Correction: The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health

This article details a correction to: Landrigan PJ, Raps H, Cropper M, et al. The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health. Annals of Global Health. 2023; 89(1): 23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4056

The moral resonance of Catholic globalization perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there is a gigantic difference in political philosophy between earlier and later Catholic theology, regarding free trade. Design/methodology/approach – The paper compares statements on free trade made in the earlier period by adherents of the School of Salamanca, and in the later period by Populorum Progressio. Findings – The paper finds that early theologians favored free trade unreservedly, while later ones were either ambivalent, or in opposition. Research limitations/implications – Catholicism is not an unchanging philosophy, at least insofar as the economics of free trade is concerned. Catholic social thought on other economic issues, price controls, profits, usury, ought to be studied to see if there has been a similar sea change in perspective from earlier to later theologians. Originality/value – It might be harsh to characterize what has occurred in this dimension as the “high-jacking” of a political economy. On the other hand, it is not clear that this is not an accurate characterization.Christian theology, Free trade, Globalization, Political philosophy

Market-Based Size Selection in the Bering Sea Pollock Fishery

For every fish species, future potential harvests are impacted by current catch levels and patterns. Traditionally, managers use regulations on gear (e.g., mesh size) to control so-called growth overfishing. Such regulations are likely economically inefficient due to increased search costs and lower catch rates. Bioeconomic models typically evaluate efficiency for the fleet as a whole (e.g., Gates 1974, Thunberg, Helser, and Mayo 1998, Eggert and Ulmstrand 2000). Here we propose that optimizing a fishery should focus instead on individual vessel operator behaviors. That is, vessels targeting young fish impose an externality on the rest of the fleet, meaning that the stock costs are born by the fishery as a whole rather than the individual vessel. In a fishery with observer data on fish size, a fee or quota adjustment can eliminate the externality that vessels impose on other members of the fleet in choosing to fish on less-than-optimal aged fish. Unlike gear restrictions, this allows vessels to catch younger fish when the cost of avoiding them is larger than the future benefit to the fish population. Here we conduct a retrospective analysis to explore the potential impacts of providing quota and fee incentives to the pollock fishery to target fish of different age classes