From Whales to Fish: Three Essays on Marine Resource Economics

Abstract

My dissertation considers how marine policies aimed at protecting vulnerable human communities and endangered ecological populations impact socio-economic outcomes. The first chapter uses a discrete choice experiment to estimate how changes in tour attributes affects Salish Sea tourist willingness to pay for whale watching tours. I find that tourists are willing to pay the most to view orcas from a close viewing distance for at least 40 minutes with less boats in proximity. My sample exhibits clear heterogeneity for the number of boats in proximity and the viewing distance, which I investigated with a latent class model. My second chapter develops a theoretical model to investigate how processor centered cooperatives and processor-allocated quota impact ex-vessel prices, market share, and quasi-rents for fishery harvesters and processors post-rationalization. My third chapter analyzes a behavioral experiment of my theoretical predictions from chapter two, using experimental data collected during research sessions with undergraduates acting as fishery harvesters and processors. Fisheries rationalization through individual harvest rights increases overall industry rent while also transferring rent from the processing sector to the harvesting sector. Both my theoretical model and experiment show that fishing cooperatives and allocating some harvest rights to processors both transfer rent from the harvesting sector to the processing sector, though this this rent transfer is not split equally within the processing sector. My research shows that processor centered cooperatives and processor-allocated quota both benefit low-cost processors, but only a combined policy with both cooperatives and processor quota benefits high-cost processors in a meaningful way. Managers and researchers designing community protections for high-cost processing plants providing local jobs should carefully consider these differential impacts. My research uses several different methods, including a discrete choice experiment, a theoretical model, and a behavioral experiment, to discuss policy protections for vulnerable human and endangered animal populations.