Dissertation Research: Evaluating Individual Tradable Quotas - A Case Study of New Zealand's Fisheries

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Natural resource policy is an important and complex issue for policy analysts and political scientists. Much of political science is concerned with the governance and distribution of power, goods, and services. But ultimately, most goods come from natural resources. Today, the need for politically, economically, and scientifically sound natural resource management policy is more important than ever. One natural resource management issue that has received considerable attention is fisheries. Over the last few decades the situation has become acute. Fisheries management research has accelerated, as the scope of the management problem becomes apparent. As a result, there is a large body of literature in a variety of social sciences addressing problems and innovations in fisheries management.Fisheries policy analysis can be divided into three categories conservation, market-based, and community-based. Each approach has a distinct perspective. These different criteria for success embedded in each of these approaches, the literature in this field is characterized by different approaches critiquing each other, with limited communication among the approaches. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework is one theoretical approach that can accomplish this goal by providing a guide for analyzing common pool resources (such as fisheries). Furthermore, the IAD Framework offers a full set of transaction costs and institutional performance criteria that are well suited to evaluate fisheries policy.This Doctoral Dissertation Research project evaluates New Zealand's fisheries Quota Management System (QMS). The QMS is a classic market-based system that relies on individual tradable quotas to restrict catch to a sustainable yield. Since the QMS is more than ten years old, there is an excellent opportunity to evaluate a relatively mature individual trade quota system. The QMS has two primary goals - - maintaining (or building) healthy fisheries, and building an economically efficient industry. In conducting this research, the student answers questions arising from the fisheries management literature, and performs an evaluation based on the institutional performance criteria outlined in the IAD Framework.This Dissertation Research Project promises to enhance substantially our understanding of this interesting and important policy area.