Success or Selection? An Economic Perspective on Fisheries Co-Management

This paper comments on a recent paper published in the journal Nature that claims that fisheries co-management causes successful outcomes in fisheries. We outline theoretical arguments in favor of and against co-management as an approach to solving fisheries-commons problems. We argue that the principal claims of the authors are not supported by their data and analysis. Spurious inference about effectiveness of co-management runs the risk of undermining rather than advancing the policy process.

Author(s): Lori S. Bennear and Martin D. Smith

Published: April 2011

download: working paper (.pdf) >