Innovation and technical change in the Norwegian salmon industry - A research stay at the University of California at San Diego

The current academic year (August 2013 to June 2014) I have been invited to University of California at San Diego (UCSD). I have already started my research stay using funding from the University of Stavanger that terminates in December 2013. By spending a period at the UCSD, I will get in touch with some of the world's leading scientists within the fileds of productivity analysis and regulation of natural resource-based industries with a focus on fishery and aquaculture. Being able to work in this enviro nment will be both informative and inspiring. Relationships and networks I create will also be important for future research and possible future NRC projects. In the project I will collaborate with researchers at UCSD and NOAA to do productively and effi ciency studies in the Norwegian salmon farm industry. I will investigate how innovation has been important for the industry's growth and to address environmental challenges. I will also address how different management regime has affected the productivity of the individual farm and the industry as whole. The result will be compared to similar studies done in North America. Comparing the results is a good way to ensure the quality of the analysis. Furthermore, it is a good way to investigate the outcome of different policy regulation among the two countries. In the project I plan to write at least four articles. These are "Productivity growth in the Norwegian salmon farming industry", "Can innovations solve the problem of salmon escapes?", "The case of se a lice in salmon aquaculture" and "The effect of government regulation".