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Agricultural land abandonment is a relevant occurrence in mountainous and peripheral regions all over the world. While both positive and negative environmental consequences of this abandonment are documented (depending on the specific location and scale), in rural areas it is always linked to a reduction in production and income. To address some of these problems, the several administrative layers within the European Union (EU) have put in place public policies that focus either on the immediate causes or on the consequences. Policies aimed at promoting recultivating formerly abandoned fields have usually tried simultaneously to address both the causes (e.g., to increase farm productivity/output) and the consequences (i.e., to manage fields according to specific criteria), but the potential economic outcomes of these measures are unknown. In this paper, we estimate the effect of recultivation of abandoned farmland on the economy of a case study region in NW Spain (Galicia). We propose that this effect can be used to guide decisions on the viable expenditure levels of recultivation policy. Concerning the methodology, we relied upon geographic information systems to show the area of land suitable for recultivation is relevant: i.e. recultivation policies could result in an increase of at least 16% of current farmland. Using Standard Production Coefficients per hectare we show that the total output (at constant prices) generated by the recultivation of abandoned land would amount to 413.3 million euros/year. Calculations based on input output methods suggest that the benefits of the recultivation policies would be an increase of 1% of the total regional Gross Value Added (GVA). We show that the input-output methods underestimate the benefits of cultivation policies based on total factor productivity (TFP) improvements, which fundamentally come from the reallocation of factors among the rest of the sectors of the economy. In particular, if recultivation policies increase agricultural TFP by 26% (in order to increase ...

Harmful fisheries subsidies have historically contributed to fleet overcapacity and continue to be allocated to the fishing industry to artificially maintain its profitability. However, in this contribution we show that removing harmful subsidies and reducing overfishing will help to recover the resource biomass, subsequently leading to increased levels of sustainable catches, income and well-being of fishers, and reduces inequities in income and consumption when fish stocks are not effectively managed. Maintaining harmful fisheries subsidies is socially and economically inefficient. Taking the example of the EU fishing fleet, one of the largest fishing fleets in the world, we use the total factor productivity to show that small-scale fishing fleet's productivity is almost two-fold in the North Atlantic and 16% higher in the Mediterranean and Black seas compared to large-scale vessels. This result is explained because the harmful fisheries subsidies disproportionately allocated to large-scale vessels introduce distortions in the efficient allocation of inputs. With critical WTO negotiations ongoing regarding the global rules on fisheries subsidies, the EU must take advantage of the opportunity to lead a desirable transformative change while also supporting developing nations to truly achieve global sustainable and equitable fisheries ; This research is supported by the EQUALSEA (Transformative adaptation towards ocean equity) project, under the European Horizon 2020 Program, ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement no 101002784 funded by the European Research Council, and Grupo de Referencia Competitiva GI-2060 AEMI, under Grant ED431C2019/11. S.V thanks the Consellería de Educación da Xunta de Galicia (Galicia, Spain) for additional funding support. U.R.S. and D.J.S. thank the Pew Charitable Trusts and Oceana for their support of work related to harmful fisheries subsidies, and the OceanCanada Partnership supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The opinions expressed in this paper ...