An Analysis of Economic Expertise in U.S. Global Climate Change Policy Deliberations

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Scientific expertise performs an important role in political and public contexts where environmental problems are evaluated and mitigative actions debated. This study will contribute to science and technology studies (STS) research on the construction and use of scientific expertise in policy deliberations on environmental problems, by examining economic expertise in the context of U.S. global climate change policy deliberations. Several key processes will be examined. (1) Why has economic expertise become more salient in policy proceedings on global climate change and environmental policy-making more generally? (2) How are social and cultural boundaries maintained between economic expertise and policy and between economic experts and policy actors? (3) How are controversies on climate change issues within the economics community either reproduced or closed off as their expertise is reproduced in policy contexts? (4) How are economic uncertainties interpreted and managed in the policy context? The project will proceed inductively. Two qualitative research methods will be used: content analysis and personal interviews. Economists' testimony at Congressional hearings and their written contributions to policy deliberations within federal government departments active in global climate change policy-making will accessed and analyzed for important themes related to the above questions. In addition, personal interviews will be conducted with economists and government bureaucrats who are active in both of these settings to enhance analyses of documentary material. The investigation includes components to improve education at the sponsoring undergraduate institution. Publications in scholarly and scientific journals and presentations at professional and public forums will result. The results of the project will be to further our understanding of how scientific expertise more generally and economic expertise more specifically is constructed, managed, and used in U.S. environmental policy deliberations. The results may also speak to a broader theoretical question involving scieritific expertise. Is scientific expertise something that should be examined as a relatively stable entity from context to context, or as something that is much more emergent within particular contexts?