Abstract
As traditional economic theory is mainly based on neoliberal principles, whose failure is to ignore the ecological component in value assessment methods, it assumes that continuous economic growth exists with high level of employment and low inflation rate. Many ecological economists have criticized the blind pursuit of short-term economic interests in the last 30 years for leading to loss of natural capital and ecosystem services. This study demonstrates the concept of “uneconomic growth” by measuring the actual costs of fishing activities and fishery policy implemented in China’s Pearl River Estuary from economic, social, and ecological aspects. The results show that the costs of economic growth exceed the benefits of additional growth because of the limits of the ecosystem. The ecological system of the Pearl River Estuary has been degraded significantly by overfishing and is regarded to be under non-optimal conditions regarding both ecological and socio-economic objectives.
Highlights
Fisheries are considered as critical sources of food, income, and jobs for coastal people
As traditional economic theory is mainly based on neoliberal principles, whose failure is to ignore the ecological component in value assessment methods, it assumes that continuous economic growth exists with high level of employment and low inflation rate
This study aims to demonstrate the concept of “uneconomic growth” by measuring the actual costs of fishing activities and fisheries policy implemented in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of China from economic, social, and ecological aspects
Summary
Fisheries are considered as critical sources of food, income, and jobs for coastal people. And Farley [5] put forward the concept of “uneconomic growth”, defined as the marginal cost of economic growth exceeds the marginal benefits. The concept of “unjust uneconomic growth” has been proposed to reveal that uneconomic growth is the causes of social tensions and conflicts, as both the benefits and costs of economic growth are distributed unjustly [6]. Marine economists and ecologists have begun to recognize the assessment of fishing activities and public policy should consider economic and social benefits and the need to take into account ecological and social costs [7]
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