Commercial fisheries & local economies

Abstract

Commercial fisheries are often presumed to contribute meaningfully to local economies, despite a lack of supporting empirical evidence. We address this gap by estimating local economic effects from commercial fishing activity in Alaska. Using exogenous variation in fish stocks and prices, we find that a 10% increase in a community's annual resident fishery earnings leads to a corresponding 0.7% increase in resident income. This translates to an increase of 1.54 dollars in total income for each dollar increase in fisheries earnings. Our results demonstrate the potential for local benefits from commercial fishing through direct, indirect, and induced effects into other sectors. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the importance of local resource ownership for generating benefits for local economies.