ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1453132
Can Fishery Subsidy Improve Fishermen's Income? --Evidence from China's coastal areas
Provisionally accepted
- 1Massey University Business School, Albany, New Zealand
- 2Yancheng Polytechnic College, Yancheng, China
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Numerous studies have demonstrated that fishery subsidies play a role in income redistribution, potentially contributing to economic inequality. Additionally, since fishermen are highly dependent on the marine environment, there may be a connection between marine pollution and their income levels. This study explores the effects of fishery subsidies and marine environmental pollution on fishermen's income and income inequality using panel data from 11 coastal provinces and municipalities in China from 2006 to 2020. Applying panel fixed effect model and quantile regression models, the results show that fishery subsidies significantly increase income, but disproportionately benefit higher-income fishermen, thereby exacerbating income inequality. Moreover, the relationship between marine pollution and income is non-linear: moderate pollution is associated with income gains, while severe pollution reduces income. These findings suggest that subsidy policies should be better targeted, and stricter marine environmental regulation is necessary to protect vulnerable fishing communities.
Keywords: Fishery subsidies, marine environment, income distribution, Inverted U shaped curve, Marine fishing
Received: 22 Jun 2024; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LI, Pham Do, Shakur and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: YUJUAN LI, Massey University Business School, Albany, New Zealand
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