From the Cover

Individual Transferable Quotas in Theory and Practice

In the final decades of the 20th century, ocean fisheries around the world are undergoing a radical reorganization, as property rights are increasingly being used to regulate fishing activity. Such rights often take the form of individual transferable quotas or ITQs, held by fishermen or fishing firms. In this book, eleven authors, including Anthony Scott, the pioneer in the economics of fisheries, and Phillip Major, a former administrator of the New Zealand ITQ system, explore the theory and practice of ITQs. They discuss possible future extensions of ITQs, their political acceptability, the approach known as Free Market Environmentalism, the evolution and performance of systems of ITQs in New Zealand and Iceland, advances in the technlogy necessary to husband marine resources, the possibility of self-mangement in fisheries, the demand for resource rentals, and other aspects of ITQ systems. The papers were originally given at an international conference on ITQs in Reykjavik in November 1998, organized by the Institute of Economic Studies at the Universtiy of Iceland in cooperation with the Environment Unit of the Institute og Econmic Affairs in London and the Center for Private Conservation in Washington, DC, and sponsored by the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries.

The Editors
Ragnar Arnason, Professor of the Economics of Fisheries at the University of Iceland, is known internationally as an expert on fisheries management.
Hannes H. Gissurarson, Professor of Politics at the University of Iceland, is a leading proponent of the free market approach to environmental problems

Panta hjá Háskólaútgáfunni, netfang: hu@hi.is