Price-quantity relations and choice of the geographical market size in Italian fresh seafood products

A correct planning and management of the fishing activities cannot ignore the market response to fish production. A wrong assumption about the market size during the empirical investigation can induce to errors in the preparation of the management plans. The purpose of this paper is to provide indications on the real extension (and therefore on the response) of the markets for some of the principal seafood species in Italy. An inverse system framework is followed to empirically investigate the price-quantity relations using a panel of five markets along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The results confirm that considering only a large geographical size (e.g. national level) can be misleading if the markets are not integrated at this level (for example in the case of cuttlefish), while considering too limited geographical sizes (e.g. local level) can be misleading because the potential market integrations at regional (as in the case of hakes), national (anchovies) or intemationallevel are ignored.