A cointegration analysis is conducted to examine the effect of fishery subsidies on fisheries production using data compiled over more than 30 years in Japan. The results illustrate that one fishery production indicator (production value per fishermen) shows a positive relationship with one particular group of government financial transfer (GFT) (that is, government general service expenditures including cost for fishery managements, scientific researches, and other administrative activities). No other tested results between GFTs and fishery indicators showed a real relationship. Although further scrutiny is awaited, this study could provide an empirical basis for an argument that, under an effective fishing management system, fisheries subsidies do not necessarily cause production increases or negative impact on fishing stocks.

An econometric analysis, known as a panel data analysis, was conducted to understand the nature and the magnitude of the effect caused by subsidies to fishery productions. Published data on government financial transfers for OECD member countries from 1996 to 2002 were used for this purpose. The result of the panel data analysis indicated that certain financial transfers have brought small but positive influences to economic indicators on fisheries of aggregated OECD countries, while either no or negative effects were recognized in other financial transfers. Different magnitudes of influences were observed according to the types of the transfers. Also, there are cases where two types of financial transfers provide offsetting effects to a single economic indicator. Specifically, the total volume of fishery production for OECD countries is positively influenced by government direct payment programs, but negatively affected by the amount of general services provided by the governments. This study can be regarded as a useful first attempt to examine the empirical link between productions and subsidies of the fishery sectors.

While rights-based management systems have often been encouraged as effective management tools, few studies have analyzed the effects of those systems empirically. In this article, we have focused on a special form of the territorial use rights in fisheries strategy, namely, an income-pooling system, and examined the effects of this system empirically. Earlier studies have regarded the control of fish landing amount and improvement of the quality of fish as the two main determining factors in such a system. Consequently, in our study, we estimated the relationships between these two factors and the price of fish using the econometric method. The results show that the two factors do indeed have significant effects on price changes.

A study was conducted to examine the longterm relationship among price of fish, harvest level, and resource condition using a bioeconomics model. Data on the annual amount of production and prices of octopus (Octopus vulgaris) in Morocco from 1970 to 2006 are plotted on a diagram to trace annual changes of price and production. The plotted pattern suggests a long-term movement of the yield-price equilibrium along the line of a theoretical long-term supply function curve of the bioeconomics model. The plotted data also suggests that there are four stages of resource exploitation for octopus in Morocco: (1) the underexploited stage from 1970 to 1987 which is characterized by small catch and low prices, (2) the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) stage from 1988 to 1998 which is characterized by moderate catch and intermediate prices, (3) the overexploited stage from 1999 to 2001 which is characterized by large catch and intermediate prices, and (4) the reduced stock stage after 2002 which is characterized by small catch and high prices. This result is consistent with the independent scientific research information on octopus harvested in Morocco. Our study indicates that an analysis of market information (i.e., amount of production and price) could be an effective tool in identifying approximate status of fishery resources.

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