Despite a voluminous literature on resource availability and the implications for organizational performance, little is known about how changes in government agencies' resources impact their policy implementation activities and goal prioritization. This article explores how changes in resources affect regulatory enforcement activities by types of resources and policy implementation activities, and whether resource cutbacks prompt a tradeoff of the effectiveness-equity goals. Using the block-group level data on the Clean Air Act (CAA) implementation from 2012 to 2019, we find that state environmental agencies prioritize regulatory effectiveness over environmental justice by concentrating their resources on communities where task demands correspond to organizations' core missions. They also promote social equity to some extent when facing spending cutbacks but not staffing cuts. Spending cutbacks had a less severe impact on compliance inspections for more socially vulnerable communities, while those exposed to more imminent environmental harms received more inspections.

中文翻译：

---

资源减少时的有效性与公平权衡：来自美国各州环境政策实施的证据

尽管有大量关于资源可用性及其对组织绩效影响的文献，但人们对政府机构资源的变化如何影响其政策实施活动和目标优先顺序知之甚少。本文探讨了资源变化如何通过资源类型和政策实施活动影响监管执法活动，以及资源削减是否会促进有效性与公平目标的权衡。使用 2012 年至 2019 年《清洁空气法案》(CAA) 实施情况的块组级数据，我们发现州环境机构将监管有效性置于环境正义之上，将资源集中在任务需求与组织核心使命相对应的社区上。当面临开支削减但不裁员时，他们也在一定程度上促进社会公平。支出削减对社会弱势社区的合规检查影响较小，而那些面临更迫在眉睫的环境危害的社区则接受了更多检查。