Following are brief summaries of my ongoing and completed projects. Please contact me for more information.

1. Effective Policy Design: An Environmental Sustainability Lens

This project represents ongoing theory-building work towards the modern study of policy formulation and policy design. I focus on how notions of effectiveness and governance capacity become institutionalized in the public sector as governments devise environmental policy instruments (eg. new legislation, administrative reorganization or conditional cash transfers) to match evolving public goals (eg. economic development or greater climate sustainability).

Recent Publications:

• I. Mukherjee, “Rethinking the procedural in policy instrument ‘compounds’: a renewable energy policy perspective” , Policy & Society, (2021)

• I. Mukherjee, M. K. Coban, A. S. Bali, “Policy Capacities and Effective Policy Design: A Review”, Policy Sciences, (2021)

• I. Mukherjee and A. S. Bali, “Two Sides of the Coin: Effectiveness and Capacity in Policy Design” Introduction to the special issue. . Policy Design and Practice, 2(2), (June 2019)

• G. Capano and I. Mukherjee, “Policy Design and Non-Design: Discerning the Content of Policy Packaging, Patching, Stretching and Layering” . Chapter in Ed. Michael Howlett and Giliberto Capano, Modern Guide to Public Policy. Edward Elgar, Cheltanham (forthcoming)

• M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “Policy Formulation Styles: Policy Design and Non-Design”. Chapter in Ed. Jale Tosun and Michael Howlett. Routledge Handbook of Policy Styles. Routledge, New York (2020)

• M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “The Contribution of Comparative Policy Analysis to Policy Design: Articulating Principles of Effectiveness and Clarifying Design Spaces”,  Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis (JCPA) (March 2018)

In the pipeline:

• S. Giest and I. Mukherjee, Evidence integration for coherent nexus policy mixes: Comparing European perspectives on managing water-energy interactions

• I. Mukherjee and G. Shahabuddin, Exploring Payments for Environmental Services (PES) as a Tool for Forest Conservation in India.

• I. Mukherjee, “New Policy Design Studies – Reconciling Instruments, Effectiveness and Capacity in a New Research Agenda for Policy Formulation “. Chapter in Ed. Thurid Hustedt, Handbook of Governance, Regulation and Public Policy,. Edward Elgar, Cheltanham (forthcoming)

• D. Beland and I. Mukherjee, “The Role of Ideas in Policy Design”. Chapter in Ed. B. G. Peters and G. Fontaine, Handbook of Research in Policy Design Edward Elgar, Cheltanham. (forthcoming)

Earlier Publications:

• M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “Policy Design: From Tools to Patches”, Canadian Public Administration, 60(1) (March, 2017)

• I. Mukherjee and M. Howlett, “An Asian perspective on policy instruments: policy styles, governance modes and critical capacity challenges”, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, (APJPA), 38(1) (March 2016)

• M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “Achieving Regulatory Excellence in the Agri-Food Biotechnology Sector: Building Policy Capacity”, Asian Biotechnology and Development Review (ABDR), 18(1) (March 2016)

• M. Howlett, I. Mukherjee and J.J. Woo, “The New Policy Design Orientation: From Tools to Toolkits in Policy Instrument Studies”, Policy and Politics, 42(2015) (April 2015)

• M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “Policy Design and Non-Design: Towards a Spectrum of Policy Formulation Types”, Politics and Governance, 2(2) (November 2014)

• M. Howlett, I. Mukherjee and J. Rayner, “The elements of effective program design: a two-level analysis”, Politics and Governance, 2(2) (June 2014)

2. “Future” Tools of Policy Design: Behavioral Expertise and Sustainability

This project comparatively examines how behavioral insights and expertise are used by governments, either to design entirely new policies or marginally change existing policy instruments in the environment and energy sector. Presently supported by a Ministry of Environment (MOE) Tier 1 grant this project includes creating a preliminary data set on behavioral experts and their contribution towards designing sustainability considerations in public policy.

Recent Publications:

• I. Mukherjee, S. Giest. “Impact, Location and Temporality of Behavioral Insights Teams (BITs) in Government: A Comparative Perspective from Energy Efficiency Policy.” Administration and Society ( 2020)

• I. Mukherjee and S. Giest, “Designing policies in uncertain contexts: Entrepreneurial capacity and the European Emission Trading Scheme”, Public Policy and Administration 34(3) (June 2019)

• S. Giest and I. Mukherjee “Behavioral instruments in renewable energy and the role of big data: A policy perspective”, Energy Policy vol. 123 (p. 360-366). (December 2018)

• I. Mukherjee and N. Mukherjee, “Designing for Sustainable Outcomes: Espousing Behavioral Change into Co-production Programs”, Policy and Society 37(3). (December 2018)

  
  

In the pipeline:

• I. Mukherjee, Policy Networked: Instrument Choice Styles for Sustainability Regulation.

Earlier Publications

• I. Mukherjee and B.K. Sovacool, “Palm oil-based biofuels and sustainability in southeast Asia: A review of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 37(2014) (May 2014)

• I. Mukherjee and B.K. Sovacool, “Sustainability principles of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB's) energy policy: An opportunity for greater future synergies”, Renewable Energy 48(2012) (December 2012)

• B.K. Sovacool, I. Mukherjee et al. “Evaluating Energy Security Performance from 1990 to 2010 for Eighteen Countries," Energy 36(10) (October 2011)

• B.K. Sovacool and I. Mukherjee, "Conceptualizing and Measuring Energy Security: A Synthesized Approach," Energy 36(8) (August 2011)

Formulating for Resilience: Sustainable Water and Energy Use and the Customization of Policy Design for Haze Management and Mitigation

This project was funded by the Institute of Water Policy through a Public Utilities Board (PUB) research grant. It encompassed three concentrations (1) policy design and the role of customized design therein; (2) the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) and similar bilateral agreements in ASEAN and (3) the water-energy nexus and ‘nexus’ studies done in the region.

Related Publications:

• M. Howlett, I. Mukherjee and J. C. M. Koppenjan, “Policy Learning and Policy Networks in Theory and Practice: The Role of Policy Brokers in the Indonesian Biodiesel Policy Network”, Policy and Society, 36(2). (June 2017)

•  I. Mukherjee, “Policy Design for Sustainability at Multiple Scales – The Case of Transboundary Haze Pollution in Southeast Asia” Chapter in Eds. Robert Brinkmann and Sandra Garren. The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, New York (August 2018)

• Presentation:  “Opportunities for Nexus-Oriented Policy Design: The Case of Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA)”, International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP), 2017, Singapore

Policy Instrument Constituencies: A Comparative Perspective 

This MOE AcRF Tier 1 funded project examines how identifiable groups of policy formulation actors (‘instrument constituencies’) interact with other policymaking agents (such as advocacy coalitions and epistemic communities) to generate policy alternatives and move them on to decision-makers.

Related Publications:

• D. Beland, M. Howlett and I. Mukherjee, “Instrument Constituencies and Public Policy-Making: An Introduction”, Policy & Society 37(1). (December 2017)

• Mukherjee and M. Howlett, “Who is a Stream? Epistemic Communities, Instrument Constituencies and Advocacy Coalitions in the Multiple Streams Subsystem”, Politics and Governance, 3(2). (August 2015)