Project CEMAPRE internal
| Title | ECO-MFG: Economic–Ecological Modelling of Marine Fisheries via Mean Field Games |
| Participants | Nuno Brites (Principal Investigator), Alexandre Rodrigues, Pedro Tiago da Costa Soares |
| Summary | This project focusses on the integration of economics and ecology in the mathematical modelling of marine ecosystems. The work addresses the interaction between market dynamics and ecological processes in fisheries, with particular emphasis on price formation, harvesting behaviour, and resource exploitation. Two main components will be developed: an empirical analysis of fish price flexibility in relation to landings, and the formulation and numerical solution of a mean field game model for fisheries. Using market data from the UK, statistical analyses will be conducted on ex-vessel fish prices, landings, and other relevant market variables. This allow the estimation of negative own-price flexibilities for a wide range of individual fish species, as well as for broader guilds of species. These estimates establish quantitative relationships between landed quantities and prices, generating an explicit feedback mechanism between human economic activity and the marine ecosystem. Building on these results, a mean field game framework is developed to model a large population of economic agents exploiting a common renewable resource. The model captures how individual harvesting decisions depend on the collective behaviour of all agents. Numerical solutions of the model enable dynamic simulations of the coupled economic--ecological system, providing insight into how price flexibility, stock growth rates, and regulatory interventions jointly influence fishing pressure and resource sustainability. |