Although failures and successes in fisheries management are related to decision making processes, these are rarely analyzed in detail and even less often following quantitative or semi-quantitative approaches. Herein, we study the decision making process for Chile's most important fisheries using a binary decision model. This model evaluates the probability that an annual total allowable catch (TAC) will or will not be modified by the National Fisheries Council (NFC) based on biological, economic, and social factors.

We estimate the technical efficiency gains of introducing individual quotas (IQs) in fisheries. Our estimates are based on two samples of vessels, considering a potential self-selection bias and controlling for quality changes in landings induced by the IQ system. The results suggest that the introduction of IQs has an important positive impact on fleet efficiency, and that properly measuring this impact requires controlling for the self-selection bias and quality changes induced by the regulatory shift.