Commercial fishing is characterized by three key economic and technological features that are relevant to the formulation of an economic theory of fish production. 1. A fishery resource, although conceivably exhaustible, is replenishable; that is, it is subject to laws of natural growth which define an environmental biotechnological constraint on the activities of the fishing industry. 2. The resource and the activity of production from it form a stock-flow relationship. The new growth in the population fish mass depends upon the harvest rate relative to natural recruitment to the stock. If the harvest rate exceeds the recruitment rate, the stock declines, and vice versa. 3. The recovery or harvesting process is subject to various possible external effects ail of which represent external diseconomies to the firm: (a) Resource stock externalities result if the cost of a fishing vessel's catch decreases as the population of fish increases. (b) Mesh externalities result if the mesh size (or other kinds of gear selectivity variables) affects not only the private costs and revenues of the fisherman but also the growth behavior of the fish population. (c) Crowding externalities occur if the fish population is sufficiently concentrated to cause vessel congestion over the fishing grounds and, thus, increased vessel operating costs for any given catch. All of these various types of externalities arise fundamentally because of the "common property," unappropriated (Gordon, 1954; Scott, 1955) character of most fishery resources, especially ocean and large lake fisheries.

This study explores the following question: Does a worker's relationship to technology and degree of job specialization influence in a predictable way his integration into or alienation from work? The book shows that the degree of differentiation in the division of labor is related to technology in a similar manner in both the office and factory and that automated technology reduces the levels of alienation among both office employees and factory workers. The author samples three man-machine relationships in the office and factory: (1) workers in non-mechanized production systems; (2) machine operators in mechanized production systems; and (3) operators or monitors in automated production systems. In addition to separate chapters on office and factory workers, one chapter compares degrees and types of alienation among office employees as compared to factory workers.This book is one of the last in a series of research studies on the impact of computers completed by the Industrial Relations Section of the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. In a foreword to the book, Charles A. Myers notes that important study puts to rest extreme fears about the alienation of workers as a consequence of automation. Professor Shepard's study provides new insights about the impact of advanced mechanization and automation in offices, which computers and allied information technology are invading at a rapid rate...As a sociologist among economists, [he] has brought fresh perspective to this series of research reports.