Market Integration Across Marine Fish Markets: Evidence from Coastal Maharashtra

Market integration buffers the impact of environmental and economic shocks on prices, with integrated markets showing greater resilience compared to fragmented markets. This study analyses spatial price integration across five major marine fish markets in Maharashtra, namely Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, using annual price data from 1997 to 2022. The analysis based on the Law of One Price employed autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing. In all, six key species (mackerels, penaeid prawns, Harpadon nehereus , non-penaeid prawns, Otolithoides spp. and Loligo duvauceli ) were analyzed to examine the long-run market relationships and price transmission patterns. The findings reveal strong long-run price convergence for most species, with perfect transmission for penaeid prawns and Otolithoides spp. L. duvauceli showed weak integration, likely due to its export-driven, fragmented market. A notable finding is the unidirectional cointegration for several species, where prices in the Mumbai market significantly influence those in other markets but not vice versa, highlighting Mumbai’s role as a dominant price setter in the state. The study concludes that several coastal fish markets in Maharashtra function as an integrated market space, enhancing price stability and market efficiency. This underscores the species-specific market strategies and robust regional price intelligence to support efficient fisheries governance and informed policymaking. JEL Classification: F15, L11, Q13