• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.301-318
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• 2017

The production of Korean offshore fisheries has been gradually decreasing due to the severe depletion of offshore fisheries resources caused by excessive fishing efforts. The production of the offshore fisheries in 2016 was the lowest since 1975. So the federal and local governments in Korea adopted and implemented various fisheries management plans and policies in order to restore fisheries resources. However, these plans and polices have not been successful in re-establishing fisheries resources. Thus, in order to accurately diagnose the situation with regard to offshore fisheries, this study sought to estimate not only the return to scale by fishing gear of offshore fisheries, but marginal productivity of individual fishing gear based on production factors derived from offshore fisheries production functions. The study was organized in the following manner. First of all, this study estimates production functions of offshore fisheries. The Cobb-Douglas and the translog production functions are adopted as offshore fisheries production functions. Specifically, the functions are estimated by crew, vessels, and offshore resource as production factors. The offshore resource is estimated by the Clarke Yoshimoto Pooley model based on the surplus production model. Secondly, the fisheries production functions are extended to the fixed-effect model and the random-effect model with panel data. Thirdly, this study analyzes the return to scale of offshore fisheries and the marginal productivity of the production factors from the estimated offshore fisheries production function. In conclusion, this study suggests plans and countermeasures for productivity improvement by group (labor intensive or technology intensive) based on the characteristics of individual offshore fishing gear.