Rent-Seeking, Economic Property Rights, and Coasean Trade

The argument in this chapter is that although US fishery regulation eventually bolstered stocks, the regulatory process was complex and slow, driven by costly rent-seeking. Economic theory had long described solutions to open-access fisheries. Templates existed for application of tradable use rights and potentially for user determination of annual harvest caps. Nevertheless, traditional prescriptive controls, even under regional councils, were maintained for twenty years before use rights as individual tradable quotas were adopted. Those use rights were influenced by rent-seeking objectives that limited access and alienability. These are examples of restricting entry and raising rivals’ costs.