Intertwining Biology and Economics: A Reassessment of Gordon’s 1954 Fishery Model
Abstract
Gordon’s 1954 article on the economics of fishery is considered as a seminal contribution for the method of bioeconomic modeling, via the coupling of biological and economic variables in a microeconomic model. However, the biological foundations of the fishery model as it is known today seems to have been brought a posteriori by the biologist Schaefer. This constatation opens the question of the role played by biology in Gordon’s 1954 model. On the basis of archival material and thorough analysis of Gordon’s early research, this paper shows that biological and economic reasoning are closely intertwined in Gordon’s work. It identifies several points of connection between the disciplines and helps to disentangle their respective contribution to early bioeconomic modeling. It also allows to provide hypothesis on the interdisciplinarity of Gordon’s modeling methodology.