Environmental policy instruments may fail to be implemented if citizens have a very negative view of them. Designing policy tools that are acceptable to the public is sometimes a balance between factors like the instrument’s effectiveness, the cost to the individual, and the fair distribution of outcomes among social groups.
People are for example often more positive toward information-based policies compared to taxes. However, information-based instruments are generally less effective. Sometimes citizens are not fully informed about the societal issue that a policy aims to address. In such cases, acceptability may increase by informing citizens about the issue. This can be viewed as an argument for introducing information-based policies before or alongside other, more effective policies.
Overall, people tend to be more supportive of policies when they believe them to be effective, when the perceived costs are low, and when they do not affect different social groups unfairly. While people often underestimate how effective taxes can be, they also tend to underestimate the societal cost of subsidies, such as new subsidies being funded by increased taxation. This might partly explain why people are often less positive toward taxes. The acceptability of taxes and regulations can however increase if their effectiveness is properly communicated to the public.
Read more: What explains public support for climate policies?
Meta-analyses of fifteen determinants of public opinion about climate change taxes and laws.
About author:
Emma Ejelöv
PostDoc, Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
My research concerns the design and public acceptability of environmental policies, specifically policies related to sustainable food consumption. Methodologically my focus is on experiments.
