Escaping the boom-bust cycle: Identifying sustainable governance strategies for shale-dependent communities

该项目研究受自然资源开采（特别是页岩油和天然气钻探）盛衰周期影响的社区如何努力减少周期对当地的负面影响，并扩大其积极影响。在盛衰周期中，自然资源丰富的社区在需求激增时经历快速的经济增长，然后在资源枯竭或需求消散时经历快速的经济衰退。这两种趋势往往伴随着犯罪、基础设施破坏和环境退化的增加，以及生活质量的下降。很少有人研究社区如何使用县和市一级的治理工具——比如公共投资、补贴、税收和分区——来管理与繁荣-萧条周期相关的社会问题，并在繁荣结束后持续产生积极影响，比如当地就业的增加。该项目确定了美国三个州（俄亥俄州、宾夕法尼亚州和西弗吉尼亚州）受近期页岩钻井盛衰影响的地方采用的治理策略。它研究了社区特点以及决策参与者之间的地方和区域信息和资源共享网络如何影响社区采取的战略。最后，它研究了公民和利益相关者如何看待这些策略，以及哪些因素鼓励社区部署更成功的治理方法。该项目是对地方政府采取的策略进行混合方法调查，以减轻页岩钻井盛衰周期的不利影响，并利用其积极方面。通过访谈和利用社交网络和统计技术分析调查数据，研究小组研究了俄亥俄州、宾夕法尼亚州和西弗吉尼亚州覆盖Marcellus和Utica页岩的社区如何试图管理繁荣-萧条周期。具体而言，研究人员调查了：来自公民、利益相关者和政府行为者的压力如何影响城市和县是否采用盛衰治理策略，他们选择哪种策略，以及策略如何在司法管辖区之间扩散；司法管辖区之间是否存在系统性差异，这些司法管辖区未能考虑某一特定方法、未能采用该方法或成功采用该方法；以及地方治理网络内部联系的构成和强度如何影响管辖区域采取的战略，以及成功的公民、利益相关者和决策者如何看待这些战略。该项目采用横断面、定量的方法来研究通常用定性、小n技术研究的问题，为政策扩散和采用、可持续性和繁荣-萧条文献中的关键假设建立理论微观基础并进行测试。这项研究的目的是为目前正在经历繁荣-萧条效应的社区提供可行的见解。

The project studies how communities affected by boom-bust cycles in natural resource extraction - specifically shale oil and gas drilling - try to reduce the cycle's local negative consequences and extend its positive impacts. In a boom-bust cycle, communities rich in natural resources experience rapid economic growth when demand spikes, then rapid economic decline when resources are exhausted or demand dissipates. Both trends are often accompanied by increases in crime, infrastructure damage, and environmental degradation, and reduced quality of life. There is little research on how communities use the tools of county and city-level governance - such as public investment, subsidies, taxes, and zoning - to manage societal problems linked to boom-bust cycles and perpetuate positive impacts, such as increases in local employment, after a boom ends. The project identifies governance strategies used by localities in three U.S. states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia) affected by the recent shale drilling boom and bust. It examines how community characteristics and local and regional networks of information and resource-sharing among policymaking participants may influence the strategies communities adopt. Finally, it studies how citizens and stakeholders perceive these strategies and which factors encourage communities to deploy more successful governance approaches. This project is a mixed-methods investigation of the strategies that local governments pursue to mitigate adverse impacts and leverage positive aspects of the shale drilling boom-bust cycle. By conducting interviews and analyzing survey data with social network and statistical techniques, the research team examines how Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia communities overlaying the Marcellus and Utica Shales have tried to manage the boom-bust cycle. Specifically, the researchers investigate: how pressures from citizens, stakeholders, and government actors affect whether cities and counties adopt boom-bust governance strategies, which strategies they choose, and how strategies diffuse among jurisdictions; whether systematic differences exist between jurisdictions that fail to consider a given approach, fail to adopt it, or adopt it successfully; and how the composition of and strength of ties within local governance networks influence the strategies jurisdictions adopt and how successful citizens, stakeholders, and decision makers view the strategies. The project brings a cross-sectional, quantitative approach to issues typically studied with qualitative, small-n techniques, building theoretical micro-foundations for and testing key assumptions in the policy diffusion and adoption, sustainability, and boom-bust literatures. The research aims to produce actionable insights for communities currently experiencing pernicious boom-bust effects.