Choosing Environmental Policy: Comparing Instruments and Outcomes in the United States and Europe
Anyone with even a passing interest in environmental policy is familiar with criticisms of so-called “command and control” regulation as overly rigid, intrusive, expensive, and ultimately ineffective. In recent years, conversations about environmental policy in the United States and Europe have broadened to include a number of different policy instruments beyond the command and control approach, many of which rely on economic incentives such as effluent fees and tradable emissions permits. Economic-incentive policies encourage abatement but do not specify the methods or even the quantity permissible to discharge. These instruments are touted to allow more flexibility, promote technological innovation, and minimize compliance costs. However, loss of control over the amount and spatial distribution of pollution, along with other concerns, means that many policymakers continue to perceive a need for “direct” command and control regulation. The current environmental policy landscape involves a mix of policy designs that begs for a better understanding of just how successful different environmental policies have been. For example, relevant questions include how much pollution was abated, how much it cost administrators and polluters to implement, and how that cost was distributed among polluters and other segments of society.
The goal of this book is a “systematic comparison” of policy instruments to better inform future decisionmaking. Toward this goal, the authors have assembled a series of case studies that allow comparison of policy instruments designed to deal with some of the major environmental problems of recent decades, including water pollution, acid rain, leaded gasoline, and hazardous solvents. The case studies are arranged to compare a regulatory policy on one side of the Atlantic with an incentive policy on the other. As might be expected, clear conclusions about policy effectiveness are difficult to make outside of specific context. The role of public scrutiny and cultural expectations about property rights are two such contextual factors. Nevertheless, the editors offer an informative review, especially for readers interested in the specifics of how economically developed countries have, in different ways, often successfully controlled major sources of pollution such as leaded gasoline, industrial water pollution, and sulfur dioxide emissions.