Can overfishing be explained by ambiguity aversion?

Background/Question/Methods

Fishery collapse is a problem worldwide, often attributed to overfishing. Previous work has linked uncertainty to overfishing, but has treated the all model parameters as known, implicitly assuming perfect knowledge of the complex processes that drive the growth and depletion of fish stocks. I make the more relevant assumption of ambiguity to describe imperfect knowledge of bioeconomic processes, and modify the Reed (1979) bioeconomic model of fishery management to explore the relationship between ambiguity and overfishing.

Results/Conclusions

I find that overfishing is exacerbated as the fishery management becomes more averse to ambiguity or as ambiguity increases. In addition, I find that ambiguity results in higher harvests than mere uncertainty, which underlines the importance of considering imperfect knowledge of bioeconomic processes as a cause of fishery collapse.