Infra-marginal rents in Norwegian fisheries

This paper examines economic rent in Norwegian fisheries 1985–2014. While several earlier studies provide estimates of total economic rent, our paper investigates different components of rent. This is important as different types of rent may be permanent to varying degrees. Modern rent theory separates total economic rent into three main components, absolute (e.g. scarcity, regulation, resource rent), inframarginal and quasiprent. Using vessel data, we examine the composition of resource vs. inframarginal rent in the Norwegian fisheries sector. Our results suggest that the economic rent in Norwegian fisheries comes mainly in the form of inframarginal rent. This is in line with an increasing literature providing evidence that inframarginal rents are an important component of economic rent, and a category that is difficult to assess for valuation and tax purposes.publishedVersio