Brian Galle (Boston College) presented Policy Innovation in Firms and Local & National Governments at Washington & Lee as part of its Faculty Workshop Series. Here is a description:

In the article, Professor Galle discusses the various factors that drive innovation and creative policy implementation in local and national governments. He argues because governments don’t retain any property rights in their ideas, they are less likely to innovate, choosing rather to let another government absorb the risk of the idea and then implement it after a successful showing, getting a free-ride. Professor Galle presents the view that if governments contract innovation out to private entities, there can be intellectual property protection to help prevent the free-rider problem. After addressing many of the problems inherent in such a model, Professor Galle suggests that perhaps the most efficient model is to have a centralized government, like the federal government, contract out innovation to the states before implementing them on a national scale. Such a solution helps pool resources from all the states to help fund experiments that would be to the benefit of all the states without forcing an individual state to innovate on its own.