Experimental Policy-Design: What 'Works'? Lessons from the Australian and Dutch Building Sectors
The Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Forthcoming
Van der Heijden. J. 2014. Climate and Environmental Governance Network Working Paper, No. 26, Regulatory Institutions Network.
40 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2014
Date Written: February 1, 2014
Abstract
For a long time scholarship has been interested in experimentation with policy-designs. Scholars claim that such experimentation may help to understand how significant legal, social or economic barriers can be overcome. Especially in environmental policy-making experimentation appears to be a dominant trend. This article studies 21 policy-designs that have been experimented with by governments, businesses and citizens in the building sectors in Australia and the Netherlands. Building on the existing literature, it addresses expectations related to policy learning, collaboration, policy-outcomes and experimental biases. The article finds limited support for many of the claims made for experimentation in the current and past literature. This may be a result of a mismatch between real-world experimentation with policy-designs and how academics conceptualize this process.
Keywords: Environmental policy, policy-design, policy experimentation
JEL Classification: K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation