Bounded rationality and policy diffusion : social sector reform in Latin America / Kurt Weyland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weyland, Kurt Gerhard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Decision making--Latin America--Case studies.

Decision making.

Policy sciences.

Latin America--Social policy--Case studies.

Latin America.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why do very different countries often emulate the same policy model? Two years after Ronald Reagan's income-tax simplification of 1986, Brazil adopted a similar reform even though it threatened to exacerbate income disparity and jeopardize state revenues. And Chile's pension privatization of the early 1980's has spread throughout Latin America and beyond even though many poor countries that have privatized their social security systems, including Bolivia and El Salvador, lack some of the preconditions necessary to do so successfully. In a major step beyond conventional rational-choice accounts of policy decision-making, this book demonstrates that bounded--not full--rationality drives the spread of innovations across countries. When seeking solutions to domestic problems, decision-makers often consider foreign models, sometimes promoted by development institutions like the World Bank. But, as Kurt Weyland argues, policymakers apply inferential shortcuts at the risk of distortions and biases. Through an in-depth analysis of pension and health reform in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Peru, Weyland demonstrates that decision-makers are captivated by neat, bold, cognitively available models. And rather than thoroughly assessing the costs and benefits of external models, they draw excessively firm conclusions from limited data and over extrapolate from spurts of success or failure. Indications of initial success can thus trigger an upsurge of policy diffusion.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. The Puzzle of Policy Diffusion

Chapter 2. Toward a New Theory of Policy Diffusion

Chapter 3. External Pressures and International Norms in Pension Reform

Chapter 4. Cognitive Heuristics in the Diffusion of Pension Reform

Chapter 5. External Pressures and International Norms in Health Reform

Chapter 6. Cognitive Heuristics in the Diffusion of Health Reform

Chapter 7. Bounded Rationality in the Era of Globalization

References and Interviews

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-281) and index.

ISBN:

9786612086762

9781282086760

1282086766

9781400828067

1400828066

OCLC:

336817288