Consider a village where residents have no other employment or income earning possibilities besides fishing. Each resident owns a boat. Fish are worth $2 per pound and the cost of operating a boat is $400 per month. They all can fish in a river next to the village, and they have determined that when there are more of them out there on the river fishing, they all catch less fish per month:
Total amount of fish caught (in pounds) = 1,000E - 10E^2 , where E is the level of fishing effort (the number of boats fishing in the river).
- What is the efficient number of boats to fish on this river?
- If each fisherman maximizes his own profit, how many fishermen will fish in the river? How much profit will they earn together?