Tietenberg and Lewis discuss the tragedy of the commons in Chapter 2, a situation that is exits in many open access fisheries. Explain why is open access fishing a problem from both an economic and environmental perspective? What policies can be used to address these problems? Are there government policies intended to help fisherman that can actually make things worse? BELOW IS THE ANSWER BUT NEEDS TO BE REWRITTEN PLAGIERISM FREE Open access fisheries can lead to economic and environmental problems such as dissipation of economic rent, overpopulation of the fleet, overexploitation of fish resources, fish stock depletion and even extinction of fish stock in some cases. · Regulatory policies including use rights, regulatory programs by global organizations, and imposition of taxes can help in overcoming the open access fishery problems. · Governmental policies of subsidies, loans, and even taxes can result in exacerbation of the problems faced by open access fisheries. In an open access fishery, there is unrestricted access for fish harvesting, that is, the fishery is open to all for catching fish. No regulations are imposed on the fishermen for their participation and fish harvesting amount. As a result of unregulated access, the number of fish that are harvested exceeds the socially optimal harvesting level. This subsequently leads to both economic and environmental problems including dissipation of the economic profits, depletion of fish stocks, and also extinction of fish stocks. A major manifestation in this regard, with serious consequences, is observed in the fisheries in high seas, that is, in ocean areas that are outside the jurisdictional domain of any one nation. Fisheries with open access, are likely to lead to extreme economic and conservational problems. Unregulated exploitation of the marine resources is a major threat to fisheries regarding their long-term sustainability. It is to be noted that open access also refers to fisheries, where the amount of harvesting gear used, nor the number of boats, are controlled. This unregulated access can be present even if there is regulation on total catch of fish. In such instances, the fish stocks might not collapse, but the fleet can become over-excessive due to over-capitalization. Such a fleet is influenced by economic incentives for entering the fishery and for investing in larger boats. This overpopulation of the fleet can threaten the fishery's economic health, in spite of safeguarding the resource. · Regulatory policies can be implemented to overcome the problem of open access fisheries. For instance, use rights can help in open access problems. Use rights are categorized under property rights (that shows the relationship between different types of property and people). Use rights are held by the fishermen for use of the fishery resources, and include access rights and withdrawal rights of harvesting fish. Access rights provide authorization to entry into the fishery. Withdrawal rights usually provide rights for taking a specific catch of fish, or specific level of fishing effort. Also, for maintaining a high yield of fish, and for protecting young fish, restrictions can be imposed on gears used for fishing activity. Taxes can be imposed for coping with the overexploitation in fish harvesting, in open access fisheries. The serious threat posed by open access fisheries led to the regulatory efforts on fisheries in the high seas, by the United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. This program was subsequently followed by the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement that implemented the relevant provisions of the UN Law of the Sea. Some governmental policies for fishermen can worsen the situation in case of open access fisheries. Subsidies can augment the open access fishery problems by actually subsidizing unsustainable fishing practices by the fishermen. Transfers lead to an increase in the profits of the fishing industry in the short run, but in the long run, subsidies often result in too many fishers trying to catch from a resource of few fish. Also, governmental loan programs and tax laws can exacerbate the overcapitalization problem in an open access fishery. GET THIS OR ORDER A SIMILAR PAPER NOW