When does it pay to cooperate? Strategic information exchange in the harvest of common-pool fishery resources

Barnes, Michele L., Arita, Shawn, Kalberg, Kolter, and Leung, PingSun (2017) When does it pay to cooperate? Strategic information exchange in the harvest of common-pool fishery resources. Ecological Economics, 131. pp. 1-11.

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Abstract

Harvesting common-pool fishery resources is often a competitive activity and important questions remain about the costs and benefits of engaging in cooperative behavior. Here, we link comprehensive data on fisher's information exchange networks and economic productivity to test hypotheses about when it pays to cooperate by exchanging different types of strategic information. We find that being well connected locally in information exchange networks about both short-term topics (e.g., the location of species) and long-term topics (e.g., technical innovations) is positively associated with productivity in both the short-term (within fishing trips) and long-term (annually). In contrast, we findthat exchanging both types of information across distinct social divides - a form of brokerage - is negatively associated with productivity. Our results therefore suggest that while there appears to be an economic benefit associated with cooperation across temporal scales in the harvest of common-pool fishery resources, exchanging strategic information across social divides may come at a cost particularly under conditions of competition. We discuss our results in light of emerging research at the nexus of sociology and economics, providing key insight into the social-structural dynamics that help form the foundation for fisher decision-making and behavior.

Item ID: 50673
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1873-6106
Keywords: information exchange, cooperation, social network, fisher behavior, common-pool resources, fisheries
Funders: National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
Projects and Grants: NSF #1513354
Date Deposited: 20 Sep 2017 10:58
FoR Codes: 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410406 Natural resource management @ 30%
38 ECONOMICS > 3801 Applied economics > 380105 Environment and resource economics @ 40%
44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4410 Sociology > 441002 Environmental sociology @ 30%
SEO Codes: 83 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 8302 Fisheries - Wild Caught > 830207 Wild Caught Tuna @ 25%
96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960507 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Marine Environments @ 50%
91 ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK > 9102 Microeconomics > 910210 Production @ 25%
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