Legal change, property rights system and institutional stability: The case of the floating raft culture in the Galician mussel sector

Galicia is a Spanish region which has been one of the leading producers of mussels around the world for decades. The institutional framework of the Galician floating raft culture in the mussel sector set up a scenario of institutional stability and equilibrium, in which new licenses were not granted and a winning coalition maintained the "status quo" from 1976 until 2008. Nevertheless, the two most important legal changes since the 90s took place in Galicia as of December 2008: the Fisheries Act 11/2008 and Act 6/2009 amending the former. Both Acts revoked the institutional framework provided by the Galician Fisheries Act of 1993. This paper presents an institutional economic analysis that studies the impact of the legal changes of 2008 and 2009 on the institutional foundations of the property rights system regarding the mussel floating rafts, and it constitutes a relevant case study on institutional stability in aquaculture production. The paper analyzes how the duration of property rights was extended with the "start counting from zero" formula and no change of status quo took place. The New Institutional Economics approach has provided the paper with a solid theoretical framework. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.