A nation's natural-resources wealth can be estimated via the System of National Accounts (SNA). Because the values of all parameters entering the calculation are conditional on the existing management regime, the optimal value of the natural resources may be masked. This is the case for the...

The illegal exploitation of wild abalone in South Africa has been escalating since 1994, despite increased enforcement, leading to collapse in some sections of its range. South Africa banned all wild abalone fishing in 2008 but controversially reopened it in 2010. This paper formulates a...

We investigate the applicability of the present-value asset pricing model to fishing quota markets by applying instrumental variable panel data estimation techniques to 15 years of market transactions from New Zealand’s individual fishing quota market. In addition to the influence of current...

Individual fishery quotas (IFQs) are an increasingly prevalent form of fishery management around the world, with more than 170 species currently managed with IFQs. Yet, because of the difficulties in matching quota holdings with catches, many argue that IFQs are not appropriate for multispecies...

Fisheries worldwide continue to suffer from the negative consequences of open access. In 1986, New Zealand responded by establishing an individual transferable quota (ITQ) system that by 1998 included 33 species and more than 150 markets for fishing quotas. We assess these markets in terms of...

Costa Rica’s environmental services payments program (Pagos por Servicios Ambientales, or PSA) started in 1997 and was the true pioneer in this area. It is broadly cited and has led to numerous calls for emulating its approach in various ways. It has itself evolved over time, with acknowledged...

The problem of the commons is more important to our lives and thus more central to economics than a century ago when Katharine Coman led off the first issue of the American Economic Review. As the U.S. and other economies have grown, the carrying-capacity of the planet — in regard to natural...

At the initial stage of this project, the project group consisted of Asbjørn Aaheim, Magnus Hatlebakk and the authors. The authors are grateful for the discussion with the other project participants at this stage. We also had very useful discussion with the marine researcher Sigurd Tjelmeland...

Extraordinarily high returns in a sector based on the extraction of a natural resource can be referred to as resource rents. This study uses the National Accounts and the definitions of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting to calculate the resource rents in Norwegian aquaculture in...