Forests policy analysis and theory use: Overview and trends

This paper provides an overview of theories currently used in forest policy analysis. It also examines trends in theory use over time. The aim is to assess whether the sub‐discipline of forest policy analysis deviates from the ‘mother discipline’ of the policy sciences, and if so, how and to what extent. In addition, theory use in the journal Forest Policy and Economics is ranked. The paper can help researchers identify relevant theories for structuring their data collection and analysis on forest policy. It concludes that forest policy analysis has become rather ‘current’ (i.e. well‐embedded in the mother discipline), but that it only gained this status relatively recently.