The distributional impact of common-pool resource regulations

• Regulating common-pool resources is welfare enhancing for society but not necessarily for all users who therefore may oppose regulations. We examine the short-term impact of common-pool resource regulations on welfare distribution. Market-based regulations such as fees and subsidies or tradable quotas achieve a higher reduction of extraction from free-access than individual quotas with the same proportion of betteroff users. They make also more users better-off for the same resource preservation. The quota regulation has attractive fairness properties: it reduces inequality while still rewarding the more efficient users.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Nationalekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

common-pool natural resources

regulation

quota

welfare

fairness

fishery.

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)