World Bank examines why fishing subsidies keep growing despite reform efforts

Governments continue pouring billions into fishing subsidies even though they fuel overfishing, waste, and fleet overcapacity — the opposite of what economists recommend. This working paper documents why the subsidies persist and what would actually need to change to reverse the pattern.

Fishing subsidies are a textbook example of how governments can accidentally make a problem worse by trying to help: the money keeps boats fishing unprofitable routes, which destroys fish stocks faster than they can recover, which then requires more subsidies to keep those same boats afloat.