On advancing my field of research (in environment and public policy)

This post is probably most suited for my research blog, but I feel it has a personal element to it, so that’s why I decided to write it on here. I am cleaning my apartment and (quite obviously) there’s a lot of older research stuff that I am sorting and packing away (stuff that I read when I was doing my PhD, old books, some of my research interview tapes).

I came across the January-February 2000 issue of a journal called “Business Strategy and the Environment” (which I think has morphed now into Corporate Environmental Strategy). In my early career, I focused a lot on regulatory versus non-regulatory policy instruments (in plain English, on how and under what conditions do people comply with environmental regulations and standards, and whether having a voluntary agreement to reduce pollution actually works).

It hit me abruptly, after I read it, that we are still asking the same question in 2010. It’s been a decade and we still haven’t seen much conclusive work in the regulatory realities of environmental law enforcement. I mused on Twitter that I felt I hadn’t advanced my field that much. But truth be told, at least I try. I work hard, long hours to try and understand human-environment interactions and the best way to design environmental policy.

I may have not advanced my field much, but it’s so vast and broad, at least I feel I have contributed, even if a tiny bit.