Revenue Determinants for Abu-Dhabi Fishermen and Assessment of Input Allocative Efficiency

Abstract

This study examined the fishing industry in Abu Dhabi, the main fish-producing Emirate in the UAE, from the fishermen’s point of view. Marginal analysis was used to identify the most prominent fishing-revenue determinants along with assessing the allocative (price) efficiency of inputs used. A log-log total value product (TVP) function was estimated for a representative cross-section random sample of 131 Abu-Dhabi fishermen. This revealed that (1) labor, fishing effort, boat capacity, boat boarding expenses, and expenditures on oil and lubricants are the five main determinants of total revenue for the individual fishermen in Abu Dhabi; (2) boat-purchase price constituted a huge investment cost to fishermen distributed over the lifetime of the boat; although only one-third of fishermen acquire loans for this purpose; (3) the only type of records fishermen keep were those pertinent to monthly revenues; and (4) price efficiency is found not to be achieved for any of the five prominent inputs that have great impact on total fishermen’s revenues, as three inputs were found to be under-utilized in varying degrees, whereas two were found to be significantly over-utilized.