Profile

I hold a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in social sciences, and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. All received from the Tel-Aviv University in Israel.

Research interests

I am interested in the process through which environmental public policies are shaped and investigate actors' networks (network: a structure of interrelations and interdependencies between state and non-state actors who have interest in a policy issue and are involved in the policy shaping process) and their various effects along the different stages of the policy process.

I am also interested in the concept of ‘'middle agents', and the 'middle-out' strategy for mobilizing socio-technical changes. With me colleague, Dr. Katy Janda, I am developing the framework of middle-out as a complementary approach to top-down and bottom-up ones. Middle-out seeks to identify actors who have the potential to increase the overlap between the agency to make a change and the capacity to make it.

In the last four years my research has been focused on energy demand reduction policies in the UK. In particular, I have been studying the radical and innovative policy proposal Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) and different aspect of local and community governance of energy.

Previously I developed a new framework for policy analysis: the policy process networks. I used this framework to analyze Israel's drinking water policy, industrial emissions and air policy, and radiation policy for cellular antennas. I also looked at the growing distrust in tap water and the increased consumption of bottled water, and suggested ways to rebuild the trustworthiness of the public water systems.

Projects

• UNLOC: UNderstanding LOCal and community governance of energy. A two year research project, funded by UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).This project examines the role which UK’s grassroots and community groups play in energy governance, and what role they can have in the transition to a low carbon society.
• PCT: Personal Carbon Trading. This was a UKERC funded project. PCT is a radical innovative mitigation policy proposed in the UK. In this project I examined practical aspects of carbon budgeting.

Publications

• Parag, Y., Capstick, S., Poortinga, W. (in press) Policy Attribute Framing: A Comparison between Three Policy Instruments for Personal Emissions Reduction. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Volume 30, Issue 3.
• Parag, Y. and Strickland, D. (2011) Personal carbon trading: a radical policy option for reducing emissions from the domestic sector. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 53(1): 29.
• Parag, Y. and Eyre, N. (2010) Barriers to personal carbon trading in the policy arena. Climate Policy, 10(4): 353-368.
• Fawcett, T. and Parag, Y. (2010) An introduction to personal carbon trading. Climate Policy, 10(4): 329-338.
• Parag, Y. and Janda, K. (2010) Midstream and sideways: considering a middle-out approach to changing energy demand. In, Proceedings of Energy Transitions in an Interdependent World: What and where are the future social science research agenda? Feb 25-26, Sussex University.
• Parag Y., and Darby, S. (2009) Consumer-supplier-government triangular relations: rethinking the UK policy path for carbon emissions reduction from the UK residential sector. Energy Policy, 37(10): 3984-3992.
• Parag, Y. and Timmons Roberts, J. (2009) A battle against the bottles: building, claiming and regaining tap water trustworthiness. Society and Natural Resources, 22(7): 625-636.
• Parag, Y. (2008) Cross policy learning: drawing lessons for Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) policy from food labelling schemes. In, Proceedings of the 13th Annual APPAM Conference, Los Angeles, California.
• Parag, Y. (2008) Who governs the air we breathe? Lessons from Israel's industrialist covenant. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 10(2): 133-152.
• Parag, Y. (2006) A system perspective for policy analysis and understanding: the policy process networks. The Systemist, 28(2): 212-224.
• Weinthal, E., Parag, Y., Vengosh, A., Muti, A. and Kloppmann, W. (2005) The EU Drinking Water Directive: The boron standard and scientific uncertainty. European Environment, 15(1): 1-12.
• Weinthal, E. and Parag, Y. (2003) Two steps forward, one step backward: Israel's implementation of the Barcelona Convention and Mediterranean Action Plan. Global Environmental Politics, 3(1): 51-71.

Book Review

• Parag, Y. (forthcoming) Book Review: Sandalow, D.B., (ed.) Plug in electric vehicles: What role for Washington? Transport Reviews.

Book Chapters

• Parag Yael and Deborah Strickland (2010). Personal Carbon Budgets: Helping individuals to live in a carbon constrained world. In Ehrhardt-Martinez, K. and Skip Laitner (eds.) People-Centered Initiatives for Increasing Energy Savings. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
• Parag Yael and Tamar Opher (in press) . Article on Bottled Water, for the Water and Health" section of the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS).

Reports

• Barrett, M., Bradshaw, M., Froggatt, A., Mitchell, C., Parag, Y., Stirling, A., Watson, J. and Winzer, C., (2010) Energy Security in a Multi-Polar World: Discussion paper.
• Parag, Y. and Strickland, D. (2009) Framing effect and behaviour: Personal carbon allowances versus taxation. UKERC Research Report, Demand Reduction Theme.
• Parag, Y. and Strickland, D. (2009) Personal Carbon Budgeting: What people need to know, learn and have in order to manage and live within a carbon budget, and the policies that could support them. UKERC Research Report, Demand Reduction Theme.
• Parag, Y., Weinthal, E. and Vengosh, A. (2004) Implementing the boron standard in drinking water in the Mediterranean Region. Report Submitted to the European Union Fifth Framework Program.
• Weinthal, E., Parag, Y., Vengosh, A., and Kloppmann, W. (2004) Methodological guide for decision support on remediation and sustainable management of boron contaminated groundwater. Report Submitted to the European Union Fifth Framework Program.

Selected Conferences Papers

• 6-11 June 2011 - Janda Kady and Yael Parag, 'A Middle-Out Approach for Improving Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings'. European Committee for Energy Efficient Economics (eceee), Summer Study, Belambra Presqu'île de Giens, France.
• 22-23 Sep 2010 - Parag Yael and Katy Janda. A middle out approach to agency, capacity and societal change. 8th Academic Conference of the British Institute of Energy Economics: Energy in a Low Carbon Economy: New roles for Governments and Markets, Oxford, UK
• 25-26 Feb 2010 - Parag Yael and Katy Janda, ‘Bottom-up? Top-down? Or maybe Middle-out? Conceptualizing the middle-out alternative for energy demand behavioral change. Conference on Energy transitions in an interdependent world: what and where are the future social science research agendas? University of Sussex, UK.
• 15-18 Nov 2009 - Parag Yael, Deborah Strickland and Stuart Capstick, Framing matters? The impact of policy context on willingness to change energy consumption behaviour. Behaviour Energy and Climate Change conference, Washington DC.
• 18-20 Oct 2009 - Parag Yael, Deborah Strickland and Stuart Capstick, Judge a book by its cover: the impact of policy framing on the willingness to reduce energy consumption. European conference on Energy Efficiency and Behaviour. Maastricht University, Netherland.
• 27-28 Nov 2008 - Parag Yael, ‘Unpacking’ social and political acceptability issues of Personal Carbon Trading instrument. Personal Carbon Trading researchers’ workshop, St. Anne College, Oxford.
• 16-19 Nov 2008 - Parag Yael, Personal Carbon Allowances: economical, social and psychological mechanisms for delivering carbon emissions reduction. Behaviour Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference, Sacramento, California.
• 6-8 Nov 2008 - Parag Yael, Cross Policies Learning: Drawing Lessons for Personal Carbon Allowances Policy from Food Policies. Thirteen Annual Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference: The Next Decade - What Are the Big Policy Challenges? Los Angeles, CA.
• 24-25 Sep 2008 - Parag Yael and Sarah Darby, Demand reduction triangle: the effect of government, consumer and energy supplier inter-relations on carbon emissions reduction from the UK residential sector. 7th academic conference of the British Institute of Energy Economics, Oxford.
• 11-13 Sep 2006 - Parag Yael, ‘System Thinking and Policy Analysis and Understanding’, presented at the UK System Society 10th International Conference: ‘Effective change - The Contribution of Systems Theory and Practice’. Oxford University, UK.