Does a property rights regime affect the outcome of European inland commercial fisheries?

Abstract

European inland commercial fisheries exhibit a wide spectrum of fishing modes, and have experienced major changes over recent decades. A peculiar feature of inland fisheries is the deep dependence on resources usually owned by someone else than a fisher. Therefore institutions such as property rights regimes, have a profound influence on the prerequisites to carry out commercial inland fisheries. We examined whether two main property right regimes, public or private, have alleviated commercial inland fishers’ access to fishing grounds in member countries of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission, EIFAC. Public ownership prevailed in two countries out of three. Commercial inland catch and employment (number of fishers) for countries with mostly public ownership were nearly six times greater than for those with mostly private ownership. Ratios of both commercial inland catch and employment to inland water area were over nine times greater for countries were fisheries were publicly managed in comparison with privately managed fisheries. This outcome contradicts the presumption of privatisation of fishing rights as a tool to increase efficiency of commercial utilisation of inland water fish resources.