Renewable Resource Economists and Policy: What Differences Have We Made?

This paper surveys developments in fisheries economics and fisheries policy over the past half century. Early work clarified the nature of the economic issues associated with open access, laying the groundwork for changes in policies after coastal nations expanded their jurisdictions in 1976. Perhaps the most important point made by economists is that property rights matter and that open-access conditions create economic as well as biological problems. The policy process has begun to create property rights systems, although many of the worldʹs fisheries still operate under mixed systems of regulations and open access incentives.