Kanae Tokunaga, Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Jay Kim, PhD Candidate, UMaine

This project proposes an ‘encultured’ bio-economic modeling approach using an ABM framework.  ‘Encultured’ bio-economic modeling builds on the recent development in behavioral economics literature that introduced the notion of an ‘encultured actor’ whose preferences and decisions are influenced by deep social influences, such as social contexts and cultural mental models (Hoff & Stiglitz, 2016). Here, we are interested in understanding how the lived experiences of people influence decisions associated with fishing technologies (e.g., vessel size), fishing locations, and overall fishing objectives. The development of the encultured ABM will be informed by the socioeconomic indicators (3.3.2) and the diagnostic analysis (3.3.3) to incorporate not only resource and fishery governance constraints but also cultural constraints.