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

科学专门知识在政治和公共环境中发挥着重要作用，在政治和公共环境中，环境问题得到评估，缓解行动得到辩论。这项研究将通过在美国全球气候变化政策审议的背景下审查经济专业知识，为科学和技术研究(STS)在环境问题的政策审议中构建和使用科学专业知识做出贡献。我们将研究几个关键的过程。(1)为什么经济专业知识在有关全球气候变化和环境政策制定的政策过程中变得更加重要？(2)经济专业知识和政策之间以及经济专家和政策参与者之间的社会和文化边界是如何保持的？(3)当他们的专业知识在政策背景下被复制时，经济学界关于气候变化问题的争议是如何复制或封闭的？(4)如何在政策背景下解释和管理经济不确定性？该项目将以诱导性方式进行。本研究将采用两种定性研究方法：内容分析和个人访谈。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，将被获取并分析与上述问题相关的重要主题。此外，还将对活跃在这两种情况下的经济学家和政府官僚进行个人访谈，以加强对文件材料的分析。这项调查包括改善主办本科院校教育的部分内容。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如何在美国环境政策审议中构建、管理和使用更一般的科学专业知识和更具体地说的经济专业知识的理解。这一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。科学专门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考察的，还是应该作为在特定背景下更新出现的东西来考察？

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?