Social Learning and Policy Adoption: Evidence from an Education Reform in Brazil

We investigate the role of social learning among local government officials in fostering the diffusion of an education programme presented with a reasonable degree of technological and political uncertainty about its outcomes, the schooling decentralisation reform in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. We consider different natures of the exchange of information on the newly adopted tasks, and assess which aspects of the returns to programme participation were most valued by officials in their learning process. Specifically, we attempt to determine the extent to which adherence to the reform resulted from electoral motivations rather than from concerns regarding the quality of education. We present evidence that social learning constitutes a key factor to policy implementation, and we find that mayors that could run for re-election became more likely to support the programme upon receiving good news about its electoral returns. By contrast, information on experiences that were successful in improving the quality of education appears to have been valued and effectively put to use only by term-limited officials or when conveyed by copartisan neighbours.