Harvest Efficiency and Discards under Harvest Uncertainty and Trading Frictions

Rajesh Singh and Quinn Weninger (weninger@iastate.edu)

Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study harvesting efficiency and the problem of discards under harvest uncertainty in a fishery that is managed with quotas. With only idiosyncratic harvest uncertainty, we show that frictionless post harvest quota trade can achieve full efficiency and eliminate quota-overage discards completely. In the absence of such trade, we deduce an ad-valorem tax/subsidy that eliminates discards while delivering a desired aggregate harvest target. Alternatively, we show that a hybrid policy, i.e., a combined quota and landings fee, can implement a manager's aggregate target harvest level efficiently and without discards. When harvest shocks, in addition, have a fishery-wide common component, post-harvest quota trading per se cannot eliminate discards; policy intervention in the form of either landing taxes or a hybrid scheme is needed. Given the prevalence of trading restrictions in many quota-managed fisheries worldwide, our paper offers important policy advice.

Keywords: Trading frictions; discards; Harvest randomness; catch-quota imbalance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-04-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Forthcoming in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/papers/p15039-2012-04-03.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:isu:genres:35039

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Curtis Balmer (econwebmaster@iastate.edu).