Research

Dan Mallinson awarded the American Political Science Association Lowi Award

Credit: Penn State Harrisburg / Penn State. Creative Commons

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Dan Mallinson, assistant professor of public policy and administration in Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Public Affairs, has been awarded the 2019 American Political Science Association’s Theodore J. Lowi Award for the best article published last year in Policy Studies Journal.

The award is given annually to recognize an article of particular distinction published at any time in Policy Studies Journal.

His article, “Who Are Your Neighbors? The Role of Ideology and Decline of Geographic Proximity in the Diffusion of Policy Innovations,” was praised by the awards committee for its “innovative use of extensive longitudinal data to explore the impacts of macro-level factors such as geography and ideology on the diffusion of a wide variety of policies across the states.”

Mallinson studies the diffusion of more than 550 policies adopted across the U.S. states over the past 60 years using a pooled event history analysis approach. Policy areas ranged from economic concerns to morality issues.

Mallinson is an expert in comparative state policy and politics. He studies how states learn from each other when adopting policy and how the complexities of American federalism shape the policies adopted by states. His research focuses on policy related to a range of topics including cannabis, opioids, energy, and the environment. He also regularly follows and comments on Pennsylvania state politics and policy.

Last Updated October 15, 2020