Public Investment Support in Rights-Based Fisheries: Evidence from Norway

As technological change and market-based management systems reshape the fishing industry, many coastal communities face mounting challenges. Public investment subsidies are one potential policy response, yet little is known about their scale, allocation, or relationship to resource ownership in regulated fisheries. In this paper, I address this gap by constructing a novel dataset covering municipal and statelevel grants to the Norwegian fishing industry and linking these records with detailed register data on quota holdings. Using this dataset, I document the magnitude, composition, and spatial distribution of subsidies across Norwegian municipalities from 2001 to 2019 and explore correlations with quota ownership. Municipal transfers totaled roughly NOK 200 million, concentrated in rural areas and dominated by grants for vessel and quota purchases. Subsidy provision and quota ownership co–move in coastal fisheries, while fiscal health plays only a minor role. As an illustrative case of the influence of subsidy eligibility on quota ownership, I examine a revision of Norway’s regional aid area, which removed several coastal municipalities from eligibility for general investment support. Results—indicative rather than conclusive—suggest a possible decline in quota holdings in the coastal cod fishery following the reform. In sum, the paper provides an empirical foundation for understanding how local governments use targeted investment subsidies under rights–based fisheries management.