Environmental Policy Performance Revisited: Do Organic Food Policies Matter for Sustainable Consumption-5th ECPR General Conference

Summary

Abstract
Environmental policy performance studies should pay more attention to the package of policy instruments applied rather than concentrate on single policy instruments or policy institutions.Therefore this paper develops a policy typology. Its value is tested in a comparative analysis of
organic food policies in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the US and of their impact on organic food consumption. Our analysis demonstrates that cross‐country variation in organic food consumption is explained by differences in the packages of policy instruments applied, controlling for almost every relevant systemic and individual level alternative explanation found in the literature of
environmental performance. The policy typology developed has general value and can be applied to analyse state engagement in other green industries.