The Fishery as Economic Base in the Newfoundland Economy
Historically, the fishery has been the mainstay of the Newfoundland economy. Inevitably, its importance declined as economic development proceeded, but was still quite substantial at the time of Confederation with Canada in 1949. Since then, however, the census figures show a precipitous decline in...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English unknown |
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International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/3b591972t |
| Summary: | Historically, the fishery has been the mainstay of the Newfoundland economy. Inevitably, its importance declined as economic development proceeded, but was still quite substantial at the time of Confederation with Canada in 1949. Since then, however, the census figures show a precipitous decline in the role of the fishery in providing employment to the local labour force. The census data suggest that only about five percent of the labour force now make a living as fishers. However, this statistical story flies in the face of a general view that the fishery is critically important to the Newfoundland economy. There have also been suggestions that the fishery acts as an economic base industry for the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador. The present paper attempts to evaluate the role of the fishing industry in that economy by embedding the output of the industry in a four-equation vector-error-correction model of the economy. It is found that the output of the fishing industry fits in the cointegration space of the model, and that after allowing for the effects of primary factors of production, the industry contributes significantly to the growth of the economy, with an elasticity slightly under 0.1. This result suggests that the fishing industry in Newfoundland and Labrador has an importance greater than its relative share of GDP would suggest. Keywords: Error Correction Model, Newfoundland, Economic Base, Cointegration, Fishery |
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