Why Successful Policy Pilots Are (Not) Scaled Up: The Case of Job-Creation Programmes

Abstract

While existing research demonstrates that successful policy pilots often remain unscaled, the reasons for this observation lack clarity and systematisation. This study addresses the gap. Drawing on the synthesis of various literatures, it first develops four propositions explaining why successful pilots may not scale up in practice, including: success may not be a scaling prerequisite (1), success may not be proven to decision-makers (2), success may lack further funds and incentives (3), and success may not be scalable (4). To "probe" and strengthen the propositions, the study then employs them as lenses to analyse a comparative case-study of three European employment-creation (pilot) schemes: Zero Long-Term Unemployment Territories (France), MAGMA Job Guarantee (Austria), and Kinofelis Ergasia (Greece). Empirical analysis draws on interviews with program stakeholders facilitated with follow-up discussions and desk research. The findings illustrate that: the success of policy pilots is neither a sufficient nor a primary condition for their upscaling (a), and whether the solutions "that work" find further adoption can be largely determined by the interplay of policymakers' ideological preconceptions and the institutional design of pilot interventions (b).