The theory of regulatory competition in environmental policy predicts a 'race to the bottom' of standards. This article tests the theory using environmental output data for 24 countries from 1970 to 2005. It finds a clear 'race to the top' and a search for international harmonization when competition is imminent.

In this paper, we construct a political-economy model of international noncooperative environmental policymaking, and examine the strategic incentives for voters to elect an environmental policymaker in open economies. We show that under several circumstances, citizens have an incentive to deliberately vote for a candidate whose environmental preferences differ from their own. Further, the stra...

There is a widespread consensus among the most important players in developed countries (voters, politicians, producers, traditional and green interest groups and bureaucracies) that a shift towards an eco-social market economy is essential for sustainable growth. Nevertheless, market-based instruments have not as yet been implemented satisfactorily in environmental policy. To identify the reas...

Society is at a critical juncture in its relationship with the natural environment, a relationship in which tourism has growing significance. Yet, twenty years after the Brundtland Report, environmental policy has to date had little influence upon the workings of the tourism market, the supply and demand elements of which determine the ‘use’ or ‘non-use’ of nature. Inherent to the market is its...

Understanding the relationships and dependencies in the development and implementation of environmental policy is essential to the effective management of the marine environment. A new method of policy network analysis called 'Rapid Policy Network Mapping' was developed that delivers an insight for both technical and non-technical users into the lifecycle, relationships and dependencies of poli...

In this partial equilibrium and static model, the impact of environmentalism on two countries’ environmental policies is presented. First, the only (indirect) way environmentalists influence the choice of pollution taxes is through a negative term in the welfare function in Home. It is defined as passive environmentalism (PE). Second, this article is a first attempt to consider domestic environ...

We examined whether participation (n = 623 students) in educational travel programs influenced support for environmental policies across different citizen types (justice-oriented, participatory, personally responsible, and non-citizen). Findings showed that (1) participation increased support for environmental policies across all groups, (2) justice-oriented citizens reported the highest suppor...

Protected areas are leading tools in efforts to slow global species loss and appear also to have a role in climate change policy. Understanding their impacts on deforestation informs environmental policies. We review several approaches to evaluating protection's impact on deforestation, given three hurdles to empirical evaluation, and note that "matching" techniques from economic impact evaluat...