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

在评估环境问题和辩论缓解行动的政治和公共背景下，科学专门知识发挥着重要作用。这项研究将有助于科学和技术研究（STS）的建设和使用的科学专业知识在环境问题的政策审议的研究，通过审查美国的背景下的经济专业知识。将审查几个关键过程。(1)为什么经济专门知识在全球气候变化和更广泛的环境决策的政策程序中变得更加突出？(2)如何在经济专门知识和政策之间以及经济专家和政策行为者之间保持社会和文化界限？(3)经济学界在气候变化问题上的争议是如何随着其专门知识在政策背景下的再现而再现或被封闭的？(4)如何在政策背景下解释和管理经济不确定性？该项目将归纳进行。本研究将采用两种质性研究方法：内容分析法和个人访谈法。经济学家在国会听证会上的证词以及他们在积极参与全球气候变化政策制定的联邦政府部门内对政策审议的书面贡献将被访问和分析与上述问题相关的重要主题。此外，还将与在这两种背景下活跃的经济学家和政府官员进行个人访谈，以加强对文件材料的分析。 调查包括改善赞助本科院校教育的组成部分。 将在学术和科学期刊上发表文章，并在专业和公共论坛上发表演讲。 该项目的结果将进一步加深我们对科学专业知识和经济专业知识的理解，更具体地说，科学专业知识和经济专业知识是如何在美国环境政策审议中构建、管理和使用的。这些结果也可能涉及到一个涉及科学专业知识的更广泛的理论问题。科学专业知识是应该作为一个相对稳定的实体从一个背景到另一个背景来研究，还是作为一个在特定背景下更加涌现的东西来研究？

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?