Skipper skill and panel data in fishing industries

Abstract

Skipper skill or managerial ability plays a central role in the harvesting of fish and fishing power. Examining the influences of managerial ability on catch rates, however, may be complicated, since managerial ability is generally unobservable. Using panel data on production activities in the Pacific Coast trawl fishery, we examine the use of the fixed-and random-effects panel data models to depict managerial skill by intervessel differences, representing differences in technical efficiency. The random-effects production model is selected over the fixed-effects model. We conclude that skipper skill is more related to finding fish, dealing with unforseen events, and handling inclement weather than it is to managing the economic inputs.

Optimal Management Under Institutional Constraints: Determining a Total Allowable Catch for Different Fleet Segments in the Northeast Arctic Cod Fishery

“…Including the size of the boat takes differences in operational intensity into account (Asche 2009). We cannot rule out an omitted variable bias caused for example by differences in the skill of individual skippers (Squires and Kirkley 1999;Sandberg 2006), and therefore use the Hausman specification test to decide whether Fixed or Random effects should be chosen. 11 We estimate Eq.…”

Basque inshore skippers' long term behaviour: a logit approach

“…SKILL intends to stand for the so-called skipper's skill. Instead of using a subjective evaluation of the managerial skills of the boat captains supplied by a person who is thoroughly familiar with the boats and captains implied in the fishery, we undertook a direct measurement approach based on the incomes obtained in the year 2003 adjusted to the average incomes of the cluster the vessel belongs to (see Kirkley et al (1998), Squires and Kirkley (1999) and del Valle et al (2003) for a general overview of the different approaches used in empirical studies). The choice of the incomes instead of the profits obeys mainly to the fact that the cost component of the vessels belonging to the same cluster is considerably less variable than the income component of profits.…”

Fishing effort validation and substitution possibilities among components: the case study of the VIII division European anchovy fishery

“…The notion that some fishing captains are better managers than other captains, and in turn, consistently have higher production and earnings has long been recognised by fishery researchers (Cominiti and Huang,1967;Rothschild, 1972;Acheson, 1975;Bjørndal, 1989;Thorlindsson;del Valle et al, 1997Kirkley et al, 1998Squires and Kirkley, 1999) and by the own sector.…”

“…Different approaches have been used in empirical studies to capture the influence of the skill in the production function. A recent summary is provided in Balestra (1996) and in Squires and Kirkley (1999).…”