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Environmental Policy and Governance
15, no. 2 (2005): 80-
101.
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Heichel, Stephan, Jessica Pape, and Thomas Sommerer. "Is there convergence in
convergence research? An overview of empirical studies on policy convergence."
Journal
of European Public Policy
12, no. 5 (2005): 817-840.
56
diffusion.
90
In this reason, advanced industrialized countries tend to be the front-runner
countries in policy innovation. The demand for policy innovation was another national
factor affecting policy diffusion. Their case studies showed that this was an important
factor for diverse environmental policies in Europe. Some studies show that national
factors caused a lack of convergence.
Howlett
did not find any evidence of convergence
in environmental policies in Canada and the U.S., and suggested that this was because the
difference of institutional and constitutional structure.
91
Harrison argued that competing
domestic interests and institutional contexts can lead policy “divergence” through the
study of policy responses to dioxin effluents in Canada, the U.S., and Sweden.
92
Through the review of literature on policy convergence, Holzinger and colleagues
suggested five central factors of policy convergence.
93
First, independent responses of
different countries under the parallel environmental problems result in policy
convergence. Although countries respond to the problems independently, similar
environmental problems cause similar policies. Second, complying with international
rules cause similar policies among countries. Third, when countries or international
organizations force other countries to implement a policy, it causes policy convergence.
Fourth, increasing economic integration leads regulatory competition, which drives
90
Kern, Kristine, Helge Jörgens, and Martin Jänicke. "The diffusion of environmental
policy innovations: a contribution to the globalisation of environmental policy." WZB
Discussion Paper, No. FS II 01-302 (2001).
91
Howlett, Michael. "The judicialization of Canadian environmental policy, 1980–1990:
A test of the Canada-United States convergence thesis."
Canadian Journal of Political
Science
27, no. 01 (1994): 99-127.
92
Harrison, Kathryn. "Ideas and environmental standard
‐
setting: a comparative study of
regulation of the pulp and paper Industry."
Governance
15, no. 1 (2002): 65-96.
93
Holzinger, Katharina, Christoph Knill, and Bas Arts.
Environmental Policy
Convergence in Europe: The impact of international institutions and trade
. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008).
57
adjustment of policies across countries. Finally, transnational communication among
countries increases policy similarity. Among these factors, they found that complying
with international rules and communicating through transnational network have affected
policy convergence through empirical study of the member states of the EU. Legally
binding policies at the level of the EU drove policy similarities. Moreover, policy
discussions and exchange of information among countries also affected policy
convergence. On the other hand, regulatory competition among countries was not a
significant factor.
Jacobs tested the causal mechanisms of Holzinger and colleagues through
studying feed-in tariff in Germany, France and Spain, and suggested the necessity of
elaborating the theory.
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The study found that regulatory competition has led the
countries to improve the framework of the feed-in tariff, although there was no evidence
of “race to the top” in feed-in tariff. Moreover, it was found that the feed-in tariffs were
driven more from opportunities than from problems. Although the theory of Holzinger
and colleagues suggested that individual problem solving was driven by a similar
problem, the study of the feed-in tariff showed that individual problem solving can be
driven by technological advances.
While the increasing number of countries adopting renewable energy policies
infers the tendency of cross-national policy convergence, the rise of different type of
policies such as industrial policies and trade policies on renewables is not consistent with
the literature on policy convergence. As the globalization of renewable energy industry
introduced some challenges in countries, it may lead countries to adopt policies to
94
Jacobs, David.
Renewable energy policy convergence in the EU: the evolution of feed-
in tariffs in Germany, Spain and France
. (New York: Routledge, 2016).
58
address the challenges. According to the causal mechanism suggested by Holzinger and
colleagues, independent problem solving of countries can lead policy convergence among
countries. Jacobs also showed that the countries’ chasing of opportunities has led the
convergence of feed-in tariff. In the case of renewable energy, since countries’ problem
solving resulted in more differences in policies among countries, domestic factors may
affect policy change.
Previous research suggested a number of domestic factors affecting policy change
including national capacity, demand for policy, institutional contexts, and domestic
interests. Among these domestic factors, this research focuses on domestic interests since
the huge growth of industry was the most notable change in renewable energy field in
recent years. Although the focus is the industry, the other domestic factors are also
considered through building explanations for the rise of new policies. Moreover, the
international factor is also considered as an intervening factor in the policy change. In
this sense, Proposition 3 for Analysis 3 is suggested. The purpose of the research is to
elaborate the causal mechanism of policy change rather than evaluating this proposition.
Proposition 3. The growth of domestic renewable energy industries has caused the
diversification of national renewable energy policies as renewable energy industries have
become globalized.
This chapter reviews the literature for the three analyses of this research. Three
analyses were designed to contribute to the literature on trade and the environment, but
59
each analysis is based on different literature. Table 7 summarizes the theoretical
frameworks and propositions.
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