Demand for renewable resources

In the first paper, we show that a lower importance of catch in recreational fishing may result in higher catches. While this effect also holds under first-best management, it may destabilize open-access recreational fisheries to the point of stock collapse. The second paper analyzes the political economy of resource management. We show that resource users (the processing industry, consumers) and factor owners (capital and labor employed in resource harvesting) may favor inefficiently high harvest rates up to open-access levels. This may explain why public resource management is often very inefficient. The third paper models trade in renewable resources as stipulated not only by autarky price differences, but also by consumers' love of variety. We show that the love-of-variety effect enables welfare gains from trade even if total consumption decreases. Total consumption may decrease because the love of variety weakens the link between resource scarcity and demand.