Taking Institutions Seriously: Using the IAD Framework to Analyze Fisheries Policy

We argue that the fisheries management literature often does a poor job of analyzing issues related to institutional design and performance. The article begins by examining four competing institutional arrangements used to manage fisheries: bureaucracy, markets, community, and comanagement. The differences are used to highlight the importance of understanding critical issues related to institutional analysis. The article then examines some of the common problems or pitfalls that analysts fall victim to when examining institutional design and performance. We conclude by summarizing the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, one approach to institutional analysis that avoids these common pitfalls.