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Based on field research, this paper analyses the role of a city in the diffusion of a particular kind of anti-poverty scheme: the conditional cash transfer. Questioning the neoclassical economic postulate that policy models and policy makers interact freely, the case of Opportunity NYC sheds light on the asymmetry of the circulation of policy ideas. The staff of Mayor Michael Bloomberg deve- loped and implemented a series of local, inter-state and international strategies to turn their pilot pro- ject into a policy. Despite mixed results, the initia- tive also received a great deal of attention within the United States and had some influence in Great Britain and France. This article attributes the lea- dership exercised by this urban policy laboratory to sociospatial characteristics (political, sociolo- gical, economical). Finally, it demonstrates that building a policy model does not rely so much on the excellence of the recipe as on the dissemina- tion strategies specific to a city.
