Abstract

The increase in health care expenditures is a major problem of all welfare
states. To counter this trend, since the early 1980s, most OECD countries have
changed the way hospitals are financed. Although these reforms are certainly
linked to country-specific factors, the authors’ main argument is that they are
in part due to a diffusion process: Policy change in one country is influenced
by previous changes in other countries. More specifically, the authors argue
that policy makers learn from the experience of others. Using an original data
set and event–history methods to test arguments, their results show that policy
change is more likely when the existing policy is ineffective and when the
experience of other countries suggests that the reform leads to the desired
results. In addition, the authors find that the effects of learning grow over time
and that early adopters tend to be countries with few veto players.