Causes and Consequences of Public Opinion about Environmental Policies

Abstract

Particularly in comparative perspective, previous research has identified public opinion as an important influence on environmental policy outcomes, though some studies have also found instances where public opinion has been inconsequential. This panel will feature papers assessing the environmental policy impacts of public opinion and/or the reasons for key variations in public opinion about the environment. How and why does support for different environmental policies vary across countries, across groups within countries, and/or over time? Papers may take into account, or even focus on, differences across environmental problems/domains; how people's opinions depend on the specific policies and instruments being considered; and/or how public policy responds to popular preferences about instruments. Empirically, this panel welcomes quantitative studies (such as of survey data on individuals or national-level time-series cross-sectional data), as well as papers presenting qualitative comparative/case-based research, where the analytical comparisons may be cross-national or across relevant sub-national units (states, cities, etc.). Results from lab-based or survey experiments would also be of interest. Theoretically, presenters are encouraged to address the core notion of environmental externalities, which implies that some actors have the capacity to impose the costs of their actions on others-whether next door, across the globe, or yet to be born. Pollution and policies to prevent it are therefore very much about power and distribution, though existing studies of public opinion and the environment have seldom emphasised this view. Economic theory suggests that raising the costs of pollution to those who pollute should yield the most environmental benefit relative to cost, and help to ensure that polluters do not unjustly foist the costs of their activities onto others. Under what conditions, then, in theory and in practice, do people support measures raising/internalising the costs of pollution, and how does such support, or its absence, condition states' policy decisions?

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