Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

9-2025

Abstract

Most research on the role of policy calibrations in fostering policy target compliance has focused on the calibration of incentives and deterrents; less attention has been paid to examining the deployment and calibration of a wider range of policy instruments with the intention of eliciting a greater degree of compliance from policy targets with heterogeneous motivations. This article addresses this gap in the literature by empirically testing multiple hypotheses on the relationship between the calibration of different kinds of policy instruments and policy compliance for policy targets characterized by different motivations. Using data from a vignette experiment set in the context of dengue control in Singapore, we measure policy targets’ economic, social, and normative motivations for compliance and relate these to changes in compliance intention resulting from changes in the calibration of authority-, treasure-, and organization-based policy instruments. Our research contributes policy-relevant recommendations on how policy tool calibrations can be employed to target different kinds of policy target motivations and increase overall policy compliance.

Keywords

calibration, compliance, motivation, policy design, policy instruments, policy tools

Discipline

Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Policy and Society

First Page

1

Last Page

16

ISSN

1449-4035

Identifier

10.1093/polsoc/puaf028

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher-CC-NC

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf028

Download

Share

COinS