An Economic Approach to Compensation Practices for Fisheries Damages of Korea

우리나라 어업손실 보상제도에 대한 개선방안연구;-경제적 접근방법을 중심으로-

Coastal economic activities usually generate externalities to other economic activities. The conflicts between coastal economic activities, especially land fillings and reclamations, and fisheries in coastal waters pose a typical one, which sometimes causes some social conflicts. In this regard, as the contents and requirements for rules and regulations on fisheries compensation may have important implications for solving such problems, important is to review rationales fur the formulas in calculating fisheries compensation. The purpose of this paper is to review the formulas for fisheries compensation from the economic view points, to highlight some problems and to suggest more appropriate formulas. It is found that the current formulas of fisheries compensation are not properly based on economic concepts and valuation techniques. Main problems are related, as followings, to the coefficient(0.8) employed in the formula, to fishermen's own wages and to current values of invested assets such as fishing boats and nets, etc.. First, it is not clear what the coefficient(0, 8) means. In Japan's case, the coefficient was assumed to reflect the opportunity cost of fishermen's own wages, but it was disappeared from the formula after the self-wage came to be included in totaling fishing cost. As our new formula will include the self-wage in fishing cost, the coefficient(0.8) should be excluded. Second, according to our formula, the current value of invested assets is added to total operating compensation, which will overestimate total compensation. Therefore, it is suggested that total present value of the assets to be invested during the business life should be deducted from total operating compensation. Third, as the self-wage will be included in total cost, opportunity cost for finding new jobs should be newly added to the formula. Finally, this paper also conducted a comparative case study considering above-mentioned factors. The case study showed that the current formulas overestimated total fisheries compensation.