NESTwebinar #4 - Policy Mixes | Karoline Rogge

Policy Mixes for Sustainability Transitions: A Deep Dive

Key Concepts:

• Policy Mix: A combination of policy strategies, instruments, processes, and characteristics designed to achieve specific sustainability goals.
• Instrument Mix: A specific combination of policy instruments (e.g., regulations, subsidies, taxes) used to address a particular problem.
• Policy Strategy: A high-level plan or approach that guides policy decisions and actions.
• Policy Processes: The procedures, interactions, and dynamics involved in formulating, implementing, and evaluating policies.
• Policy Mix Characteristics: Attributes of a policy mix, such as credibility, consistency, and coherence.
• Technological Innovation System (TIS): A network of actors, institutions, and technologies that interact to develop and diffuse innovations.
• Multi-Level Perspective (MLP): A framework for understanding transitions as interactions between niches, regimes, and landscapes.
• Socio-technical Transition: A fundamental shift in the way society produces and consumes goods and services, involving changes in technology, institutions, and culture.

1. Introduction to the Policy Mix Literature

• Growing Popularity: Academic publications on policy mixes have increased significantly, especially since 2006. Over 200 publications annually address policy mixes generally, with about 50 focusing on transitions and innovation.
• Terminology: The term "policy mix" is most common, but "policy package," "policy portfolio," and "instrument mix" are also used.
• Key Journals: Research Policy and Energy Research & Social Science are leading journals for policy mix research in innovation and transitions.
• Distinguishing Factors:
  • Policy Field: Studies focus on climate, environmental, development, innovation, or regional policy mixes.
  • Conceptualization: Narrow approaches focus on instrument mixes, while broader approaches consider strategies, processes, and characteristics.
  • Disciplinary Approaches: Environmental economics, policy studies/policy design, and innovation/transition studies offer different perspectives.

2. Disciplinary Approaches to Policy Mixes

• Environmental Economics: Focuses on instrument mixes to address environmental problems. Example: Studies on the interaction between the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) and renewable energy support schemes.
• Policy Studies/Policy Design: Views policy mixes as complex arrangements of multiple goals and means, developed incrementally over time. Focuses on inconsistencies and incoherence.
  • Definition (Howlett & Cairn, 2009): Policy mixes are complex arrangements of multiple goals and multiple means.
• Innovation/Transition Studies: Emphasizes the need to reconceptualize policy mixes, considering policy processes and different governance levels.
  • Definition (Reichardt & Rogge): Policy mixes are a combination of policy output elements (strategy and instrument mix), policy processes, and policy mix characteristics.

3. A Broader Policy Mix Conceptualization

• Building Blocks:
  • Policy Output Elements: Policy strategy and instrument mix.
  • Policy Processes: The dynamics of policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation.
  • Policy Mix Characteristics: Attributes such as credibility, consistency, and coherence.
• Links to Socio-technical Change: Policy mixes can influence socio-technical change in various ways, including technological innovation, market formation, and institutional transformation.
• Instrument Mix:
  • Quote (from technology policies): If you really take interaction seriously, then we may really need to rewrite the textbooks on the link between policy and innovation.
• Policy Strategies:
  • Strategies matter for innovation system innovation for transitions. Examples are the Kyoto protocol, the 2020 targets in the European Union on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions and renewables, but also specific technology targets.
• Policy Processes:
  • Definition: Policy processes shape policy strategies and instruments and can directly impact innovation.
  • Theories of Policy Process: Theories such as advocacy coalition framework, punctuated equilibrium theory, and policy feedback theory can help understand the co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems.

4. Policy Mix Thinking in TIS and MLP

• Technological Innovation System (TIS):
  • Broader policy mix thinking can enhance TIS analysis by considering multi-level policy interactions and destruction functions.
  • Example: A study of solar water heating technology in Shangrang Province, China, examined the interplay between national, provincial, and city-level policies.
  • Destruction Functions: Policies that address the destabilization of existing regimes and the creation of opportunities for new technologies.
• Multi-Level Perspective (MLP):
  • Policy can intervene at various points in the transition process, including niche development, regime destabilization, and landscape shifts.
  • Example: A study identified six intervention points for policy in transition processes, ranging from niche support to structural change.
  • Socio-technical Scenarios: Policy mixes can be designed to achieve specific transition pathways identified through socio-technical scenarios.

5. Challenges and Future Research

• Challenge 1: Policy Mix Mapping:
  • Guidelines (Ossenbrink et al.): Develop guidelines for mapping policy mixes, considering research questions and relevant entities.
  • Approaches: Top-down (starting from strategic intent) and bottom-up (starting from the impact domain).
• Challenge 2: Complexity:
  • Policymakers are complex in the real world really really complex and they're getting more complex it seems right by layering more and more on top of it.
  • Develop new indicators to capture the complexity of policy mixes beyond simple policy counts.
  • Examples: Policy activity index, surveys to create new indicators for policy mix characteristics.
• Future Research Needs:
  • Address credibility and destabilization for accelerating transitions.
  • Examine policy feedback and transition processes from a co-evolutionary perspective.
  • Integrate politics and policies of transitions through interdisciplinary research.

6. Conclusion

The policy mix research has evolved beyond a narrow focus on instrument mixes to encompass broader considerations of policy strategies, processes, and characteristics. This broader perspective is essential for understanding and managing sustainability transitions, which require addressing market failures, system failures, and structural barriers. Future research should focus on credibility, destabilization, policy feedback, and the integration of politics and policies to accelerate transitions towards a more sustainable future.