The Diffusion of Cultural District Laws across US States

With the increasing number of cultural districts as place-based policies, one of the first questions that arise is: why do some states adopt cultural district laws but not others? Exploring the difference in timing of adoption by each state, I examine the determinants of cultural district laws. Following the policy diffusion literature I test whether there is government, imitation, and learning mechanisms driving the adoption of cultural district laws in the United States. The results suggest the presence of government competition and imitation mechanisms. That is, government compete with those nearby and close in production structure, and learn from those similar to them.