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Journal Articles / Articles scientifiques by Erick Lachapelle

Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a ... more Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a cap-and-trade system? This article compares the implementation of cap-and-trade in California and Quebec versus in New Mexico and British Columbia. Ideas around the reality of anthropogenic global warming and the legitimacy of cap-and-trade created favorable context in three countries, although institutions condition the expression of these ideas in the policy-making process. Since parliamentary institutions concentrate power, elite consensus is more important in Canada, while in the United States public opinion plays a more significant role. However, ideational factors shaped by political institutions do not explain differences in cap-and-trade implementation. Growth in shale gas production, welcomed in British Columbia and New Mexico but resisted by Quebec and marginal in California, further explain different outcomes. Ideas, mediated by institutions, are the necessary prerequisites for action, while material factors influence policy instrument choice.

Papers by Erick Lachapelle

International Journal of Public Opinion Research

Energy Research & Social Science, 2021

Abstract Against the backdrop of rising energy demand and growing public concern over climate cha... more Abstract Against the backdrop of rising energy demand and growing public concern over climate change , the building of new and the expansion of existing oil and gas pipelines has emerged as a hotly contested political issue. Yet little is known about how elite debate over pipelines influences mass public opinion. Using the case of TransCanada’s Energy East project, this study examines the public’s sensitivity to arguments commonly employed by actors on both sides of pipeline debates. We find that arguments drawing attention to public safety or economic benefits are effective at moving public opinion. Meanwhile, arguments highlighting the impact of pipelines on greenhouse gas emissions are ineffective. These results have implications for the literature on framing as well as for policy actors engaged in debates over the expansion of fossil fuel energy infrastructure in the context of global climate change and the energy transition.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

In Canada, the province of Quebec has been disproportionally affected by COVID-19 both in terms o... more In Canada, the province of Quebec has been disproportionally affected by COVID-19 both in terms of cases and deaths. Why is that so? Some have speculated that Quebecers are less disciplined and less likely to comply with public health preventive measures. However, there has been no systematic empirical test of this hypothesis. In this paper, we use the Imperial College London and YouGov dataset that includes 12,280 observations from Canadians surveyed across seven months (April to October 2020) to test whether Quebecers comply less with preventive measures than other Canadians. Our results show that the differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada are few. Moreover, when there is a gap, the differences are modest. That is, there is no systematic nor substantial difference between Quebec and the rest of Canada in terms of citizens’ level of compliance with preventive measures. These findings have important implications. While it is crucial that we understand why Quebec has been hit so hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, it should be clear that this is not due to different levels of compliance with preventive measures in Quebec.

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2022

This research examines how false beliefs shape perceptions of government transparency in times of... more This research examines how false beliefs shape perceptions of government transparency in times of crisis. Measuring transparency perceptions using both closed- and open-ended questions drawn from a Canadian panel survey, we show that individuals holding false beliefs about COVID-19 are more likely to have negative perceptions of government transparency. They also tend to rely on their false beliefs when asked to justify why they think governments are not being transparent about the pandemic. Our findings suggest that the inability to successfully debunk misinformation could worsen perceptions of government transparency, further eroding political support and contributing to non-compliance with public health directives.

Nature Climate Change, 2022

Limited evidence that carbon tax rebates have increased public support for carbon pricing We find... more Limited evidence that carbon tax rebates have increased public support for carbon pricing We find limited evidence that individual or household rebates (also called dividends) have increased public support for carbon taxes in Canada and Switzerland. In the presence of partisan and interest group conflict over climate policy, policymakers should not assume that voter support for carbon pricing will automatically increase with the inclusion of rebates.

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements, 2021

Consumer Social Responsibility eJournal, 2014

The Marcellus Shale play in the northeastern corner of the United States holds one of the most ro... more The Marcellus Shale play in the northeastern corner of the United States holds one of the most robust deposits of natural gas in North America. Stretching from Virginia and West Virginia northward to central New York State, the Marcellus Shale deposit contains an estimated 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. While the deposit is a unified geographic feature, it lies beneath numerous political jurisdictions, including at least some portion of nine states and one Canadian province. With little federal intervention in the regulation of natural gas extraction from shale due to oil and gas industry exemptions in various statutes, state governments retain a primary role in deciding whether or not drilling occurs and, if so, what regulatory and taxation policies are adopted.This situation has created striking differences in the policy approaches that states have adopted toward energy policy throughout the Marcellus Shale region and around the United States. But perhaps the most extreme...

This report summarizes results from national-level surveys on public attitudes toward climate cha... more This report summarizes results from national-level surveys on public attitudes toward climate change administered in Canada and the US in Fall 2013. Since 2008, the National Surveys on Energy and Environment (formerly the National Surveys of American Public Opinion on Climate Change) has examined the perceptions and preferences of residents of the United States regarding their views on the existence of climate change and potential policy approaches to address the issue. In early 2011, a survey was fielded in Canada at roughly the same time as in the US, providing some comparative perspective on attitudes in the latter. In 2013, the Fall 2013 fielding of the National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE) was accompanied by a second Canadian wave, supported by the Universite de Montreal and Canada 2020.Results from these surveys allow for direct comparisons between the views of the Canadian and American publics on matters pertaining to climate change and its mitigation, providing i...

Canadian Public Policy, 2020

The unequal burden of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis (e.g., in terms of infection... more The unequal burden of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis (e.g., in terms of infection and death rates) across Canadian provinces is important and puzzling. Some have speculated that differences in levels of citizen compliance with public health preventive measures are central to understanding cross-provincial differences in pandemic-related health outcomes. However, no systematic empirical test of this hypothesis has been conducted. In this research, we make use of an exceptionally large dataset that includes 23 survey waves ( N = 22,610) fielded in Canada across 12 months (April 2020–April 2021) to answer the question “Is there evidence of substantial cross-provincial differences in citizen compliance with basic public health measures designed to prevent the spread of infection?” We find that regional differences in self-reported behaviour are few and very modest, suggesting that interprovincial differences in COVID-19–related health outcomes have little to do with diff...

Studies of citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures routinely rely on survey data. ... more Studies of citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures routinely rely on survey data. While essential, public health restrictions provide clear signals of what is socially desirable in this context, creating a potential source of response bias in self-reported measures of compliance. In this research, we examine whether the results of a face-saving-strategy that was recently proposed by Daoust et al. (2020) to loosen this constraint are generalizable across twelve countries, and whether the treatment effect varies across subgroups. Our findings show that the face-saving strategy is a very useful tool in every country included, increasing respondents’ proclivity to report non-compliance by 9 to 16 percentage points. This effect holds for different subgroups based on gender, age and education. We conclude that the inclusion of this strategy should be the new standard for survey research that aims to provide crucial data on the current pandemic.

The extent to which citizens comply with newly-enacted public health measures such as social dist... more The extent to which citizens comply with newly-enacted public health measures such as social distancing or lockdowns strongly affects the propagation of the virus and the number of deaths from COVID-19. It is however very difficult to identify non-compliance through survey research because claiming to follow the rules is socially desirable. Using three survey experiments, we examine the efficacy of different “face-saving” questions that aim to reduce social desirability in the measurement of compliance with public health measures. Our treatments soften the social norm of compliance by way of a short preamble in combination with a guilty-free answer choice making it easier for respondents to admit non-compliance. We find that self-reported non-compliance increases by up to 11 percentage points when making use of a face-saving question. Considering the current context and the importance of measuring non-compliance, we argue that researchers around the world should adopt our most effic...

Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing, 2016

This chapter compares the politics of hydraulic fracturing in Quebec and British Columbia (BC), t... more This chapter compares the politics of hydraulic fracturing in Quebec and British Columbia (BC), two provinces that best exemplify the east–west Canadian divide over shale gas development. While both provinces began authorizing hydraulically fractured wells between 2005 and 2007, BC has consistently supported the shale gas industry ever since, while Quebec abruptly adopted a moratorium in 2011. This chapter traces BC’s policy continuity to the stable coalition politics that endured throughout the period, while Quebec’s policy shift occurred in a period of coalition instability, during which government distanced itself from industry. This sudden change in coalition politics in Quebec coincides with a burst of negative media attention to shale gas development, which illustrates the role that the media can play in policy subsystems.

The following report summarizes results drawn from national level surveys in the United States an... more The following report summarizes results drawn from national level surveys in the United States and Canada that examine public perceptions regarding various aspects of climate change. Since 2008, the National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change (NSAPOCC) has examined the perceptions and preferences of residents of the United States regarding their views on the existence of climate change and potential policy approaches to address global warming. In order to gain comparative perspective on climate change matters in Canada, the National Survey of Canadian Public Opinion accompanied the most recent version of the NSAPOCC on Climate Change (NSCPOCC). This report provides insight into the evolution of American public opinion regarding climate matters while producing direct comparisons between the views of the American and Canadian publics on matters pertaining to climate change and its mitigation. Methodology The findings included in this report are drawn from telephone surveys using random digit dialing samples in the United States and Canada. The United States sample includes both landlines and cell phones while the Canadian sample includes landlines only. The following table presents the sample size and margin of error for each of the respective samples:

Global Environmental Politics, 2015

Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a ... more Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a cap-and-trade system? This article compares the implementation of cap-and-trade in California and Quebec versus in New Mexico and British Columbia. Ideas around the reality of anthropogenic global warming and the legitimacy of cap-and-trade created favorable context in three jurisdictions, although institutions condition the expression of these ideas in the policy-making process. Since parliamentary institutions concentrate power, elite consensus is more important in Canada, while in the United States public opinion plays a more significant role. However, ideational factors shaped by political institutions do not explain differences in cap-and-trade implementation. Growth in shale gas production, welcomed in British Columbia and New Mexico but resisted by Quebec and marginal in California, further explain different outcomes. Ideas, mediated by institutions, are the necessary prerequisite...

To date, seven jurisdictions across the OECD have implemented explicit carbon taxes, approximatin... more To date, seven jurisdictions across the OECD have implemented explicit carbon taxes, approximating what textbook economic theory prescribes with varying degrees of success. The purpose of this paper is to "take stock" of the current state of carbon taxation in the OECD, identify patterns, differences, and best practices. After a brief discussion of carbon pricing, the paper compares carbon taxes where they have been implemented relative to each other, as well as relative to the theoretical ideal. Apart from identifying gaps between carbon tax theory and practice, and highlighting patterns and key differences among jurisdictions with carbon taxes, the ultimate goal of the paper is to develop an alternative measure of the price of carbon for use in quantitative empirical (explanatory) analysis.

International Journal of Public Opinion Research

Energy Research & Social Science, 2021

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2022

Nature Climate Change, 2022

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements, 2021

Consumer Social Responsibility eJournal, 2014

Canadian Public Policy, 2020

Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing, 2016

Global Environmental Politics, 2015

Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a ... more Why have only two of the eleven original members of the Western Climate Initiative implemented a cap-and-trade system? This article compares the implementation of cap-and-trade in California and Quebec versus in New Mexico and British Columbia. Ideas around the reality of anthropogenic global warming and the legitimacy of cap-and-trade created favorable context in three jurisdictions, although institutions condition the expression of these ideas in the policy-making process. Since parliamentary institutions concentrate power, elite consensus is more important in Canada, while in the United States public opinion plays a more significant role. However, ideational factors shaped by political institutions do not explain differences in cap-and-trade implementation. Growth in shale gas production, welcomed in British Columbia and New Mexico but resisted by Quebec and marginal in California, further explain different outcomes. Ideas, mediated by institutions, are the necessary prerequisite...

Environmental Politics, 2015

Results from an embedded survey experiment administered to practitioners who advise landowners on... more Results from an embedded survey experiment administered to practitioners who advise landowners on decontamination practices are analyzed. These professionals play a key role in the area of soil decontamination, an issue that science has made particularly tractable and which calls for new technologies and policy approaches. Powerful interests, however, work against the rapid deployment of these new technologies and approaches. Our survey experiment, designed to overcome major difficulties in the study of policy learning, shows that exposure to new scientific knowledge can positively influence the attitude of practitioners to new technologies, independently of other confounding forces. This finding suggests that learning from science provides a potential pathway toward increased use of environmentally beneficial soil decontamination methods. The results contribute to research on the politics of environmental protection, as well the literature on policy learning.