The Conditional Effect of Specialized Governance on Public Policy

Mullin, Megan

doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00303.x

Cited by 59 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Some governmental structures typically considered “responsive” (e.g., ward‐based elections) are more likely to adopt landscape audits and less likely to adopt conservation rates. Yet the impact of some political institutions—the special‐district form in particular—on conservation policies apparently is contingent on climatic conditions, a finding consistent with past research (Mullin, 2007). Curiously, the council–manager charter form has a positive effect on the likelihood of both landscape audits and conservation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Controls for environmental conditions. Climatic conditions, customer demand patterns and supply sources are likely to drive conservation policies, and so a valid analysis of political institutions must account for these factors (Mullin, 2007; Hewitt, 2000). The current analysis uses three metrics to control for the effect of these environmental conditions.…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The institutional politics of water conservation

Teodoro¹

2010

Journal AWWA

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This article analyzes the influence of local governmental structures on the likelihood that utilities adopt one of two water conservation policies: conservation rates and landscape audits. Statistical analysis tests the effects of special‐district versus general‐purpose‐structures, ward‐based versus at‐large electoral structures, and mayor‐council versus council‐manager charter forms. The results demonstrate that government institutions influence adoption of conservation policies in predictable ways, even after accounting for climatic conditions and financial capacity. This article examines the structure of local institutions that govern water utilities and demonstrates that these institutional structures shape the politics of water conservation in predictable ways. U.S. local government structures vary widely in ways that make them more or less amenable to different kinds of conservation policies. This article begins by outlining major policy options for local utilities seeking to encourage conservation, with a particular focus on landscape audits and conservation rates. A consideration of democratic governance follows, with a discussion of how the distribution of costs and benefits under different conservation policies affect their chances of being adopted under various institutional arrangements. The article concludes with a summary of findings and provides lessons for utility leaders who are considering conservation programs. The research in this article specifically focuses on utilities owned by municipal, county, or special district governments, not on investor‐owned utilities; the politics of interest in this article are the politics of city halls and district board rooms. The politics of state utility commissions were not examined as part of this study. Further, this study focused on political institutions and did not address many other important variables that affect local politics, such as leadership, public opinion, and state or federal regulations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The institutional politics of water conservation

Teodoro¹

2010

Journal AWWA

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“…Regions with faster population growth should be more likely to adopt conservation rate structures in order to avoid costly plant and distribution system expansions and to forecast future demand more accurately (Beecher, 2010a;Chesnutt & Beecher, 1998). Mullin (2008) demonstrated that utilities with higher ratios of residential customers were more likely to adopt conservation rate structures. Because population growth and the ratio of residential customers are likely correlated, population growth is hypothesized to be the more important variable.…”

Section: Methodology Selectivity Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Price perception and nonprice controls under conservation rate structures

Aubuchon

Roberson

2012

Journal AWWA

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As a result of increasing population growth and water demand, many researchers and practitioners advocate a "soft path" approach to water supply development, in which future water needs are met through a combination of various demand-side conservation measures (AWWA Climate Change Committee, 2011;Brandes & Brooks, 2006;Gleick, 2003). The soft path approach recognizes that water is a "normal" good in the sense that water is required for human life and most people in developed countries can turn on a tap, flush a toilet, or take a shower without thinking twice about the source but, more important, that water is normal in an economic sense. As prices rise, consumers tend to use less. Increasingly, water managers, utility councils, and board members are developing a better understanding of this definition of water as a normal good and are using conservation-oriented rate structures as part of the long-term management of water supplies.Conservation rate structures take a variety of forms, but at the root, these structures share a basic tenet that water gets more expensive at higher and more discretionary levels of use. This study considered a conservation rate structure to be either an increasing block rate (IBR) or a seasonal rate structure. In an IBR, the "usage in each succeeding block is charged at a higher unit rate than the previous blocks" (AWWA, 2000). Under a seasonal rate structure, water prices increase during summer months in order to reduce demand that is primarily associated with seasonal irrigation. A few utilities, primarily in the West, have also implemented rate structures based on water budgets. Beecher (2012) provides a comprehensive overview of water budget rate structures and discusses the relative merits of the price and nonprice signals inherent in this rate design. Under a water budget rate, households are typically allocated a quantity of water based on household size, lot size, and landscaping mixture. Prices generally follow an IBR structure within each household allocation. In contrast, some utilities use a declining block rate structure (DBR), in which the unit price of water decreases with higher levels of consumption; a flat rate, in which all customers pay the same amount per billing period regardless of use; or a uniform rate, in which all users pay the same unit price for any level of consumption. Water budget rates are not considered in the context of this report.This research provides new findings that take advantage of the 2010 AWWA and Raftelis Financial Consulting (RFC) Rate Survey (AWWA & RFC, 2010). This data set allows a comparison of utilities and rate structures across the United States and permits consideration of the variables that most influence the adoption of conservation rate structures. It also allows the effect of prices on water demand to be isolated when the effects of population growth, climate, and other drivers of demand are held constant. By examining aggregate demand at the utility level, the researchers considered the important question of how price and nonp...

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“…Experiencing or perceiving environmental hazards can increase the political salience of that hazard as a policy issue (Mullin 2008). Moser and Ekstrom (2010) identified that perception of climate change hazard is the first stage for understanding climate adaptation issues.…”

Section: The Role Of Perceived Climate Change Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cities can adapt to changes in the intensity and timing of major storm events by improving flood defenses and diversifying water supplies, including capturing storm water (Daigger 2009;Muller 2007). Finally, as climate change brings new distributions and timing of disease outbreaks and vectors (Patz et al 2005), cities can take steps to respond to these shifts through education campaigns and investments in medical services. Adaptation actions can be introduced as part of existing programs, or "mainstreamed" (UNDP/UNEP 2011), or as new, independent initiatives.…”

Section: The Scope Of Urban Adaptation Agendasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of urban climate hazards and their effects on adaptation agendas

Lee

Hughes

2016

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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Decision-makers in cities around the world are beginning to take steps to adapt to the current and future risks presented by climate change, the sum of which we refer to as a city's adaptation agenda. However, there is significant variation in such agendas: some may focus on responding to one or two climate hazards, while others develop agendas to respond to a wide range of hazards. What causes this varying range of urban adaptation agendas? The purpose of this study is to assess how geographic, socioeconomic, and institutional features of cities as well as the perception of climate change hazards affect the scope of adaptation agendas. Utilizing regression analyses of a newly constructed database for 58 cities around the world, our findings suggest that the perception of climate change hazards held by decision-makers is a primary determinant of the scope of urban adaptation agendas. Given that each global city faces place-specific hazards from varying extreme climate events, this research provides global-scale adaptation strategies for local, national, and international institutions, suggesting that enhancing awareness as well as mapping urban climate hazards is an initial step for broadening and mainstreaming adaptation agendas.

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The Conditional Effect of Specialized Governance on Public Policy

Cited by 59 publications

References 32 publications

The institutional politics of water conservation

The institutional politics of water conservation

Price perception and nonprice controls under conservation rate structures

Perceptions of urban climate hazards and their effects on adaptation agendas

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