DO FISHING VESSEL BUYBACK PROGRAMS WORK - A SURVEY OF THE EVIDENCE

Vessel and license buyback programs are being used increasingly as a t ool to reduce overcapacity in fisheries. This paper examines buybacks programs in a number fisheries around the world, in order to evaluate their effectiveness in achieving their objectives. We show that, thoug h the objectives are usually similar, the design of different buyback programs Varies widely with important ramifications. Although proper d esign can improve the performance of buyback programs, we conclude tha t buyback programs are generally not an effective way to address the p roblems they are meant to solve. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.