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.