Triple benefits from spatial resource management

Standard fishery management models suggest that regulations designed to produce maximum rent should reduce effort - and thus employment - from its open-access level. Using a simple diffusion model, we show that the opposite can be true when the spatial distribution of effort, as well as the total amount of effort, can be controlled. Under certain ecological and economic circumstances that we describe, optimal spatial management can produce triple benefits compared to open access: an increase in rent, an increase in standing stock, and an increase in employment.