ReviewPolicy-oriented environmental research: What is it worth?
Introduction
Little is known about the returns to investments in environmental research. Governments are requiring greater accountability, and some research funders are requiring information about research benefits to be provided in research proposals, but a coherent framework for evaluating the benefits resulting from environmental research is lacking.
Literature on the economics of research provides detailed guidance on how to estimate the benefits generated by research, and shows that typical rates of return on research investments in some fields are high (e.g., Alston et al., 2000; Productivity Commission, 2007; Hurley et al., 2014). However, existing methods are best developed for research that leads to reduced cost and thereby increased profit for commercial firms, or benefits to buyers from improved products or lower purchase prices (e.g., Alston et al., 2010; Hall and Rosenberg, 2010), or both. Research that is intended to provide “non-market” benefits—through the provision of environmental goods that are not fully priced in market transactions—is more difficult to evaluate, particularly if the target audience is policymakers (e.g., see Pardey and Smith, 2004). Few publications on the evaluation or prioritization of environmental research (e.g., Guidotti 1995; Wu and Hobbs, 2002; Spilki and Tundisi, 2010; Bell et al., 2011; Sutherland et al., 2011) make use of the extensive literature on the economics of research (Ferraro and Pattanayak, 2006).
The main objective in this paper is to identify and discuss principles, concepts, and methodological approaches for estimating benefits from environmental research, with a particular focus on policy-oriented research. In doing so, we use theory and evidence from existing literature, particularly in agricultural economics; we describe conceptual models of the mechanisms through which benefits arise from policy-oriented environmental research; and we discuss the range of information required to estimate the benefits, and how that information can be combined to provide meaningful estimates of the benefits.
Section snippets
Challenges in valuing benefits from environmental research
That environmental research can generate benefits through improving policy seems obvious. Major environmental agencies around the world employ researchers, fund external researchers, and emphasize the importance of considering research results in policy. Examples of environmental issues where research appears to have played a role in prompting new policy or shaping changes in existing policy include global climate change (Manabe and Wetherald 1967), ozone pollution (Farman et al., 1985),
The role of research-based knowledge in the policy process
We envision a policy process in which research plays a role by generating information that can change public or policymaker perceptions about alternative policies and consequently can influence the policy choice. Our focus is on research that changes perceptions leading to altered policy decisions.
Suppose that various policy options are available for managing an environmental issue. The options may differ in their budgetary implications, policy mechanisms, spatial targeting, or approaches to
The chain from research to environmental changes
The links between environmental research and a policy decision are complex. We identify four stages in the process that may be thought of as forming a chain: research, policy decision, behavior and environmental conditions (Fig. 1). The influence of research needs to be traced through each link in the chain. The existence of multiple stages (and potentially feedbacks between them) means that benefits are not just difficult to estimate, but can be difficult to achieve. The process can fail at
Valuation of benefits from the improved environmental conditions
The analysis outlined in the previous section provides an assessment of the likely extent of change in environmental conditions or the quantity of an environmental good that will result from the research in question, potentially expressed probabilistically. The next step is to convert those changes into quantitative measures of benefit to the community.
The benefits derived from particular goods and services (including environmental goods and services) are context-sensitive. Relevant contexts
Conclusion
Estimation of the benefits from policy-oriented environmental research requires judgements about a range of variables, including: (1) the new information generated; (2) the likely extent of policy change resulting from the new information; (3) the likely extent of environmentally beneficial behavior change resulting from the policy change; (4) the likely environmental changes and other changes that will result from the predicted behavior change; (5) the value or importance of the anticipated
Authors’ contributions
All authors contributed to the ideas, concepts and frameworks presented. SJ collected and analyzed existing literature. DP and JA led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (grant number CE1101014) for funding support.
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