WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE AND BIDS IN A FISHING VESSEL BUYOUT PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY OF NEW ENGLAND GROUNDFISH

An experimental fishing vessel buyout program was initiated in 1995 to remove vessels from the Northeast United States groundfish fishery. Information provided by the applicants to this program was used to evaluate the likely participation and potential cost of an expanded buyout initiative. This paper describes the pilot buyout program and the econometric procedures used to forecast participation and bids at various levels of program spending. Program participation and bid levels were modeled in two stages using participation and bid functions. The expanded buyout program, completed in April 1998, provided a unique opportunity to evaluate initial participation and cost forecasts. Methods used in this study are also applicable to modeling other fishery related economic decisions, such as the trading of individual transferable quota shares.