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Fishery Regulation And New England's Local Economies: Preliminary Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Spencer Fleury Ph.D.

Spencer Fleury Ph.D.

This paper examines the economic impacts of Amendment Five and Amendment Seven to the Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Management Plan on the economies of coastal cities and towns in southern New England, using a difference-in-differences OLS regression model and a Probit model. The potential existence of city-level economic impacts on fishing-related employment, average wages paid, median home values, and the unemployment rate was examined, with the object of providing guidance for policymakers involved in developing fisheries regulations. The results do not support the hypothesis that these regulations had a significant adverse effect on southern New England‘s coastal economies.