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Information and Spillovers from Targeting Policy in Peru's Anchoveta Fishery

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel Englander

Abstract

This paper establishes that a targeted policy backfires because it reveals information about nontargeted units. In the world's largest fishery, the regulator attempts to reduce the harvesting of juvenile fish by temporarily closing areas where the share of juvenile catch is high. By combining administrative microdata with biologically richer data from fishing firms, I isolate variation in closures that is due to the regulator's lower-resolution data. I estimate substantial temporal and spatial spillovers from closures. Closures increase total juvenile catch by 48 percent because closure announcements implicitly signal that fishing before, just outside, and after closures is high productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Englander, 2023. "Information and Spillovers from Targeting Policy in Peru's Anchoveta Fishery," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 390-427, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:390-427
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210812
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2011. "Synth: An R Package for Synthetic Control Methods in Comparative Case Studies," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 42(i13).
    3. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bernardi, Marta & Zeller, Sarah & Rotich, Rebecca, 2024. "A Comment on "Information and Spillovers from Targeting Policy in Peru's Anchoveta Fishery"," I4R Discussion Paper Series 156, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    2. Agarwal, Aishwarya & Englander, Gabriel, 2025. "Deterring Industrial Vessels from African Coastal Fisheries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11222, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q22 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Fishery
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy

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