The distributional outcomes of rights-based management in fisheries

Abstract

Significance Rights-based management reforms in fisheries have attracted controversy regarding the unequal distribution of their economic benefits, but systematic quantitative evidence has been lacking due to data limitations. Our research leverages a longitudinal dataset to compare payments to captains, crew, vessel owners, and owners of harvest quota in the Bering Sea crab fisheries both before and after implementing individual transferable quotas (ITQs). This paper provides a fishery-wide accounting of returns to these diverse stakeholder groups at the vessel level. The results underscore the importance of considering the distribution of payments to different stakeholders within each vessel as well as heterogeneity in payments across vessels. Our approach provides a model for collecting and analyzing data on distributional outcomes for other fisheries.