Economic Benefits of Dolphins in the United States Eastern Tropical Pacific Purse-Seine Tuna Industry

This paper provides a profit-maximizing modelwith vessel-level dolphin mortality limits forpurse seiners harvesting tunas in the easterntropical Pacific Ocean. The model analyticallyderives the shadow price (estimated economicvalue) for dolphin mortality, the fishing-fleetsize, and the annual tuna harvest as functionsof a few key fishing parameters. The model alsoprovides a statistical method to determine theaccuracy of all needed parameter estimates. Thepaper then applies the model to the year 1996and the period from 1985 to 1987. The shadowprice measures the economic value to the UStuna fleet of dolphins lost in the harvestingof tuna. This value is essential whenattempting to evaluate the economic benefitsand costs to society of any action designed toreduce the mortality of dolphins in theharvesting of tuna in the eastern tropicalPacific Ocean.     

Characterizing Managerial Skill and Technical Efficiency in a Fishery

Researchers have long recognized that entrepreneurial or managerial skill is a major determinant of productivity or reason why production among firms varies. Yet, except for a few studies, differences in productivity and output levels are usually attributed to plant configuration or scale. More important, there appears to have been few attempts to relate technical efficiency to managerial skill. Utilizing a stochastic production frontier, we examine the relationship between technical efficiency and characteristics of skill such as experience and education in a fishery. Although we can not determine threshold or essential levels of experience and education, substitution possibilities are found to exist between years of experience and education levels. Additional analysis of efficiency for two captains of the same background and experience reveals that additional characteristics need to be considered in the examination of skipper skill or the good-captain hypothesis.     

Perceptions of Home Insurance and Policy Directions: Comparing Mexican Americans and Non-Hispanic White Americans

With prior research on home insurance largely focused on supply side practices, we know little about demand side attributes of this market, especially about consumer perceptions of insurance. This article demonstrates that, despite seemingly more equitable industry practices, ethnic homeowners (Mexican Americans in this study), relative to the majority White population, have a greater tendency to view home insurance as a cost burden (as opposed to coverage against potential damages and injuries) and, hence, are more vulnerable to living with minimal or no home insurance coverage. The findings suggest that this disparity is attributable to cultural differences rooted in diverse structural and institutional circumstances in which ethnic homeowners often find themselves situated. The role of ethnic identity is salient even after accounting for personal, household, property, mortgage, and natural calamity factors. New directions for policy are proposed to address the situation by informing and empowering vulnerable consumers.     

The Deterrent Effect of UK Competition Enforcement

Summary  The paper briefly reviews previous studies of the deterrent effect of competition enforcement. It then describes the key findings of a recent report commissioned by the Office of Fair Trading on the scale of the deterrent effect of merger control and competition law enforcement in the UK. The research, which was based on in-depth interviews and phone surveys with senior competition lawyers and large UK companies also indicated which sanctions may be more effective at deterring anti-competitive behaviour and provided suggestions for improving deterrence. The paper discusses a number of policy issues raised by the research’s findings. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the OFT or Deloitte. This paper was prepared for the October 2007 workshop on Measuring the Effects of Competition Law Enforcement, organized by the Netherlands Competition Authority.     

Capacity and Capacity Utilization in Common-pool Resource Industries

Excess capacity poses one of the most pressingproblems that arise when industries exploitcommon-pool natural resources. It entailsover-investment in the capital stock andexcessive use of variable inputs, and placesadditional exploitation pressures on theresource stocks. Confusion persists over theappropriate definition and measurement ofcapacity and capacity utilization for theseindustries. But understanding capacity and itsmeasurement is necessary to properly design acapacity management program. This paperaddresses these issues by overviewing theconceptual and theoretical bases for capacityand capacity utilization measurement,identifying specific problems for common-poolresources, outlining alternative methodologiesfor their measurement, and illustrating the useof these definitions and measurement methods ina fisheries case study.