yet hard to measure, component on policy innovation across state governments.

Widespread use of broadband has made it easier for governments to observe other actors, increasing the amount of

policy information, while also diversifying the sources of information available to policymakers. This should translate

into making governments more innovative over time and quicker to adapt to challenges. At the same time, the

Internet may disrupt previous existing flows of information by decreasing the importance of geographic proximity and

creating more nationalized or global information networks. We argue that the growth of broadband has made states

more innovative over time, while also reducing the reliance on neighboring state adoptions for policy solutions as the

information environment becomes both richer and more nationalized. We estimate a pooled event history analysis on

hundreds of policies comparing the treatment period (2000–2016) with a control condition (last two decades of the

20th century) and find that states with higher broadband subscriptions are more innovative overall and less reliant on

geographic contiguity for policy solutions. The growth of information flows due to digital communications has led to

states becoming more innovative while also operating in a more nationalized network.

Keywords

diffusion, broadband, information, public policy