Fishermen’s competitiveness and labour market performance: evidence from shrimpers in Bangladesh

Asad Islam, Sakiba Tasneem, Liang Choon Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

We conduct an experiment to determine competitiveness among shrimpers who engage in collecting shrimp seeds in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. We then examine how competitiveness affects the labour supply decisions and labour market performance of these shrimpers. Our results show that shrimpers who prefer competition are more productive than shrimpers who do not prefer competition. Competitive shrimpers secure better prices and earn higher incomes selling their catches. We estimate that their wage elasticity of participation ranges from 0.4 to 0.5, which is consistent with preferences under neoclassical assumptions. Competitive shrimpers have a slightly greater wage elasticity than non-competitive shrimpers, suggesting that they might be more responsive to expected earnings. Our results have important policy implications for the efficient management of common pool resources.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)346-363
Number of pages18
JournalAustralian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Volume67
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2023

Keywords

  • competitiveness
  • labour supply
  • performance
  • shrimpers
  • wage elasticity

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