Implications of differences in technical efficiency of fishing boats for capacity measurement and reduction

Capacity measurement and reduction is a major international issue to emerge in the new millennium. However, there has been limited assessment of the s uccess of capacity reduction schemes (CRS). In this paper. the success of a CRS is assessed for a European fishery characterised by differences in eff iciency levels of individual boats. In such a fishery, given it is assumed that the least efficient producers are the first to exit through a CRS, the reduction in harvesting capacity is less than the nominal reduction in phy sical fleet capacity. Further, there is potential fur harvesting capacity t o increase if remaining vessels improve their efficiency. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.