Price effects of changing quantities supplied at the integrated european fish market

This article analyses the effect that changes in the quantities supplied from EU fish stocks have on fish prices. As opposed to earlier studies, this one is European- wide, taking international market integration into account. Average own-price flexibilities for fresh captured fish are found to be −1.1. This implies that price flexibilities previously estimated for single European countries underestimate price changes at the European level caused by quantity changes. Results indicate that changing quantities can increase revenues from individual species with large own-price flexibilities, provided that stocks supply a significant share of the total EU supply. That is found to be the case for sole and anchovies, but not for cod and hake. Thus, for sole the short-run decline in fishermen's incomes following quota and quantity reductions are partly compensated by rising prices. For anchovies it only happens when quotas are reduced for several stocks simultaneously.