ABSTRACT

Economists were sensitized to the common property problems of the fishery by H. Scott Gordon’s seminal article that appeared in 1954. The advice from economists on fisheries management tended to focus on various forms of limited entry licensing. The degree of success achieved overall with limited entry schemes has been sufficiently modest for economists to cast about for an alternative approach to fisheries rationalization. The chapter offers a few generalizations regarding the practical applicability of the individual quota. It aims to identify the circumstances under which use of the individual quota should be avoided or approached with particular caution. The purported advantages of management by individual quota allocation lie in the elimination of important external diseconomies, both among those associated with open-access fisheries and those peculiar to fisheries subject to limited entry licensing. For many fisheries, enforcement is likely to be one of the most difficult problems with an individual quota system.