Price Uncertainty, Expectations Formation and Fishers' Location Choices

This paper deals with the effects of uncertain output prices upon fishers' location choices. It employs ARIMA models to construct the price forecasts used by fishers in a model which generates expected profits for three fishing locations in the British Columbia salmon fishery. A random utility model of fishing location choice is then estimated using two different sets of regressors. The first is expected seasonal profit and its variability. The second is expected wealth and its variability, where expected wealth is taken to be the sum of the known preseason wealth and the expected profitability of a given fishing location. Results show that expected profitability is a significant determinant of fishing location choice but that expected wealth plays an even bigger role. This suggests that there is a type of wealth or stock effect present in decisions made by fishers. The results also provide evidence that the variability of profits or wealth is generally a less significant component in regard to fishing location choice. In fact, some fishers thrive on greater variability, thereby providing some evidence of the risk loving behaviour typically attributed to fishers. This is not the case, however, for all fishers since some are found to be risk-neutral and even risk-averse. Given the finding that fishers do respond to economic incentives, one policy implication concerns the ability of fisheries managers to alter the dispersion of fishers over fishing locations via the adjustment of the economic incentives by means of differential royalty taxes. A second policy implication results from the finding of risk-loving behavior. This calls into question models that assume risk-averse behaviour and predict a dominance of crop-sharing contracts over wage contracts.Uncertainty, location choice, random utility, risk preferences, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

MULTI-SPECIES INDIVIDUAL TRANSFERABLE QUOTAS: THE SCOTIA-FUNDY MOBILE GEAR GROUNDFISHERY

Few studies examine the economic effects of individual harvesting rights in multi-species fisheries. Using costs and earnings data from a multispecies individual transferable quota (ITQ) fishery in Nova Scotia, before and after the introduction of harvesting rights, the effects on inputs, outputs, prices, and vessel exit are examined. The results provide insights about the management of multi-species ITQs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Gender and Willingness-to-pay for Recreational Benefits from Water Quality Improvements

The economics literature has recently turned its attention to the existence of gender differences in various aspects of choice behaviour. This paper focuses upon such differences as may exist in the valuation of environmental resources. Firstly, the paper presents several reasons why women are expected to have a lower willingness-to-pay (WTP) for environmental improvements than do men. Secondly, in order to establish the empirical extent of gender differences the paper presents a model for estimating individual-specific benefits from environmental improvements. CVM referenda data from are collected and used in a double-bounded probit model to estimate female versus male WTP for remedial actions designed to improve three different water-based recreational activities in a previously highly polluted area. For these data, the paper finds that, even after controlling for income differences, women consistently have lower WTP values. The findings in this paper have potentially important consequences for the subsequent calculation of aggregate benefits from contingent valuation models that ignore the role of gender. Since women generally constitute about one half of a population base, turning a blind eye to gender means that aggregate WTP values will overstate the extent of benefits from environmental improvements.Keywords: non-market valuation, gender, willingness-to-pay, recreatio

Privatization and Regulation of Capacity in a Multi-product Fishery: A Purse from a Sow's Ear?

Using individual firm data from before and after the introduction of ITQs in the multi-species Nova Scotia mobile gear fishery, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to examine issues relating to capacity and capacity utilization. The paper examines how a change in the property rights regime can affect a multi-product industry and the consequences of these changes in terms of product-specific capacity utilization, as well as aggregate capacity utilization. The results provide insights to regulators interested in using market-based approaches to improve efficiency in multi-product industries.Keywords: capacity, multi-product fisheries, data envelopment analysis

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries

The failures of traditional target-species management have led many to propose an ecosystem approach to fisheries to promote sustainability. The ecosystem approach is necessary, especially to account for fishery-ecosystem interactions, but by itself is not sufficient to address two important factors contributing to unsustainable fisheries — inappropriate incentives bearing on fishers, and the ineffective governance that frequently exists in commercial, developed fisheries managed primarily by total harvest limits and input-controls. We contend that much greater emphasis must be placed on fisher motivation when managing fisheries. Using evidence from more than a dozen ‘natural experiments’ in commercial fisheries, we argue that incentive-based approaches that better specify community, individual harvest, or territorial rights and also price ecosystem services — coupled with public research, monitoring and effective oversight — promote sustainable fisheries.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries (now replaced by EEN0508)

Using examples from more than a dozen fisheries, we highlight the failures of ‘command control’ management and show that approaches that empower fishers with the incentives and the mandate to be co-custodians of the marine environment can promote sustainability. Evidence is provided that where harvesters share well-defined management responsibilities over fish, and experience both the pain of overexploitation and the gains from conservation, they are much more likely to protect fish stocks and habitat. The key insight is that to maintain marine ecosystems for present and future generations, fishing incentives must be compatible with long-term goals of sustainability.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Normal Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Exhibit Pervasive Mosaic Aneuploidy

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines have been considered to be homogeneously euploid. Here we report that normal hPSC – including induced pluripotent - lines are karyotypic mosaics of euploid cells intermixed with many cells showing non-clonal aneuploidies as identified by chromosome counting, spectral karyotyping (SKY) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) of interphase/non-mitotic cells. This mosaic aneuploidy resembles that observed in progenitor cells of the developing brain and preimplantation embryos, suggesting that it is a normal, rather than pathological, feature of stem cell lines. The karyotypic heterogeneity generated by mosaic aneuploidy may contribute to the reported functional and phenotypic heterogeneity of hPSCs lines, as well as their therapeutic efficacy and safety following transplantation

Novel Role for p110β PI 3-Kinase in Male Fertility through Regulation of Androgen Receptor Activity in Sertoli Cells

We thank Anna-Lena Berg (AstraZeneca, Lund) and Cheryl Scudamore (MRC, Harwell, UK) for histological analysis, Julie Foster (Barts Cancer Institute, London) for CT scans, Johan Swinnen and Frank Claessens (Leuven University, Belgium) for discussion and AR-luciferase reporter plasmids, Florian Guillou (INRA, CNRS, Université de Tours, France) for the AMH-Cre mouse line and Laura Milne (MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, The University of Edinburgh) for technical support. We thank the members of the Cell Signalling group for critical input.International audienceThe organismal roles of the ubiquitously expressed class I PI3K isoform p110β remain largely unknown. Using a new kinase-dead knockin mouse model that mimics constitutive pharmacological inactivation of p110β, we document that full inactivation of p110β leads to embryonic lethality in a substantial fraction of mice. Interestingly, the homozygous p110β kinase-dead mice that survive into adulthood (maximum ~26% on a mixed genetic background) have no apparent phenotypes, other than subfertility in females and complete infertility in males. Systemic inhibition of p110β results in a highly specific blockade in the maturation of spermatogonia to spermatocytes. p110β was previously suggested to signal downstream of the c-kit tyrosine kinase receptor in germ cells to regulate their proliferation and survival. We now report that p110β also plays a germ cell-extrinsic role in the Sertoli cells (SCs) that support the developing sperm, with p110β inactivation dampening expression of the SC-specific Androgen Receptor (AR) target gene Rhox5, a homeobox gene critical for spermatogenesis. All extragonadal androgen-dependent functions remain unaffected by global p110β inactivation. In line with a crucial role for p110β in SCs, selective inactivation of p110β in these cells results in male infertility. Our study is the first documentation of the involvement of a signalling enzyme, PI3K, in the regulation of AR activity during spermatogenesis. This developmental pathway may become active in prostate cancer where p110β and AR have previously been reported to functionally interac

Rent Dissipation in Restricted Access Fisheries

Thirty-five years have passed since Gordon's seminal article on rent dissipation in open access fisheries. Restricted access fisheries, created to solve the problem, have not been successful. Three common sources of dissipated rent are: input substitution, fleet redundancy and· composition. Fisheries policy has focused on finding solutions for the first source. This paper questions the wisdom of past policy by developing and implementing a methodology for the measurement of rent dissipation in restricted access fisheries. Results from the British Columbia salmon fishery suggest that regulators should have concentrated instead on improving fleet composition and removing excess vessels