Career cohorts and inter-jurisdictional innovation diffusion: an empirical exploration in China

Previous research on policy innovation diffusion generally focuses on organizational-level mechanisms while disregarding the actor-level diffusion channels. The current study explores how career cohorts among subnational leaders, who are classified based on political ranks and ages, shape inter-jurisdictional innovation diffusion in China. Compared with subnational leaders from different cohorts, those from the same cohort tend to share relatively homogeneous policy information and compete with one another intensely because of the overlapping future career opportunities, thereby creating a particular pattern of policy interdependence across multiple jurisdictions. We perform a directed dyad-year event history analysis to evaluate the diffusion of China’s provincial-level administrative licensing centers from 1999 to 2015. Empirical analysis shows that after controlling for multiple previously identified diffusion mechanisms and internal determinants, the cohort effect among provincial party chiefs significantly increases the likelihood of innovation diffusion in China.