ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to demonstrate that, with the aid of optimal control theory, fisheries economics can without difficulty be cast in a capital–theoretic framework yielding results that are both general and readily comprehensible. Economists were quick to appreciate the implications for capital theory; indeed, R. Dorfman goes so far as to argue that modern capital theory traces its origins to the development of optimal control theory. Society’s basic resource-management problem is that of determining the optimal consumption/harvest time path with the object of maximizing social utility. The chapter describes the model nonautonomous while retaining the linearity assumptions. The model is made nonautonomous by introducing continuous parameter shifts through time. The chapter presents a consideration of nonlinear models, while at the same time restoring the assumption of autonomy. It concludes with the examination of the complexities that can arise when the assumption of linearity is relaxed.
