ABSTRACT
The first of two dimensions that determines how states provide environmental protection are the political incentives for doing so. Political incentives are the rewards available to decision-makers; the more likely decision-makers are to be rewarded for a certain behavior, such as making a commitment of state resources to environmental protection, the more motivated they will be to do so. The author first discusses the structure of political incentives for policymakers and how they create different contexts for policy choices. Drawing data from publicly available datasets (e.g., Census Bureau, General Social Survey, National Institute on Money in Politics), the author constructs indices that enable inter-state comparisons of public opinion, environmental advocacy group activity, and comparative investment in environmental protection. The author presents data on the distribution of political determinants across states and discusses regional patterns. Finally, the author also combines these three factors into a political incentives index that creates a comprehensive measure of state-level political incentives for environmental protection.
