Identifying diverse paths toward successful policy performance in Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) exploitation of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) data

Abstract

Although the policy performance field acknowledges the importance of adopting a long‐term decision making perspective to attain more sustainable policy outcomes, it overlooks the way in which sustainable governance conditions and policy performance relate to each other. We address this gap by investigating why some countries succeed in terms of policy performance while others do not. Applying a fuzzy‐set QCA to 41 Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development and European Union countries of the Sustainable Governance Indicators data, we find out that successful economic and social policy performance is mainly driven by executive accountability conditions combined with effective implementation, while the high‐quality of media plays a key role in successful environmental policy performance. Considering the multiple paths that practitioners can follow toward sustainable development benefits, they can also learn how to shift from short‐term to long‐term thinking by identifying “what works and why,” formulating good practices and guidelines for better policy performance in the respective national contexts.

Moderating the Effect of the Multidimensional Poverty Index on the Relationship between Sustainable Governance Indicators and Worldwide Governance Indicators

“…The Discriminant Validity (HTMT) results must be significantly higher than 0.85, as recommended by Hair et al [19] and Henseler et al [21]. These findings support the hypotheses supported by previous research, such as those of Jahn and Suda [6] and Bazzan et al [7], who examine executive efficiency and the capacity for consensus on sustainable policies, thus validating the assumptions about the reliability and validity of Economic Policy (EP), the relationship between latent variables and the total effect between them.…”

“…Similarly, SGIs provide sustainable policies and governance for OECD and EU countries (ONU, [2]; SGI, [3]), as seen in Figure 1. Studies by Jahn and Suda [6] and Bazzan et al [7] examine executive efficiency and consensus capacity about sustainable policies. These authors aim to analyze democratic institutional frameworks, governance capabilities, and outcomes in crucial policy areas using sustainable policy methodology, with their respective dimensions and indicators ensuring better understanding.…”

“…In the current literature, researchers such as Jahn and Suda [6], Bazzan et al [7], and Bandelow and Hornung [8] have examined the executive efficiency, consensus capacity, and democratic quality of sustainable policies. Furthermore, the importance of evaluating the validity and availability of these indicators (Kaufmann et al [9]) has been highlighted, and a comparison between SGIs and WGIs in sustainable governance assessment has been conducted (Croissant and Pelke [10]).…”

The non-use of evidence in the adoption of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in OECD countries

“…29–31 SGI indicators’ values range from 1 to 10, and 6 is the qualitative threshold used in QCA studies. 32 These values are also taken as thresholds for the existence or absence of the condition. We calibrate health care system institutions (BEV) by measuring whether health insurance is mainly tax-financed (=1) or contribution-financed (=0).…”

Perception and performance in environmental policy

“…This includes, inter alia, how and which problems are noticed and judged by which actors, when they appear on the political agenda, and how they are framed. Performance, on the other hand, focuses on specific goals and examines the conditions under which environmental policy objectives can be achieved, usually in an international comparative context (Bazzan et al, 2022;Burck et al, 2022;Croissant & Pelke, 2022;Duit et al, 2023;Fernández-i-Marín et al, 2023;Jahn & Suda, 2022;Oliveira et al, 2023;Schaffrin et al, 2015;Zhai, 2022).…”