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Motivation for Compliance with Environmental Regulations
Author(s) -
Winter Søren C.,
May Peter J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.1023
Subject(s) - compliance (psychology) , normative , enforcement , harm , coercion (linguistics) , legalism (western philosophy) , public relations , business , psychology , social psychology , public economics , political science , economics , law , politics , linguistics , philosophy
A combination of calculated, normative, and social motivations as well as awareness of rules and capacity tocomply are thought to foster compliance with regulations. Hypotheses about these factors were tested with dataconcerning Danish farmers' compliance with agro‐environmental regulations. Three key findingsemerge: that farmers' awareness of rules plays a critical role; that normative and social motivations areas influential as calculated motivations in enhancing compliance; and that inspectors' enforcementstyle affects compliance differently from that posited in much of the literature. It was also found thatformalism in inspection can be helpful to a point, while coercion by inspectors can backfire. Taken together,these findings counter arguments concerning the harm of legalism and the benefits of flexible enforcement. Thisstudy contributes to the understanding of factors that shape compliance with social and environmentalregulations. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.