Environmental Policy Performance Revisited: Designing Effective Policies for Green Markets

Abstract

Studies of environmental policy performance tend to concentrate on the impact of particular policy institutions or of single policy instruments. However, environmental policies most often consist of a package of policy instruments. Further, these studies pay no or very little attention to policy instruments directed at the demand side of the market. Therefore this article develops a policy typology for government intervention aimed at creating green markets. The typology distinguishes between four types of policy based on the balance between the supply‐side and demand‐side policy instruments. On the basis of the typology, a hypothesis on their ability to expand green markets is generated and tested in a comparative analysis of the performance of organic food policies in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the US, focusing on their impact on organic consumption. Our analysis demonstrates that cross‐country variation in organic food consumption is explained by differences in the packages of policy instruments applied, controlling for numerous systemic and individual‐level alternative explanations. The analysis suggests that for environmental and political reasons, governments should apply more demand‐side instruments when introducing environmental policies.

The state and consumer confidence in eco-labeling: organic labeling in Denmark, Sweden, The United Kingdom and The United States

“…While the causality most likely solely goes from trust to consumption, it could be that heavy consumers of organic food in part choose to trust labels to legitimize their decisions (Sønderskov 2009). Previous studies show that Danes on average consume far more organic foods than residents in the other countries (Daugbjerg and Sønderskov, forthcoming;Sønderskov 2009; see also Table 2). To rule out the possibility that cross-national differences are caused by differences in consumption, we estimate a model that includes level of consumption as predictor.…”

The Importance of Consumer Trust for the Emergence of a Market for Green Products: The Case of Organic Food

“…At least when bought from a retailer, rather than directly from a producer, consumers need to trust the certification and control processes as well as the organic label and other communication informing them and guaranteeing that a product is indeed organic. Research has found significant variation in consumer trust in organic labels across countries (Daugbjerg and Sønderskov 2012). Across six European countries, Janssen and Hamm (2012) found considerable differences in consumers' willingnessto-pay for organic food depending on how well known the organic logos were and how strict their standards and control systems were perceived to be.…”

A Matter of Trust: How Trust Influence Organic Consumption

“…The level of trust in the organic label is important for consumers when deciding whether to purchase organics or not (Daugbjerg & Sønderskov, 2012;Vindigni, Janssen, & Jager, 2002;Hugner et al, 2007). Likewise consumers perception of organic production such as positive health effects from consumption, environmental improvements and increased animal welfare have a large influence of the level of organic purchases (Vindigni et al, 2002;Hugner et al, 2007).…”