IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anu/eenwps/0303.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capacity Reduction and Productivity: The Case of Fishery

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin J. Fox
  • R. Quentin Grafton

    (Australian National University, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government)

  • Tom Kompas

    (Australian National University, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Governmen)

  • Tuong Nhu Che

    (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics)

Abstract

The paper presents the first ex-post analysis of profit and productivity of individual vessels following a vessel or licence buyback in a fishery. Using individual firm-level data for the period 1997-2000, the paper analyzes a "natural experiment" of the effects of a 1997 scheme to reduce fishing capacity in the South East trawl fishery of Australia. The scheme was unique in the sense that the buyback was implemented in a fishery managed by individual vessel tradeable harvesting rights rather than input controls. Using an innovative index method that decomposes the contributions of output prices, input prices, vessel size and productivity to relative profits, the economic performance of vessels is analyzed in the year of the buyback and for three years afterwards. Profits for all vessel classes rose over the period 1997-2000 following the 1997 buyback of 27 fishing licenses, but some of the gains were due to a rise in output prices that were independent of the adjustment program. All vessel classes (small and large) also experienced substantial productivity gains immediately following the 1997 license buyback with an average increase over all vessels of 39%. This increase, coincident with a decline in catch per unit of effort for key species, provides strong support that the buyback was successful at improving economic performance. Ongoing productivity improvements for small vessels over the period 1998-2000 following the buyback is attributed to the existence of individual tradeable harvesting rights in the fishery.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin J. Fox & R. Quentin Grafton & Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che, 2003. "Capacity Reduction and Productivity: The Case of Fishery," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0303, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:anu:eenwps:0303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://een.anu.edu.au/download_files/een0303.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sean Pascoe & Louisa Coglan, 2002. "The Contribution of Unmeasurable Inputs to Fisheries Production: An Analysis of Technical Efficiency of Fishing Vessels in the English Channel," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(3), pages 585-597.
    2. Fox, Kevin J. & Grafton, R. Quentin & Kirkley, James & Squires, Dale, 2003. "Property rights in a fishery: regulatory change and firm performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 156-177, July.
    3. Allen, Robert C & Diewert, W Erwin, 1981. "Direct versus Implicit Superlative Index Number Formulae," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 430-435, August.
    4. James Kirkley & Catherine Morrison Paul & Dale Squires, 2002. "Capacity and Capacity Utilization in Common-pool Resource Industries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(1), pages 71-97, June.
    5. repec:bla:ecorec:v:78:y:2002:i:242:p:312-26 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Quinn Weninger, 2000. "Buyback programs in commercial fisheries:efficiency versus transfers," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 394-412, May.
    7. Holland, Dan & Gudmundsson, Eyjolfur & Gates, John, 1999. "Do fishing vessel buyback programs work: A survey of the evidence," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 47-69, January.
    8. Diewart, W Erwin & Morrison, Catherine J, 1986. "Adjusting Output and Productivity Indexes for Changes in the Terms of Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(383), pages 659-679, September.
    9. Dupont, Diane P., 1990. "Rent dissipation in restricted access fisheries," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 26-44, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin J. Fox & R. Quentin Grafton & Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che, 2003. "Productivity and capacity reduction: the case of a fishery," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec03-2, International and Development Economics.
    2. Kevin J. Fox & R. Quentin Grafton & Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che, 2006. "Capacity reduction, quota trading and productivity: the case of a fishery ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(2), pages 189-206, June.
    3. R. Quentin Grafton & Ragnar Arnason & Trond Bjorndal & David Campbell & Harry F. Campbell & Colin W. Clark & Robin Connor & Diane P. Dupont & Rognvaldur Hannesson & Ray Hilborn & James E. Kirkley & To, 2005. "Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries (now replaced by EEN0508)," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0501, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.
    4. Clark, Colin W. & Munro, Gordon R. & Sumaila, Ussif Rashid, 2005. "Subsidies, buybacks, and sustainable fisheries," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 47-58, July.
    5. Tran, Thi Bich & Grafton, Quentin & Kompas, Tom, 2009. "Contribution of productivity and firm size to value-added: Evidence from Vietnam," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 274-285, September.
    6. Skirtun, Maggie, 2013. "Decomposing the drivers of profibility in two key Commonwealth prawn fisheries," 2013 Conference (57th), February 5-8, 2013, Sydney, Australia 152179, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    7. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che & R. Quentin Grafton, 2004. "Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1631-1641.
    8. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & William C. Horrace & Kurt E. Schnier, 2007. "Identifying technically efficient fishing vessels: a non-empty, minimal subset approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 729-745.
    9. Fox, Kevin J. & Grafton, R. Quentin & Kirkley, James & Squires, Dale, 2003. "Property rights in a fishery: regulatory change and firm performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 156-177, July.
    10. Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2012. "Productivity Convergence Across Industries and Countries: The Importance of Theory-based Measurement," Chapters, in: Matilde Mas & Robert Stehrer (ed.), Industrial Productivity in Europe, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Ussif Rashid Sumaila & Gordon R. Munro & Jon G. Sutinen, 2007. "Recent Developments in Fisheries Economics: An Introduction," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(1), pages 1-5.
    12. Stephanie McWhinnie & Kofi Otumawu-Apreku, 2013. "Profit Efficiency of the South Australian Rock Lobster Fishery: Nerlovian and Directional Distance Function Approach," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2013-13, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    13. Subal Kumbhakar & Frank Asche & Ragnar Tveteras, 2013. "Estimation and decomposition of inefficiency when producers maximize return to the outlay: an application to Norwegian fishing trawlers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 307-321, December.
    14. Hwang, Won-Sik & Lee, Jeong-Dong, 2013. "Profitability and productivity changes in the Korean electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 531-542.
    15. Stephanie McWhinnie & Kofi Otumawu-Apreku, 2013. "Evaluating Profit Efficiency of the South Australian Rock Lobster Fishery: Nerlovian and Directional Distance Function Approach," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2013-18, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    16. Diewert, Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2019. "Productivity Indexes and National Statistics: Theory, Methods and Challenges," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-8, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Apr 2019.
    17. Quang Nguyen & Sean Pascoe & Louisa Coglan & Son Nghiem, 2021. "The sensitivity of efficiency scores to input and other choices in stochastic frontier analysis: an empirical investigation," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 31-40, February.
    18. Eggert, Håkan & Greaker, Mads, 2009. "Effects of Global Fisheries on Developing Countries Possibilities for Income and Threat of Depletion," Working Papers in Economics 393, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    19. Dario Pinello & Angelos Liontakis & Alexandra Sintori & Irene Tzouramani & Konstantinos Polymeros, 2016. "Assessing the Efficiency of Small-Scale and Bottom Trawler Vessels in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-11, July.
    20. Diewert, W. Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2016. "Kevin J. Fox Interview of W. Erwin Diewert," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2016-6, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 02 Jun 2016.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; capacity reduction; fishery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • Q22 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Fishery

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:anu:eenwps:0303. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jack Pezzey (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://een.anu.edu.au/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.