User rights in fisheries refer to the rights of fishers to harvest from fish resources. In terms of security, exclusivity, duration, and transferability these rights can be strong or weak. In recent years there has been a substantial movement toward stronger user rights in many fisheries around...

In previous research it was concluded that a transition to SURFs (strong user rights in fisheries) has several economic, environmental, and social impacts. In this paper, the problem of assessing the values of these impacts is considered. First, this kind of an assessment is considered in...

The Pacific Island nations heavily rely on the tuna fishery for government revenue and economic growth. Since the conversion of some nations to the Vessel Days Scheme (VDS) from the fishing Quota system, the region's domestic catch has significantly increased. VDS has stimulated economic return...

We study optimal fishery management in an age-structured, bio-economic model where two age classes can be harvested independently. We show that the optimal amount of catch differs with age classes, and we derive conditions under which it is optimal to harvest only one age class. Our main policy...

The problem of the commons is more important to our lives and thus more central to economics than a century ago when Katharine Coman led off the first issue of the American Economic Review. As the U.S. and other economies have grown, the carrying-capacity of the planet - in regard to natural...

Understanding the effect of introducing property rights to natural resources is central in economics, but empirical analysis is frustrated by the complexity of socioecological systems. We construct a detailed bio-economic model of the Norwegian coastal cod fishery, which was closed after 1989,...

This essay reviews the implementation experience with three main applications of tradable permit systems: air pollution control, water supply and fisheries management. Opening with a brief summary of the theory behind these programs and both the economic and environmental consequences...

A nation's natural-resources wealth can be estimated via the System of National Accounts (SNA). Because the values of all parameters entering the calculation are conditional on the existing management regime, the optimal value of the natural resources may be masked. This is the case for the...

Quotas or permits are frequently used in the management of renewable resources and emissions. However, in many industries there is concern about the basic e ectiveness of quotas due to non-compliance. We develop an enforcement model of a quota-regulated resource and focus on a situation with...

Theoretical papers find that taxes are preferred over individual transferable quotas (ITQs) when fisheries regulators are uncertain about either biological growth or the extent of non-compliance with regulations. However, the size of the welfare gain from switching to taxes has not previously...