Governments promote pro-environmental behavior explicitly, through regulatory provisions, or implicitly, by setting general environmental objectives without explicit requirements. Shared values and commitment to government objectives supposedly help towards greener behavior. We argue that the lack of explicit guidance counteracts, especially if green options are perceived as conflicting with strict regulatory requirements on other issues. In Russian public procurement, organizations are subject to either a rigid procurement law, or a flexible law, or both; neither law formalizes environmental priorities or approaches. We design a survey on practices of green procurement, collecting 223 responses from the whole range of organizations subject to public procurement regulation. Results from probit regressions, robustified on further 800 responses from an additional survey and 250,000 official procurement records, show that regulatory rigidity hinders green practices. Federal authorities are more likely to apply environmental criteria than local governments, but this is rather due to the expertise of their staff than to their commitment to governmental objectives. Publicly funded institutions are less likely to adopt green procurement than state corporations. Caution and avoidance of unintended contraventions seem to impede adoption of green procurement. Provision of information, guidance and improved expertise can help overcome this effect.

政府通过监管规定明确地促进环保行为，或通过在没有明确要求的情况下设定一般环境目标来隐含地促进环保行为。共同的价值观和对政府目标的承诺据称有助于实现更环保的行为。我们认为，缺乏明确的指导会起到抵消作用，特别是如果绿色选项被认为与其他问题的严格监管要求相冲突。在俄罗斯公共采购中，组织要么受制于严格的采购法，要么受制于灵活的法律，或两者兼而有之；两部法律都没有正式规定环境优先事项或方法。我们设计了一项关于绿色采购实践的调查，收集了来自所有受公共采购监管的组织的 223 份回复。概率回归的结果，进一步调查的 800 份回复和 250,000 份官方采购记录进一步证实，监管僵化阻碍了绿色实践。与地方政府相比，联邦当局更有可能采用环境标准，但这更多是由于其员工的专业知识，而不是他们对政府目标的承诺。与国有企业相比，公共资助的机构不太可能采用绿色采购。谨慎和避免无意的违规行为似乎阻碍了绿色采购的采用。提供信息、指导和改进的专业知识可以帮助克服这种影响。但这更多是因为他们的工作人员的专业知识，而不是他们对政府目标的承诺。与国有企业相比，公共资助的机构不太可能采用绿色采购。谨慎和避免无意的违规行为似乎阻碍了绿色采购的采用。提供信息、指导和改进的专业知识可以帮助克服这种影响。但这更多是因为他们的工作人员的专业知识，而不是他们对政府目标的承诺。与国有企业相比，公共资助的机构不太可能采用绿色采购。谨慎和避免无意的违规行为似乎阻碍了绿色采购的采用。提供信息、指导和改进的专业知识可以帮助克服这种影响。