2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Economic Evaluation and Future Policy of Strategic Global Alliances and Shipping Conferences in the International Liner Shipping Industry
| Project/Area Number |
10630032
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
経済政策(含経済事情)
|
|---|
| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
KOI Masayuki University of Tsukuba, Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences, Professor, 社会工学系, 教授 (40217609)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
YOSHIDA Atsushi University of Tsukuba, Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences, Professor, 社会工学系, 教授 (60240272)
TIWARI Piyush University of Tsukuba, Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences, Assisutant Professor, 社会工学系, 講師 (70323243)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 2001
|
| Keywords | the International Liner Shipping Industry / Shipping Conference / Strategic Global Alliance |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
While no government regulations have been traditionally applied in the international liner shipping industry based on the so-called principle of freedom of shipping, it has been the world common practice since the end of the 19th century that shipping conferences are exempted from the application of anti-trust law. This is to avoid the destructive competition due to the unique cost structure and demand fluctuations of the industry, to stabilize fare at a sound level, and to secure services. However, disorders have been brought to the industry by the technical standardization called containerization in late 1960s and the U.S. New Shipping Act of 1984, which required some competitive natures to the conferences. As a result, outsiders increased their share, the fare levels came down, and the conferences have been weakened and reorganized. The conferences finally collapsed in the North Pacific route due to the 1998 Revised U.S. Shipping Act. Global alliance became a new strategy for shipping companies to survive in the industry starting in 1996. We investigated, in detail, such dynamic changes of the industrial structure.
In particular, we analyzed the roles of conferences and alliances in use of micro economic theoretical methods and compared the situation with the competitive market case and the civil aviation market. We also analyzed the operating efficiency of ports and shipping and shippers' behaviors of shipping line choice in China and Japan using DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and multinomial logit models. Our policy discussion identifies some roles of conferences and alliances in stabilizing the market under certain conditions. We wrote such results in several academic papers and a book entitled Transporta tion Economics.
|
