The Importance of the Policy Entrepreneur in Policy Adoption

What factors influence the likelihood that a state will adopt a policy? I argue that the role of a policy entrepreneur is vital to policy diffusion and eventual adoption. Performing Event History Analysis, I investigate 28 states over 7 years that have adopted Erin’s Law, a child abuse education policy. Preliminary findings suggest that the states in which Erin Merryn, the policy entrepreneur, visited increased the likelihood that the state would adopt Erin’s Law. Recognizing the important role of a policy entrepreneur has valuable implications for the policy and diffusion literature

REV-ERBα Participates in Circadian SREBP Signaling and Bile Acid Homeostasis

The nuclear receptor REV-ERBα shapes the daily activity profile of Sterol Response Element Binding Protein (SREBP) and thereby participates in the circadian control of cholesterol and bile acid synthesis in the liver

Hmgcr in the Corpus Allatum Controls Sexual Dimorphism of Locomotor Activity and Body Size via the Insulin Pathway in Drosophila

The insulin signaling pathway has been implicated in several physiological and developmental processes. In mammals, it controls expression of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl CoA Reductase (HMGCR), a key enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis. In insects, which can not synthesize cholesterol de novo, the HMGCR is implicated in the biosynthesis of juvenile hormone (JH). However, the link between the insulin pathway and JH has not been established. In Drosophila, mutations in the insulin receptor (InR) decrease the rate of JH synthesis. It is also known that both the insulin pathway and JH play a role in the control of sexual dimorphism in locomotor activity. In studies here, to demonstrate that the insulin pathway and HMGCR are functionally linked in Drosophila, we first show that hmgcr mutation also disrupts the sexual dimorphism. Similarly to the InR, HMGCR is expressed in the corpus allatum (ca), which is the gland where JH biosynthesis occurs. Two p[hmgcr-GAL4] lines were therefore generated where RNAi was targeted specifically against the HMGCR or the InR in the ca. We found that RNAi-HMGCR blocked HMGCR expression, while the RNAi-InR blocked both InR and HMGCR expression. Each RNAi caused disruption of sexual dimorphism and produced dwarf flies at specific rearing temperatures. These results provide evidence: (i) that HMGCR expression is controlled by the InR and (ii) that InR and HMGCR specifically in the ca, are involved in the control of body size and sexual dimorphism of locomotor activity

The Politics of Expertise in Policymaking: The Case of Erin’s Law Adoption and Diffusion Across the U.S. States

This study examines whether and how policy entrepreneurs and their interactions with state legislatures influence the adoption and diffusion of a child abuse prevention policy, i.e., Erin’s Law, across U.S. state legislatures. Employing eight years of state-level data (2011–2018), we claim that a policy entrepreneur’s impact on policy adoption is conditional on the degree of legislative professionalism and the state’s political ideology. The event history analysis (EHA) and logistic regression (Logit) analyses reveal that policy entrepreneurs’ speaking engagements decrease the time to adoption and increase the likelihood of adoption, and the effect becomes stronger when states’ political ideology aligns with the political landscape surrounding the issue. However, our findings did not support the countervailing role of a policy entrepreneur in leveling gaps in the degree of legislative professionalism and ideological preferences across state legislatures