How Business Interest Groups Matter: Rare Event Modeling of Green Building Policy in Cities

Abstract

This research distinguishes among the business interest groups and community factors associated with green building policies in cities and towns to examine a specific type of business interest group—construction industry associations—involved in the green building policy arena. Rare event logit modeling is used to estimate the association of “traditional” and “green” industry groups with green building policy while controlling for various characteristics of cities. It is no surprise that the results indicate that the presence of green industry association members increases the likelihood of the presence of a green building policy. However, traditional groups do not limit the probability of a green building policy, as was expected. Community characteristics show that general revenue, population, household income, and education are all higher in cities with modern building codes, and that the average cost of energy is lower in cities with modern building codes.

Keywords

• urban policy
• cities
• business interest groups
• sustainability
• green building