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Environmental employee engagement programs promise to raise employee morale, improve social and environmental conditions and strengthen companies' financial performance. Such programs, however, sometimes fail to improve employee engagement, often because employees do not believe in the program's authenticity. This study evaluates peer communication as a mechanism for improving the credibility of employee engagement programs. We use a quasi-experimental research design in which employees from different regional offices of a single company were placed in either a treatment group that experienced a peer communication program or a control group that did not. Pre- and post-test surveys measured employees' affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement with their work. Treatment group employees showed increases in pride in the company's environmental initiatives and accomplishments, confidence in discussing its environmental record with external stakeholders, and awareness of and participation in its employee environmental programs. These changes were significantly greater than what occurred in the control groups, suggesting that the peer communication program was generally effective at improving employee engagement. These results demonstrate new modes of internal communication that can strengthen companies' environmental performance and improve employee-related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is the consequence of a market failure, with private actors' incentives misaligned on a global scale and across multiple generations. Government policies to address climate change remain inadequate and the near term prospects are suspect. Analysts have turned their attention to finding alternative approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Green clubs offer a potential institutional mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but to be effective they must be designed to fit their circumstances. An effective green club solves a market or quasi-market failure among firms and their stakeholders. Focusing on the market and nonmarket strategic imperatives for green clubs identifies several important considerations for improving the effectiveness of green clubs. Green clubs addressing climate change are more likely to be effective if they provide potential participants with a private benefit they are unable to achieve through other means and when the private benefits participants receive are tightly linked to the environmental benefits the club produces. Analyzing green clubs through this lens suggests that environmental certification club goods are more promising candidates than environmental technology club goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising the opportunity cost of people’s time may reduce their commitment to social obligations such as voting. Notably, entertaining sporting events can be strong civic distractions, as commentators throughout history have lamented. To consider sporting events’ influence on political behavior, this paper examines the effect of Monday Night Football games the day before US general elections from 1970 to 2014. More attractive games, such as those that feature more prominent and competitive match-ups or that feature local or high-scoring teams, may entice people to consume more entertainment and thus have less time to devote to civic affairs. When preelection football game quality increases from its 25th to 75th percentile, voter turnout falls by between 2 and 8 percentage points. These effects are somewhat weaker among those more interested in politics and do not appear in placebo tests on other political behaviors occurring before the preelection game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) is an important destination for developing country exports. Has the EU’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol induced developing countries to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions? Our analyses of 136 developing countries from 1981 through 2007 suggests that: developing countries’ export dependence on the EU is associated with CO2emission reductions post-Kyoto in relation to the pre-Kyoto time period; this also holds for SO2,which, while not covered under Kyoto, is linked with CO2emission levels; this does not hold for PM10, a pollutant which is not covered under Kyoto and is not directly associated with CO2emissions related to industrial activities; developing countries’ export dependence on non-EU developed countries and on the rest of the world is not associated with significant reductions in emissions between pre- and post-Kyoto for these pollutants . In sum, even in the absence of binding regulatory mandates, the EU appears to exert market leverage to project its regulatory preferences abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates how private incentives distort public evaluations. Exploiting a unique empirical setting, we study the influence of conflicts of interest among NCAA football coaches participating in the USA Today Coaches Poll of the top 25 teams from 2005 to 2010. The research design takes advantage of a situation where many agents are evaluating the same thing, private incentives are clearly defined and measurable, and there exists an alternative source of computer rankings that is bias free. We find evidence that coaches distort their rankings to reflect their own financial and reputational interests. Most importantly, we find that coaches show more favoritism toward their own team when they stand to gain more financially and toward other teams when it generates higher direct financial payoffs for their own university. Additionally, coaches boost the ranking of their own team and teams from their same athletic conference, even after accounting for direct financial incentives. Coaches also rank teams they defeated more favorably, thereby making their own team look better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about the efficacy of private environmental regimes have been fueled by disparate research findings, such as when the same regime that has been effective in one setting is found to be ineffective in another. In this article, we show that the efficacy of ISO 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental regime in the world, is conditioned by the stringency of countries’ domestic regulations. In doing so, we outline a model of strategic corporate environmentalism wherein firms strategically focus their International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification to reduce emissions of visible air pollutants as opposed to less visible water pollutants. Our analyses of pollution levels for a panel of 159 countries (73 for water pollution) from 1991 to 2005 indicate that ISO 14001 certifications reduce air (SO2) emissions in countries with less stringent environmental regulations but have no effect on air emissions in countries with stringent environmental regulations. We also find that ISO membership levels are not associated with reductions in water pollution levels (Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD), irrespective of stringency of domestic law. Our article suggests that the efficacy of global private environmental regimes is likely to be conditioned by the domestic regulatory context in which firms function, and given firm’s strategic considerations, this efficacy could vary across pollution types. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) are institutions that encourage participating actors to produce environmental public goods beyond the requirements of government law. Drawing on the club approach to the study of VEPs, we identify four collective action challenges facing VEPs. First, sponsoring actors must be motivated to invest resources to create a VEP despite incentives to free ride on the efforts of others. Second, VEPs need to be designed to offer firms sufficient excludable incentives to join them. Third, VEPs need monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that participants adhere to program obligations and do not free ride on the efforts of other participants. Fourth, VEPs and their sponsors need to motivate stakeholders to compensate firms for producing environmental public goods. The literature reveals considerable variability in how these challenges are addressed, suggesting that successful VEPs need to fit their institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental programs have emerged as important instruments of environmental policy. Despite considerable scholarly scrutiny, there remain debates about whether they reduce pollution among participants, and their overall impact at the country level. We present a cross-national analysis of the efficacy of ISO 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world. While several single country studies have explored the effect of ISO 14001 participation on pollution reduction at the facility level, this is the first article to assess (i) national level pollution reduction effects of ISO 14001 participation levels, (ii) across a large number of countries, and (iii) across two pollutants. We examine whether all else equal, the national level uptakes of ISO 14001 are associated with reductions in air emissions (sulfur dioxide, SO2) and water pollution (biochemical oxygen demand, BOD). Because firms, regulators, and environmental groups tend to focus more on visible types of pollution than less visible ones, we hypothesize that ISO 14001 uptake will be associated with more pronounced reductions in air pollution (visible) in relation to water pollution (less visible). Our analyses of pollution levels for a panel of 138 (72 for BOD) countries for the 1991-2005 period suggest that a 1 percent increase in aggregate levels of ISO 14001 adoption is associated with about a 0.064 percent reduction in SO2 emissions, all else equal. In contrast, we do not find a statistically significant relationship between ISO 14001 adoption levels and changes in water pollution ( BOD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine states' use of local clean air agencies and provide a preliminary assessment of what causes states to devolve air quality policy authority to the local level. Data from a unique comparative state survey shows that states vary widely in the number of local clean air agencies they employ and the amount of authority these agencies have to set standards, monitor air quality, and enforce regulations. Multivariate analyses suggest that second-order devolution is partly driven by a general propensity to decentralize policy authority, but that policy-specific factors relating to the problem and interest group environment affect devolution as well. These findings indicate that local agencies play an important role in U.S. air quality regulation, and that the dynamics of state devolution to local agencies deserve further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public managers and their political overseers can choose from several approaches as they decide how to structure the delivery of goods and services to citizens. The three most common service-delivery modes are: internal service delivery, in which the government produces the entire service; contracts with other governments, private firms, or nonprofit organizations; and joint service-delivery arrangements. Traditionally, governments' decision to `make or buy' has been framed statically: public managers and their political overseers select one delivery mode over alternatives and then remain committed to that delivery approach. Of course, in practice, service-delivery choices can be more fluid: internal service delivery can later change to contracts, and contracts can later be internalized. Changing service-delivery modes is a potentially costly undertaking. Governments that elect to switch typically make changes to existing production systems and management systems. Varying costs associated with the alteration of existing production and management systems make switching from some modes of service delivery easier than others, depending in part on how the service was initially delivered. In general, the costs of changing from direct service delivery to contract service delivery are likely to be high: managers have to dedicate significant time and effort to dismantling existing production and management systems and building new ones. On the other hand, the service-delivery decisions of contracting governments are likely to be more dynamic because they have typically already incurred the costs of changing at a previous date. Sometimes governments internalize services when they have been using joint or contracted service delivery, whereas at other times they remain in the market by switching vendor type. In this paper we examine how governments' previous service- delivery choices structure their future choices. We analyze panel data from the 1992 and 1997 International City/County Manager Association's Alternative Service Delivery surveys along with data from the US Census and other sources. Our results suggest that service-delivery choices exhibit strong inertia, although when change occurs the previous service-delivery mode influences the likelihood of changing to other service-delivery modes in important ways. In general, governments which have already internalized the upfront costs of changing modes of service delivery are more likely to approach service-delivery choices more dynamically in future decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental programs are institutions that seek to induce firms to produce positive environmental externalities beyond what government regulations require. Drawing on club theory, this paper outlines a theoretical perspective to study the relationship between program design and program effectiveness. Effective programs have rule structures that mitigate two central collective action problems inherent in producing positive environmental externalities: attracting firms to participate in the program and ensuring that participating firms adhere to program obligations. Because program efficacy can be undermined by collective action problems associated with free riding and shirking, effective voluntary clubs should be designed to mitigate these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) creates opportunities for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to diffuse corporate management practices from their countries-of-origin (home countries) to countries hosting their foreign operations. We examine conditions under which MNEs transfer corporate environmental practices from home countries to host countries. Our focus is on ISO 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world. We examine inward FDI stocks and ISO 14001 adoption levels for a panel of 98 countries, and a subset of 74 developing countries, for the period 1996–2002. We find support for the country-of-origin argument in that inward FDI stocks are associated with higher levels of ISO 14001 adoption in host countries only when FDI originates from home countries that themselves have high levels of ISO 14001 adoption. Countries’ ISO adoption levels are associated not with how much FDI host countries receive overall but from whom they receive it. Three implications emerge from this study: (1) FDI can become an instrument to perpetuate divergence in corporate practices across the world; (2) economic integration via FDI can create incentives for firms to ratchet up their environmental practices beyond the legal requirements of their host countries; (3) instead of racing down to match the less stringent corporate practices prevalent in developing countries, developed countries can employ FDI outflows to ratchet up corporate practices abroad given that developing countries are net recipients of developed countries’ FDI outflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years scholars have highlighted the public policy potential of using voluntary programs based on environmental management systems (EMS) to improve firms' environmental and regulatory performance. While firms receive some benefits for joining EMS-based voluntary programs, these incentives could be strengthened if governments mandated joining such programs as a precondition for participating in government procurement. While we support Arnold and Whitford's proposal to use public procurement eligibility criteria to induce firms to take environmentally progressive action, we have concerns about using any EMS or EMS-based voluntary program for these purposes. EMS-based programs must impose real requirements on firms and must have in place monitoring systems to ensure that such requirements are met. Only then will EMS-programs likely be effective as well as credible with stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization critics argue that international trade spurs a race to the bottom among national environmental standards. ISO 14001 is the most widely adopted voluntary environmental regulation which encourages firms to take environmental action beyond what domestic government regulations require. Drawing on a panel study of 108 countries over seven years, we investigate conditions under which trade linkages can encourage ISO 14001 adoption, thereby countering environmental races to the bottom. We find that trade linkages encourage ISO 14001 adoption if countries' major export markets have adopted this voluntary regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary programs have become widespread tools for governments and nongovernmental actors looking to improve industry's environmental and regulatory performance. Voluntary programs can be conceptualized as club goods that provide nonrival but potentially excludable benefits to members. For firms, the value of joining a green club over taking the same actions unilaterally is to appropriate the club's positive brand reputation. Our analysis of about 3,700 U.S. facilities indicates that joining ISO 14001, an important nongovernmental voluntary program, improves facilities' compliance with government regulations. We conjecture that ISO 14001 is effective because its broad positive standing with external audiences provides a reputational benefit that helps induce facilities to take costly progressive environmental action they would not take unilaterally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent globalization discussions have revived the issue of regulatory convergence. Convergence advocates point to the structural pressures of the global economy on countries, while the divergence school points to the embeddedness of domestic regulatory institutions. This paper examines cross-national divergence in adoption rates of ISO 14001, an important international nongovernmental environmental regime developed with the cooperation of multinational firms. ISO 14001 offers a process-based system of voluntary regulation instead of an outcome-based system of public regulation that many firms find cumbersome. Our analysis of data from 59 countries suggests that ISO 14001 adoption rates are likely to be higher in countries whose trading partners have adopted this nongovernmental regime, which are embedded in international networks of nongovernmental organizations, whose governments flexibly enforce stringent environmental regulations with a less adversarial and litigious stance towards firms, and where consumers want mechanisms for identifying environmentally progressive firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their importance in theories of distributive spending, interest groups and other private and public organizations are largely absent from empirical research on the allocation of federal spending to subnational jurisdictions. We find that organized interests are significant determinants of the allocation of federal discretionary grants to states for 1991 through 1998 across seven policy areas. In contrast, we find only meager effects for supply-side variables suggested by the literature. We conjecture that supply-side effects are highly contingent on political circumstances and the type of spending being analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States have developed an array of environmental programs in response to a variety of political and environmental factors. This article examines three state clean air programs—setting ambient standards, ambient monitoring, and enforcement—and shows how each program has a distinct set of empirical determinants, reflecting the programs' diverse purposes. States' ambient standards policies allocate resources among competing claimants, and consequently they reflect the balance of environmental politics in each state. Ambient monitoring programs reflect the degree to which states need and can process information about air pollution problems. The level of states' enforcement programs reflects the scope of the environmental problem in each state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To provide a descriptive analysis of asthma prevalence and costs in a Medicaid population and gauge the degree of adherence with expert guidelines for asthma medication management from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program. Data Sources. Kentucky Medicaid administrative data for 1996. Study Design. A cross-sectional retrospective analysis was used to determine adherence with asthma medication guidelines and utilization of asthma-related health care services and costs. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between nonadherence with the guidelines and utilization of health care services. Principal Findings. Of the 530,000 Medicaid recipients, 24,365 (4.6 percent) were identified as having asthma. Average annual asthma-related costs (&dollar;616) accounted for less than 20 percent of total health care costs (&dollar;3,645). Nonadherence to the guidelines was prevalent. Less than 40 percent of the patients received a prescription for a rescue medication, and fewer than 10 percent of the patients who received daily inhaled short-acting beta-&sub2 agonists were regular users of inhaled steroids. Nonadherence to the guidelines was associated with an increased risk of an asthma-related hospitalization (odds ratio= 1.5,p<.05). Conclusions. Guideline nonadherence was widespread and associated with an increase in exacerbations of asthma that resulted in hospitalizations. Asthma prevalence and utilization of health care services in a Medicaid population were similar to previous estimates reported nationally and in health maintenance organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes a theory of policy outputs and examines the dimensional structure of policy outputs. Indications that outputs are fundamentally multidimensional; Reflection of a high-dimensional structure of policy outputs; Low-dimensional structure similar to the legislative floor.

Hydrodynamic conditions can influence the distribution and abundance of aquatic species in many ways, including directly through disturbance and resource delivery, and indirectly by altering environmental cues and species interactions. In coral reef ecosystems, corallivory is an important top-down control of coral populations, while water motion can enhance coral performance via autotrophic and/or heterotrophic pathways. Using a large-scale field assay in Mo'orea, French Polynesia, we measured the extent to which the growth of a branching acroporid coral is influenced by hydrodynamics that deliver nutrients and food to corals but also impede corallivory. We explored two hydrodynamic properties that characterized our study system, mean current velocity and current velocity fluctuation (a measure of waves and turbulence). In treatments where predators were excluded, coral skeletal growth was positively related to mean current velocity, whereas no effect of velocity fluctuations was detected. In the presence of predators, growth was positively related to velocity fluctuations, but no relationship with mean velocity was detected. The major effect of velocity fluctuations was to reduce the attack rate of corallivores by lowering both their per capita bite rate and local density. Corals thus benefited directly from increased currents, probably through enhanced autotrophy and/or heterotrophy, and indirectly from velocity fluctuations through reduced corallivory. Our data indicate that for the coral and locale we examined, the indirect hydrodynamic effect on coral performance via reduction in corallivory was substantial, increasing daily growth rate by 4%. Hydrodynamic enhancement of acroporid coral growth via simultaneous direct and indirect effects can be important for the persistence of coral reefs as well as their recovery following disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Collaborative research shows decline in key fishery indicators for CA rock crab. • Depletion was detected using regression-based assessment of empirical data. • Stock decline varied substantially by species, sex, and location. • Data-limited assessments provided useful insight into a complex multispecies system. • Approach could facilitate adaptive, empirical management of data-limited fisheries. The southern California rock crab fishery targets stocks comprised of three species: red (Cancer productus), yellow (Metacarcinus anthonyi), and brown rock crab (Romaleon antennarium). Fishers have expressed concern about the sustainability of the fishery due to increased fishing effort over the past decade, and because it is managed as one assemblage despite distinct life history differences among the species. We collaborated with fishers to test for stock-specific declines in key fishery-dependent indicators by replicating a 2008 study in 2016–2017 and comparing indicator values between years using multiple regression techniques. Indicators included spatially explicit species-level data for size, catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE), discard rate, sex composition, and trap location and depth across the heavily fished Santa Barbara Channel and Northern Channel Islands. Results showed significant declines in male size, overall CPUE, and proportion of crab landed versus discarded for heavily targeted stocks, translating to fewer pounds per trap and potential financial losses for fishers. Fishing and environmental conditions may have both contributed to stock declines. Evidence of decline differed substantially across space, species, and sex. We suggest that a spatially explicit and adaptive approach to empirically managing southern California rock crab may help to protect fishers from financial loss and avoid continued depletion of certain stocks, and we show that relatively simple collaborative approaches can provide defensible insight into complex systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]