Same job, different tools: How the choice of the means made by the regions can affect the outcome of a EU strategy

During the 2000s decade the European Union promoted an ambitious policy framework aimed at reducing both the emissions of greenhouse gases and the concentrations of air pollutants in the European cities, by inducing EU citizens to adopt environmental-friendly behaviors. While the goals of this policy were decided at the European level, Member States and NUTSII regions had a large discretion in choosing the policy instruments and the relative settings to materially implement the strategy. This choice, far from being a mere technical exercise, may have affected significantly the policy outcome. Empirical evidence from the Italian regions displaying great diversity in the performances seems to support this claim. My argument is that particular combinations of policy instruments are able to put in motion mechanisms that manage to produce desirable behaviors, by narrowing the possible choices of the policy takers. In order to test whether this interaction effect took place, I will classify the policy mixes adopted by six Italian regions to reduce environmental pollution in the period 2001-2004. Qualitative Comparative Analysis will be used to identify which combinations of policy instruments were effective in achieving the European policy goals.