Better Environmental Policy Studies : How to Design and Conduct More Effective Analyses

Environmental policy studies commissioned by government agencies or other stakeholders can play a vital role in environmental decisionmaking; they provide much-needed insight into policy options and specific recommendations for action. But the results of even the most rigorous studies are frequently misappropriated or misunderstood and are as likely to confuse an issue as they are to clarify it.

Better Environmental Policy Studies explores this problem, as it considers the shortcomings of current approaches to policy studies and presents a pragmatic new approach to the subject. Reviewing five cases that are widely regarded as the most effective policy studies to have been conducted in the United States in the last few decades, the authors present a comprehensive guide to the concepts and methods required for conducting effective policy studies. The book:

• describes and explains the conventional approach to policy studies and its shortcoming
• presents the history, impacts, and common elements of five successful policy studies
• offers an in-depth look at the different tools and techniques of policy analysis
• extends the concepts and principles of successful policy studies to their potential uses in the international arena

Better Environmental Policy Studies presents a practical, battle-tested approach to overcoming the obstacles to formulating effective environmental policy. It is an invaluable resource for students and faculty in departments of environmental studies, public policy and administration, and planning, as well as for professional policy analysts and others involved with making decisions and mediating disputes over environmental issues.

Lawrence Susskind is Ford Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Negotiating Environmental Agreements (Island Press, 2000).

Ravi K. Jain is professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Andrew O. Martyniuk is assistant director of the Center for Environmental Assessment and Policy at the University of Cincinnati.