The Determinants Of Public Policy: Economic Diversity As An Alternative And Addition To Standard Socio-Economic And Political Variables

Numerous studies have attempted to assess the relative importance to public policy at the state level of socioeconomic versus political factors. Standard socioeconomic measures, such as income, urbanization, and education, are frequently found capable of explaining a large percentage of the variation in state policies. However, these standard measures overlook an important dimension of state economies. This dimension, diversity, is the major contribution of this study to the debate over policy determinants.