Economic gains from individual fishing quotas: The Norwegian coastal groundfish fisheries

Many rights-based systems in fisheries use individual fishing quotas (IFQs) that allocate shares of total allowable catch to individual fishers, vessels, or groups of fishers. We analyze the performance of IFQs in the Norwegian coastal groundfish fisheries that substantially limit transferability. We use data from two similar fishing groups that were treated with different management. Difference-in-differences results show that IFQs increase productivity and prices for some of the main groundfish species. Results suggest that expected productivity gains and price gains from first-best rights-based policies that create highly transferable IFQs can result from second-best policies that substantially limit transferability.