The Firm's Management in Production: Management, Firm and Time Effects in an Indian Ocean Tuna Fishery - Working Paper

The firm's management in production is a critical, but unobserved input. Within a panel data framework, the firm's management and firm effects have to date been conflated. Exploiting variability in the managerial dimension, this paper identifies the firm's management from firm and time effects in a production function using a three-way fixed effect model and a unique panel data set tracking multiple managers for each firm in each year for an industry over 27 years. We also allow for time-varying firm management through learning. The model is applied to the French purse-seine fleet harvesting tunas in the Indian Ocean. We find that fishing hours and number of sets on floating objects and on free-swimming schools explain more than 70% of variation in tuna catches over the period. The skipper and vessel fixed effects have a rather similar influence (around 5% each). Skipper learning-by-doing as measured by experience and job tenure plays no significant role, meaning that managerial ability is time-invariant in this industry.