International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
Abstract
A debate is emerging over the extent to which privatization of fishery resources – private ownership and resource management without significant state oversight- is practical and socially desirable. What we term the “optimists” maintain that there are no effective limits to privatization and that the decades old fear that privatization could, in some cases, lead to resource extinction are baseless, and of theoretical interest only. This paper attempts to add to the debate by arguing that the fears are, regrettably, not at all baseless and that there are, in fact, definite limits to socially desirable privatization. The paper goes on to discuss means, by which such limits could be identified, on a fishery by fishery basis
