Suppressor Variable in Determining Targeted Catch of Exportable Marine Species in India

Suppressor variables are often ignored while analysing data and efforts are made to change the data set by using proxies or other methods. However, efforts to explain the suppressor variables may provide some interesting interpretations into the relationship between variables in a specific context. The paper highlights some contemporary literature on the issue of suppression and some tools to identify suppressor variables. On the basis of analysis of data on marine fishing activities in India, the paper concludes that an explanatory recognition to the existence of suppressors may provide interesting policy perspective and ignoring suppressors and viewing those as aberrations in variable selection may result in incorrect interpretation and incorrect policy suggestions.]