On the Determinants of Denouncing Illegal Fishing: A Field Study in Artisanal Fishing Communities
Author(s)
Cavalcanti, Carina
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
Metadata
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Many artisanal fishing communities struggle with overfishing. One potential channel to mitigate overfishing is through self-monitoring and denouncing of illegal fishing practices. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of fishermen’s willingness to report the catching of illegally small fish at a lake in Brazil. By using laboratory experiments and surveys, we provide novel evidence that impatience and pro-sociality play key roles. Fishermen who are more impatient in a laboratory inter-temporal choice experiment show a higher propensity to report misbehavior from other fishermen. This finding suggests that impatience ...
View more >Many artisanal fishing communities struggle with overfishing. One potential channel to mitigate overfishing is through self-monitoring and denouncing of illegal fishing practices. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of fishermen’s willingness to report the catching of illegally small fish at a lake in Brazil. By using laboratory experiments and surveys, we provide novel evidence that impatience and pro-sociality play key roles. Fishermen who are more impatient in a laboratory inter-temporal choice experiment show a higher propensity to report misbehavior from other fishermen. This finding suggests that impatience is a driver for the punishment of resource exploitation. Moreover, we find that fishermen who are more pro-social in a laboratory public goods experiment are also more likely to report overfishing, suggesting that both time and social preferences are related to the reporting of resource overexploitation.
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View more >Many artisanal fishing communities struggle with overfishing. One potential channel to mitigate overfishing is through self-monitoring and denouncing of illegal fishing practices. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of fishermen’s willingness to report the catching of illegally small fish at a lake in Brazil. By using laboratory experiments and surveys, we provide novel evidence that impatience and pro-sociality play key roles. Fishermen who are more impatient in a laboratory inter-temporal choice experiment show a higher propensity to report misbehavior from other fishermen. This finding suggests that impatience is a driver for the punishment of resource exploitation. Moreover, we find that fishermen who are more pro-social in a laboratory public goods experiment are also more likely to report overfishing, suggesting that both time and social preferences are related to the reporting of resource overexploitation.
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Journal Title
Environmental and Resource Economics
Volume
77
Issue
1
Subject
Fisheries sciences
Applied economics
Other economics
Behavioural economics
Social Sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Economics
Environmental Studies