Why do fishermen comply with regulations? The role of preferences

Compliance with rules and regulations is a necessary condition for effective resource management. We investigate how individual attitudes and preferences affect compliance in Norwegian fisheries. We analyze data from a combined web-based experiment and survey of Norwegian fishermen conducted in the spring of 2014. In the economic experiment, the participants won real money in a set of lotteries based on their answers and lottery outcomes. Based on the participants` lottery choices, we derive measures of various individual preferences, including time, risk and social preferences. We combine these preference measures with the fishermen`s survey responses related to violations of formal and informal rules, to empirically test and quantify theoretical predictions. Fishermen comply with formal rules primarily because they believe one should obey the law. Our empirical results show that individual preferences matter in how individuals perceive noncompliance, while it matters less for whether one sees oneself as more or less compliant than the average fisherman.