The Effectiveness of Voluntary Environmental Programs—A Policy at a Crossroads?

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) have been used as a policy tool in the United States since the early 1990s and come in many forms. Early assessments of VEPs targeting changes in production processes showed that industrial participants improved their environmental performance and VEPs were celebrated as a viable alternative to more traditional regulation. Recent analyses using more sophisticated techniques, however, paint a less favorable picture. On the one hand, firms appear willing to sign up to VEPs, and in some cases, participants may be able to create a shield against future losses in shareholder value. On the other hand, these VEPs targeting production processes appear not to generate significant pollution abatement. The latter finding is particularly disturbing and this article discusses various explanations, including institutional failure and participant motivations. Future research needs to focus on understanding the firm motivation to invest in production‐related pollution abatement under a VEP. For policymakers, the research offers a warning on the limited impact to date of VEPs targeting production processes. However, the multitude of other VEPs, such as those which target new product development and changing market demands, merit a closer look to determine the overall potential of VEPs to engender positive environmental change.     

“Bluewashing” the Firm? Voluntary Regulations,Program Design,and Member Compliance with the United Nations Global Compact

Voluntary programs have emerged as important instruments of public policy. We explore whether programs lacking monitoring and enforcement mechanisms can curb participants’ shirking with program obligations. Incentive‐based approaches to policy see monitoring and enforcement as essential to curb shirking, while norm‐based approaches view social mechanisms such as norms and learning as sufficient to serve this purpose. The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a prominent international voluntary program, encourages firms to adopt socially responsible policies. Its program design, however, relies primarily on norms and learning to mitigate shirking. Using a panel of roughly 3,000 U.S. firms from 2000 to 2010, and multiple approaches to address endogeneity and selection issues, we examine the effects of Compact membership on members’ human rights and environmental performance. We find that members fare worse than nonmembers on costly and fundamental performance dimensions, while showing improvements only in more superficial dimensions. Exploiting the lack of monitoring and enforcement, UNGC members are able to shirk: enjoying goodwill benefits of program membership without making costly changes to their human rights and environmental practices.     

论唐代的封驳制度

唐代以封还皇帝诏命为对象的封驳制度渊源于两汉,酝酿于初唐,形成于唐代中后期,主要由门下省官员给事中职掌。封驳的目的在于追救缺失,防患于未然,而封还诏敕并加以驳正则是其最主要的方式。在权力高度集中的封建皇权社会,封驳制度在加强权力监督、抑制皇权膨胀等方面无疑有着积极的意义,然而这种作用也不宜高估,唐代中后期三省制的破坏在很大程度上妨碍了封驳作用的发挥,而当政者能否接受逆耳之言、给事中能否履行职责也同样决定着封驳作用的发挥。     

乾隆初滇省代京铸钱失败原因浅析

文章通过对乾隆初年滇省代京铸钱之具体情况的考察,认为滇省代京铸钱是清政府为扭转铸钱严重亏损而采取的一项铸币政策。但滇省代京铸钱较之京局直接鼓铸反而增加了铸钱成本。实行滇省代京铸钱后,清政府铸钱开始盈利,但这并非滇省代京铸钱所致,而是清政府对云南铜矿实行垄断经营、压低铜价,即钱局使用滇铜鼓铸的结果。实际上,在使用滇铜为原料的前提下,京局直接鼓铸较之滇省代京铸钱更能节省成本,这是清政府停止滇省代京铸钱的基本原因。同时也说明清政府于乾隆初年实行滇省代京铸钱存在着决策性失误。     

A REDISCOVERED LOST SEAL FROM GEZER

Abstract

A carnelian pebble stamp seal excavated by Macalister at Gezer and believed lost, and a seal kept today in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, are one and the same. A cast of the original kept by the Palestine Exploration Fund in London proves to be identical to the seal in Jerusalem. The unique iconography of the seal showing a man in a cultic gesture in front of a griffin, as well as its stylistic details, show it to be an Assyrianized product of the late eighth or seventh century bc, possibly of local production.     

POETIC PRISM: THE CANADIAN FORUM IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION

This article ponders the quest for a new Quebec constitution. It critically analyzes a proposed Quebec constitution introduced as a bill in Quebec's National Assembly in 2007 ¹ 1. Québec Official Publisher (2007a Québec Official Publisher. 2007a. National Assembly, First Session, Thirty-Eighth Legislature, Bill 196, Québec Constitution. Québec Official Publisher http://www.assnat.qc.ca/eng/38legislature1/Projets-loi/Publics/07-a196.pdf (Accessed: 20 May 2008).  [Google Scholar]). and probes the meaning and significance of such a provincial constitution. It makes some comparisons of Quebec's current constitution with those of other provinces and concludes by reflecting on the political prospects and legal effects of such a proposed new constitution. The adoption of a new Quebec constitution, along the lines proposed in 2007 and 2008, should not significantly alter Canada's constitutional order under Canadian law or affect Quebec's current constitutional arrangements with Ottawa and the other provinces. Such a new constitution might, however, come to prevail over other Quebec laws. The objectives of the proposed new constitution are to forge and reinforce Quebecers' sense of a common political identity. The project, however, is not currently at the forefront of discussion.     

Stability amid Change: Ontario’s Religious Schools and Canada’s Regime of Secularism

Canada’s religious landscape has changed a great deal over the last forty years and, in most provinces, educational institutions have changed to accommodate this social shift. The articles reviews the divergent ways in which educational regimes have responded to this change and then turns to an examination of the one province in which little has changed regarding religious schools, Ontario. Ontario’s educational structure, which has continued to publicly support only a secular and Roman Catholic separate school systems in one of the most religiously diverse jurisdictions on the planet, is a surprising example of institutional rigidity in the face of societal change. This article highlights the peculiarity of this outcome, attempts to explain this surprising example of institutional continuity, and considers its implications for Canadian secularism more broadly.     

Are Members of Business for Social Responsibility More Socially Responsible?

This study examines the association between corporate social performance (CSP) practices and membership in Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) between 1992 and 2006. BSR is a business association that seeks to help its members adopt enhanced CSP practices. While there is an emerging literature examining voluntary initiatives as alternative policy mechanisms to regulations, most research is focused on initiatives that emphasize environmental protection. Further, studies suggest that membership in strictly voluntary initiatives tends to be associated with lower environmental performance because of “free‐riding” behavior by participants. BSR differs along two dimensions when compared with other voluntary initiatives examined in the literature. First, it is a comprehensive voluntary social initiative that helps firms from diverse industries address multiple CSP issues simultaneously. Second, it might limit opportunism by not offering blanket certification to its participants. Our results indicate that BSR members exhibit greater levels of positive social impacts without demonstrating significantly different levels of negative social impacts. This suggests that participation in voluntary initiatives that avoid granting blanket certifications may be associated with the adoption of new corporate social responsibility practices but not linked to the shedding of entrenched routines that produce negative externalities.     

Is Greener Whiter Yet? The Sustainable Slopes Program after Five Years

This study focuses on two basic questions: Are voluntary programs effective in promoting higher environmental performance by participant firms? If so, which distinct areas of environmental performance are more likely to be improved by firms joining a voluntary environmental program? We address these questions by assessing the environmental effectiveness of the ski industry’s Sustainable Slopes Program in the western United States between 2001 and 2005. We found no evidence in our five-year analysis to conclude that ski areas adopting the SSP displayed superior performance levels than nonparticipants for the following areas of environmental protection: overall environmental performance, expansion management, pollution management, and wildlife and habitat management. SSP participants only appear to show a statistically significant correlation with higher natural resource conservation performance rates. For policymakers, these results suggest that caution is needed before a priori assuming that strictly voluntary programs can be effective in promoting comprehensive superior environmental performance.     

Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Problems: Exploring the Rise of Nontraditional Public Policy

Government reliance on voluntary programs represents a significant shift in public policy: moving from command and control regulations to market based mechanisms. This article explores the determinants of Voluntary Remediation Programs (VRPs) in the American States. During the 1980s and 1990s, 44 states adopted VRPs to facilitate remediation of existing hazardous waste sites. Relying on diffusion of innovation theory, I develop a model of state policy adoption that explores the influence of internal state political and economic factors, as well as testing the influence of regional and top‐down diffusion forces. I utilize a discrete‐time event history approach to test this model. The results indicate that state policymaking is responsive to interest group pressure and the pace of cleanup at hazardous waste sites. Additionally, state policymaking is consistently influenced by the actions of surrounding state governments; the probability of adopting a voluntary program increases if surrounding states have already developed these policies.