IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revpol/v38y2021i3p347-369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The State of State Environmental Policy Research: A Thirty‐Year Progress Report

Author

Listed:
  • Neal D. Woods

Abstract

This article examines trends in American state environmental policy scholarship from 1990 to 2019 and assesses the progress that has been made during that time in addressing the numerous deficiencies noted by Lester and Lombard (1990). A survey of more than 300 published articles suggests that researchers have made significant advances in theory and methodology over the last three decades. Yet some core elements of Lester and Lombard's critique continue to apply, and more work needs to be done to reach their goal of a theoretically coherent and methodologically sound body of research. The article concludes by offering suggestions for scholars working in the field. 本文分析了1990‐2019年间美国各州环境政策文献趋势,并评估了期间为应对由Lester 和Lombard (1990) 批判的众多缺陷而取得的进展。一项对300多篇已出版文章的述评显示,研究者在过去30年里已取得显著的理论进步和方法论进步。不过,Lester 和Lombard批判内容的一些核心要素仍然适用,并且需要进行更多研究以实现“理论一致、方法健全”这一研究目标。本文的结论为该领域学者提供建议。 Este artículo examina las tendencias en los estudios de política ambiental de los estados estadounidenses de 1990 a 2019 y evalúa el progreso que se ha logrado durante ese tiempo para abordar las numerosas deficiencias señaladas por Lester y Lombard (1990). Una encuesta de más de 300 artículos publicados sugiere que los investigadores han logrado avances significativos en teoría y metodología durante las últimas tres décadas. Sin embargo, algunos elementos centrales de la crítica de Lester y Lombard continúan aplicándose, y es necesario trabajar más para alcanzar su objetivo de un cuerpo de investigación teóricamente coherente y metodológicamente sólido. El artículo concluye ofreciendo sugerencias para los académicos que trabajan en el campo.

Suggested Citation

  • Neal D. Woods, 2021. "The State of State Environmental Policy Research: A Thirty‐Year Progress Report," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(3), pages 347-369, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:38:y:2021:i:3:p:347-369
    DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12426
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ropr.12426?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schneider, Anne & Ingram, Helen, 1993. "Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 334-347, June.
    2. Adam J. Newmark & Christopher Witko, 2007. "Pollution, Politics, and Preferences for Environmental Spending in the States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 24(4), pages 291-308, July.
    3. Luke Fowler & Chris Birdsall, 2021. "Does the Primacy System Work? State versus Federal Implementation of the Clean Water Act," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 51(1), pages 131-160.
    4. Tanya Heikkila & Edella C. Schlager, 2012. "Addressing the Issues: The Choice of Environmental Conflict‐Resolution Venues in the United States," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 774-786, October.
    5. Thomas L. Brunell & Brett Cease, 2019. "How Do State‐Level Environmental Policies Impact the Voting Behavior of National Legislators?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 100(1), pages 289-306, February.
    6. Derek Glasgow & Shuang Zhao, 2017. "Has the Clean Air Interstate Rule Fulfilled Its Mission? An Assessment of Federal Rule-Making in Preventing Regional Spillover Pollution," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(2), pages 186-207, March.
    7. Neal D. Woods & David M. Konisky & Ann O'M. Bowman, 2009. "You Get What You Pay For: Environmental Policy and Public Health," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 39(1), pages 95-116, Winter.
    8. Benjamin Y. Clark & Andrew B. Whitford, 2011. "Does more federal environmental funding increase or decrease states' efforts?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 136-152, December.
    9. David M. Konisky, 2007. "Regulatory Competition and Environmental Enforcement: Is There a Race to the Bottom?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 853-872, October.
    10. Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo & J. S. Butler & John Poe & Whitney Davis, 2016. "The Spreading of Innovation: State Adoptions of Energy and Climate Change Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 33(5), pages 544-565, September.
    11. Srinivas C. Parinandi, 2020. "Policy Inventing and Borrowing among State Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 852-868, October.
    12. Evan J. Ringquist, 2005. "Assessing evidence of environmental inequities: A meta-analysis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 223-247.
    13. Thomas P. Lyon & Haitao Yin, 2010. "Why Do States Adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards?: An Empirical Investigation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 133-158.
    14. John A. List & Daniel M. Sturm, 2006. "How Elections Matter: Theory and Evidence from Environmental Policy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1249-1281.
    15. James W. Stoutenborough & Matthew Beverlin, 2008. "Encouraging Pollution‐Free Energy: The Diffusion of State Net Metering Policies," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1230-1251, December.
    16. Sjöberg, Eric & Xu, Jing, 2018. "An Empirical Study of US Environmental Federalism: RCRA Enforcement From 1998 to 2011," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 253-263.
    17. David M. Konisky & Manuel P. Teodoro, 2016. "When Governments Regulate Governments," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(3), pages 559-574, July.
    18. Neal D. Woods & Matthew Potoski, 2010. "Environmental Federalism Revisited: Second‐Order Devolution in Air Quality Regulation," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(6), pages 721-739, November.
    19. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    20. Fredriksson, Per G. & Wang, Le & Mamun, Khawaja A., 2011. "Are politicians office or policy motivated? The case of U.S. governors' environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 241-253, September.
    21. James E. Monogan & David M. Konisky & Neal D. Woods, 2017. "Gone with the Wind: Federalism and the Strategic Location of Air Polluters," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(2), pages 257-270, April.
    22. Sanya Carley & Lincoln L. Davies & David B. Spence & Nikolaos Zirogiannis, 2018. "Empirical evaluation of the stringency and design of renewable portfolio standards," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(9), pages 754-763, September.
    23. Neal D. Woods, 2006. "Primacy Implementation of Environmental Policy in the U.S. States," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 259-276.
    24. Chris Koski & Megan Keating, 2018. "Holding Back the Storm: Target Populations and State Climate Adaptation Planning in America," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 35(5), pages 691-716, September.
    25. Edella Schlager & Tanya Heikkila & Carl Case, 2012. "The Costs of Compliance with Interstate Agreements: Lessons from Water Compacts in the Western United States," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 42(3), pages 494-515, July.
    26. Helland, Eric & Whitford, Andrew B., 2003. "Pollution incidence and political jurisdiction: evidence from the TRI," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 403-424, November.
    27. Fredriksson, Per G. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2002. "Strategic Interaction and the Determination of Environmental Policy across U.S. States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 101-122, January.
    28. Neal D. Woods, 2006. "Interstate Competition and Environmental Regulation: A Test of the Race‐to‐the‐Bottom Thesis," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(1), pages 174-189, March.
    29. David M. Konisky & Neal D. Woods, 2012. "Measuring State Environmental Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(4), pages 544-569, July.
    30. Koebele, Elizabeth A., 2019. "Integrating collaborative governance theory with the Advocacy Coalition Framework," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 35-64, March.
    31. Bromley-Trujillo, Rebecca & Poe, John, 2020. "The importance of salience: public opinion and state policy action on climate change," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 280-304, June.
    32. Martin Johnson & Paul Brace & Kevin Arceneaux, 2005. "Public Opinion and Dynamic Representation in the American States: The Case of Environmental Attitudes," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(1), pages 87-108, March.
    33. Christopher Witko, 2013. "Party Government and Variation in Corporate Influence on Agency Decision Making: OSHA Regulation, 1981–2006," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 94(4), pages 894-911, December.
    34. Hongtao Yi & Richard C. Feiock, 2012. "Policy Tool Interactions and the Adoption of State Renewable Portfolio Standards," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(2), pages 193-206, March.
    35. Neal D Woods, 2021. "An Environmental Race to the Bottom? “No More Stringent” Laws in the American States," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 51(2), pages 238-261.
    36. Daniel C. Matisoff, 2008. "The Adoption of State Climate Change Policies and Renewable Portfolio Standards: Regional Diffusion or Internal Determinants?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 25(6), pages 527-546, December.
    37. Berry, Frances Stokes & Berry, William D., 1990. "State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 395-415, June.
    38. Neal D. Woods, 2008. "The Policy Consequences of Political Corruption: Evidence from State Environmental Programs," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(1), pages 258-271, March.
    39. Barry G. Rabe & Rachel L. Hampton, 2015. "Taxing Fracking: The Politics of State Severance Taxes in the Shale Era," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 32(4), pages 389-412, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nihal Ahmed & Zeeshan Hamid & Khalil Ur Rehman & Piotr Senkus & Nisar Ahmed Khan & Aneta Wysokińska-Senkus & Barbara Hadryjańska, 2023. "Environmental Regulation, Fiscal Decentralization, and Agricultural Carbon Intensity: A Challenge to Ecological Sustainability Policies in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Parrish Bergquist & Christopher Warshaw, 2023. "How climate policy commitments influence energy systems and the economies of US states," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Neal D. Woods, 2022. "Regulatory competition, administrative discretion, and environmental policy implementation," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(4), pages 486-511, July.
    2. Derek Glasgow & Shuang Zhao & Saatvika Rai, 2021. "Rethinking Climate Change Leadership: An Analysis of the Ambitiousness of State GHG Targets," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(4), pages 398-426, July.
    3. Saatvika Rai, 2020. "Policy Adoption and Policy Intensity: Emergence of Climate Adaptation Planning in U.S. States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(4), pages 444-463, July.
    4. Haiqing Hu & Di Chen & Chun‐Ping Chang & Yin Chu, 2021. "The Political Economy Of Environmental Consequences: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 250-306, February.
    5. Côme Billard & Anna Creti & Antoine Mandel, 2020. "How Environmental Policies Spread? A Network Approach to Diffusion in the U.S," Working Papers 2020.12, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    6. Armstrong, John H., 2019. "Modeling effective local government climate policies that exceed state targets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 15-26.
    7. Sojin Jang & Hongtao Yi, 2022. "Organized elite power and clean energy: A study of negative policy experimentations with renewable portfolio standards," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(1), pages 8-31, January.
    8. Bae, Hyunhoe & Yu, Sanguk, 2018. "Information and coercive regulation: The impact of fuel mix information disclosure on states’ adoption of renewable energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 151-159.
    9. Yi, Hongtao & Feiock, Richard C. & Berry, Frances S., 2017. "Overcoming collective action barriers to energy sustainability: A longitudinal study of climate protection accord adoption by local governments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 339-346.
    10. Per G. Fredriksson & Le Wang, 2020. "The politics of environmental enforcement: the case of the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(6), pages 2593-2613, June.
    11. Ruth Winecoff & Michelle Graff, 2020. "Innovation in Financing Energy‐Efficient and Renewable Energy Upgrades: An Evaluation of Property Assessed Clean Energy for California Residences," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2555-2573, December.
    12. Trachtman, Samuel, 2020. "What drives climate policy adoption in the U.S. states?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    13. Yi, Hongtao, 2014. "Green businesses in a clean energy economy: Analyzing drivers of green business growth in U.S. states," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 922-929.
    14. Luke Fowler & Chris Birdsall, 0. "Does the Primacy System Work? State versus Federal Implementation of the Clean Water Act," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 131-160.
    15. Chortareas, Georgios & Logothetis, Vassilis & Papandreou, Andreas, 2018. "Public Opinion, Elections, and Environmental Fiscal Policy," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2018/9, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    16. Neal D Woods, 2021. "An Environmental Race to the Bottom? “No More Stringent” Laws in the American States," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 51(2), pages 238-261.
    17. Andrew R. Duggan & Douglas A. Carr & Wenli Yan, 2022. "Conditional impacts of political and fiscal factors on state environmental budgets," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 127-147, June.
    18. Han, Chao & Tian, Xian-Liang, 2022. "Less pollution under a more centralized environmental system: Evidence from vertical environmental reforms in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    19. Yi, Hongtao, 2015. "Clean-energy policies and electricity sector carbon emissions in the U.S. states," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 19-29.
    20. Pritchard, Zachary D. & Mills, Sarah, 2021. "Renewable energy requirements on the ballot: An analysis of county-level voting results," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:38:y:2021:i:3:p:347-369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipsonea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.