Abstract
This chapter discusses voluntary compliance and explores actor motivations to comply with non-mandatory directives. We apply elements of the framework from the introduction chapter to investigate the conditions and motivations shaping voluntary compliance across environmental programs at the micro and meso levels. The micro-level case examines household-level decisions related to voluntary compliance within an energy audit (low-commitment) and a loan (high-commitment) program. The meso-level case examines motivational factors influencing firms’ commitment to programmatic goals within a voluntary environmental program (VEP). Across both cases, we find evidence of different economic and social motivations at play, and discuss the research implications for policy design and implementation.
This chapter discusses the concept of voluntary compliance and examines how different motivations shape voluntary compliance decisions in two environmental programs, household compliance with residential energy programs and a voluntary environmental program for lodging facilities. Voluntary compliance is intended to reduce the monitoring and enforcement costs of regulation and encourage actors to mitigate activity that makes others worse off, which can produce positive externalities or benefits enjoyed by third parties. Voluntary compliance, like traditional compliance, requires an understanding of the individual psychological factors that come into play. Understanding the differences between compliers and noncompliers could inform strategies to encourage participation in voluntary programs. Because of monitoring and enforcement costs and the adverse, unintended consequences associated with mandatory compliance, policymakers sometimes turn to alternatives to regulation that encourage actors to volunteer themselves to be regulated despite potential punishments for noncompliance.