Fish stock endogeneity in a harvest function: ‘El Niño’ effects on the Chilean jack mackerel fishery

There are several examples of pelagic fisheries that have experiencedfishing collapse when facing downward abundance cycles. Improvingunderstanding about pelagic catch’s stock dependence can help avoid newcases of fishing collapse. This paper analyses the possible endogeneity ofthe fish stock variable in a pelagic fishery harvest function. The harvestfunction is estimated using panel data and ‘El Niño’ episodes as instrumentalvariable for the Chilean jack mackerel biomass. This strategy producesconsistent estimates of the fish biomass coefficient. The paper makes two contributions. First, it corrects for endogeneity of the fish stock variable,an issue often underestimated in empirical fishery economics. Secondly,it shows that ‘El Niño’ episodes have negative effects on the Chilean jackmackerel biomass.