[OANNES Foro] Impact of property rights on labor contracts in commercial fisheries

[raul sanchez]

Ocean & Coastal Management
Volume 51, Issue 11, 2008, Pages 740-748 
doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2008.07.008     
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. 
Impact of property rights on labor contracts in commercial fisheries 

Sylvia Brandta, ,  and Ning Dingb, 1, 

aDepartment of Resource Economics, Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 219 Stockbridge Hall, Amherst, MA 01003, United States bLaw and Economics Consulting Group, 1603 Orrington Avenue, Suite 1500, Evanston, IL 60201, United States 

Available online 24 July 2008. 




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Abstract
Property rights are increasingly utilized for environmental and resource management: in fisheries these market-based approaches take the form of individual transferable quotas. This paper studies labor contracts in fisheries governed by individual transferable quotas (ITQs). Previous literature on labor contracts in fisheries models the dominance of a share system of remuneration between boat owner and crew in fisheries. We extend the standard model of the labor contract to the case of ITQ fisheries to explain the share contract between crew and boat owner and the share contract between boat owner and quota owner when boat owner, quota owner, and crew are risk averse in a stochastic environment. We test this model through analysis of the Mid-Atlantic surf clam fishery and present empirical evidence of changes in contracting practices, harvest rates and shares of crew remuneration.