An Oligopoly Model of Commercial Fishing

Abstract

Population dynamics and oligopoly theory are combined to formulate international fishery under imperfect competition. It is assumed that fish harvesting countries behave as oligopolist, but their costs depend on their harvest rates as well as on the total fish stock, which is governed by the biological growth law. e show that the number of nonextlnct equilibria is 0, 1, or 2, and characterize the dynamic behavior of the fish stock in terms of model parameters and initial fish stock level. Finally, We analyze how the steady state equilibrium fish stock is affected by entry of a new fishing country.