In resource economics, bioeconomics studies the dynamics of living
resources in using economic models. Bioeconomics leans heavily on mathematical
modeling and optimal control theory.
Bioeconomics is closely related to the early development of theories in fisheries economics, first of all by the seminal works
of two Canadian economists in the mid fifties; Scott Gordon and Anthony Scott (Gordon, 1954; Scott, 1955). Their ideas were not
new, but they managed to utilise recent achievements within biological fisheries modelling, first of all the works by Schaefer
(1957) on establishing a formal relationship between fishing activities and biological growth through mathematical modelling
confirmed by empirical studies. It was no coincidence that these results were achieved in the multidisciplinary fisheries science
environment in Canada at the time. Fisheries science and modelling developed rapidly during a productive and innovative period,
particularly among Canadian fisheries researchers of different disciplines. Population modelling and fishing mortality were
introduced to economists and new interdisciplinary modelling tools became available for the economists, which made it possible at
the same time to evaluate biological and economic impacts of different fishing activities, controlled or not by management
decisions.
The science of bioeconomics is the discipline originating from the synthesis of biology and
economics. It is an attempt to bridge, through the concept of holism and interdisciplinary methodology, the empirical culture of biology and the theoretical culture of
economics through a paradigmatic shift in the development of the economy-environment disciplines such as natural resource
economics, environmental economics and ecological economics.
References
- H. Scott Gordon (1954). The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery. The Journal of Political Economy
62(2): 124-142.
- M. B. Schaefer (1957). Some considerations of population dynamics and economics in relation to the management of marine
fishes. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 14: 669-81.
- Anthony Scott (1955). The Fishery: The Objectives of Sole Ownership. The Journal of Political Economy 63(2): 116-124.
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