Review of existing literature

• Author: CETMAR, COGEA, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (European Commission), POSEIDON, Seascape Belgium, Universidade de Vigo
• Pages: 5-12

Study on the Economic Impact of MSP

5

1 Review of existing literature

The first task of the study consisted of a review of the literature on the economic

effects of MSP, so as to understand whether other researchers carried out exercises

that are similar in scope to the pre sent study. The rationale behind this task was to

take stock of the methods used by economists to quantify the impact of MSP on an

economy, in order to benchmark the method to conduct the case studies to be carried

out in Task 4 against the most reliable state-of-the-art approach es used in literature.

To ensure full coverage, we reviewed both scientific papers from peer-reviewed

literature, as well as reports from grey literature related to MSP.

The methodology applied to carr y out the task is known as critical systematic review,

which is made up of 4 phases: Identification, Screening, Eligibility and Inclusion. The

goal was to identify the widest possible number of papers and publications dealing

with the quantification of the economic effects of MSP. Economic effects may include

direct and indirect costs an d benefits to the maritime sectors considered in a plan, as

well as costs and benefits associated to oth er phenomena such as reduction of

administrative burden, simplification of permitting/licencing procedures, etc.

1.1 Identification

The first phase of the literature review aimed to identify the largest possibl e number

of papers and publications dealing with the quantification of the economic effects of

MSP. Economic effects include direct and ind irect costs and benefits to the maritime

sectors considered in a plan, as well as other costs and benefits such as reduction of

administrative bu rden, simplification of permitting/licencing procedures, etc. To avoid

methodological biases, multiple sources were used, both academic (SCOPUS and Web

of Science) and non-academic, such as grey literature or li terature indexed in other

databases (reports, technical studies, working pap ers by e.g. the United Nations or DG

MARE, etc.). In terms of geographical scope, no li mitation was applied. Special

emphasis was placed on papers and reports from the case- study countries, but

literature from any other region of the world was taken into consideration, as long as

it was in one of the l anguages spoken by the research team. While in pri nciple it is

possible that some publication in a language not spoken by the research team escaped

the review, this circumstance is highly unlikely, at least as far as scientific papers are

concerned, because usually peer-revi ewed journals require that at least an abstract b e

submitted in English.

In order to identify the available literature, search equations were use d in referenced

search engines

6 to query the different databases selected. The search equation s varied

depending on the database consulted and depending on the search criteria (e.g. t itle

of the document, keywords, summary, a combi nation of these three, etc.). Th e exact

keywords used in the search equations play a pivotal role. Th ey need to be sufficiently

“broad”, so as not to overlook any relevant publicationś at the same time, they need

to be precise enough to obtain only results (i.e. publications) that are german e to the

topic at hand. The keywords selected were:

6 An example of a search equation is:

( ( TITLE-ABS-KEY ( maritime AND spatial AND planning ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( maritime AND spatial AND regulation ) OR

TITLE-ABS-KEY ( marine AND spatial AND design ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ocean AND spatial AND planning ) OR TITLE -ABS-

KEY ( ocean AND spatial AND regulations ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ocean AND spatial AND design ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (

coastal AND spatial AND planning ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( coastal AND spatial AND regulations ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( coastal

AND spatial AND design ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( i ntegrated AND coastal AND management ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( integrated

AND zone AND coastal AND management ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( marine AND spatial AND planning ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (

marine AND spatial AND regulations ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( marine AND spatial AND design ) ) AND PUBYEAR > 1999 )

AND ( msp ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "ENVI" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "SOCI" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "AGRI" )

OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "ECON" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "BUSI" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "DECI" ) OR LIMIT-TO (

SUBJAREA , "MULT" ) )