In this article, we challenge two assumptions embedded in many ex-ante analyses of environmental policy instruments. Firstly, it is often assumed that target groups in environmental policy are homogeneous and thus can be expected to respond to policy instruments in a similar manner. Secondly, individual target group members are expected to respond to policy instruments like 'economic man', particularly in relation to MBIs applied in environmental policy. We argue that despite the 'behavioural turn' in public policy, the debate on policy instrument development and effectiveness has often neglected target group heterogeneity. E.g. members of a given policy target group may be driven by different motivations and each member may even act based on a combination of motivations. Target group heterogeneity suggests that rather than chasing a single perfect policy instrument, research and environmental governance should focus more on better policy mixes to match those differences in decision-making rationales. We argue that a focus on instrument combinations designed to effectively address policy problems where target groups are heterogeneous would mark a new and innovative stage in the research on policy instruments. We substantiate our argument by an empirical analysis of farmer responses to Danish agricultural pesticide taxes.
We welcome you to issue 19 (2) of the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. This edition contains eight articles that represent the broad range of pressing environmental problems that have ...
Eco-labels have an import role in promoting green consumption since most eco-labelled products are credence goods, implying that the valued process attributes they contain are not observable to the consumer even after purchase or consumption. Therefore, the consumers rely heavily on eco-labels as a reassurance that these attributes are actually delivered. We argue that the label will only have the desired effect if the consumers know the production standards underpinning it and have trust in the label. We test this argument using organic food as our example. The empirical results obtained on the basis of our analysis of Danish purchasing data on actual purchases combined with detailed survey data show that the higher the level of knowledge of labelling attributes and the higher the degree of trust in the label, the more likely consumers are to buy organic food.
In response to the challenges posed by the fragmentation of habitats and loss of native biodiversity, climate change adaptation and mitigation, diverse agri-environmental measures have been initiated across the European Union (EU) with the aim of fostering agricultural ecosystem service delivery. Previous studies adopting a governance perspective have identified various determinants of successful agri-environmental measures. However, the explanatory value of these studies is limited as the causal processes through which context and scheme design affect implementation success remain grey -boxed. This article uses a mechanism-based approach to uncover the causal processes that underlie actions and interactions within agri-environmental governance arrangements and provides insights into the role the interplay between context and scheme design plays in the successful implementation of agri-environmental measures. The empirical focus is the governance of a successful collective agri-environmental scheme in the Netherlands. In opening the grey box of the causal mechanisms that link contextual and scheme design with their results, the paper applies theory building process tracing methods. Results show that implementation success in the case is explained by the interplay between social learning and trust-building mechanisms. We argue that EU and domestic decision-makers aiming to improve the contribution of agri-environmental measures to climate change adaptation and mitigation must consider the contextual conditions that facilitate increased cooperation between stakeholders and, ultimately, successful implementation of measures.
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