Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery

This paper provides the first ex post estimates of the effects of input controls on technical efficiency in a fishery. Using individual vessel data from the northern prawn fishery of Australia for the years 1990-1996 and 1994-2000, stochastic production frontiers are estimated to analyse the efficie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied economics 2004-09, Vol.36 (15), p.1631-1641
Main Authors: Kompas, Tom, Che, Tuong Nhu, Quentin Grafton, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied economics
Australia
Economic theory
Efficiency
Fisheries
Fishery economics
Productivity
Studies
Technical efficiency
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper provides the first ex post estimates of the effects of input controls on technical efficiency in a fishery. Using individual vessel data from the northern prawn fishery of Australia for the years 1990-1996 and 1994-2000, stochastic production frontiers are estimated to analyse the efficiency impacts of input controls on engine and vessel size. The results indicate that technical efficiency is increasing in a measure of vessel size and engine capacity that was controlled by the regulator from 1985 to 2001, and decreasing in an unregulated input, gear headrope length. The study shows that fishers have substituted from regulated to unregulated inputs over the period 1990-2000 and technical efficiency has declined coincident with increasing restrictions on vessel size and engine capacity. The decline in technical efficiency indicates that the goal of the regulator to increase economic efficiency has not been realized.
ISSN:0003-6846
1466-4283
DOI:10.1080/0003684042000218561