Explaining non-compliance in the Norwegian coastal cod fishery: an application of the multinomial logit

Establishing motive is central to the analysis of criminal behaviour. This paper analyses the range of motives for non-compliant behaviour among coastal cod fishermen. A multinomial logit model is employed to analyse the reasons that underlie various motives. The four motives compared in this study are economic, technological and social, and motives caused by bureaucracy and legitimacy problems. The economic motive is found to be most important for coastal fishermen. However, the cross-sectional data indicate that motives vary with fishing gear, vessel length, and fishermen’s age. The results indicate that identifying motives for non-compliant behaviour is not straightforward but is important for reducing the extent of infringements of the regulations. Fishermen who use gill-net, seine and long line, for example, are more often motivated to non-compliance by technical problems and bureaucracy than hand-jig fishers. The study suggests that in order to prevent non-compliance behaviour, the authorities’ management policy should be designed to address the problems encountered by different categories of fishers. For example, offences that are committed because of technical problems should be resolved by increasing the involvement of fishermen in the process of drawing up regulations, whereas offences motivated by economic factors should be reduced by increasing inspections.