Financing Port Dredging Costs: Taxes Versus User Fees

The article examines the use of user fee and tax programs to finance the cost of port dredging. The article discusses the U.S. Water Resources Development Act, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, the Harbor Maintenance Tax, which is an ad valorem tax on the cargo\u27s value, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, articles from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, national user fee program proposals by the former U.S. President Bill Clinton administration, Moriarity\u27s Rule, and the Shapley Value Rule

Determinants of the Probability of Ship Injuries

This study investigates determinants of the probability that an individual onboard a ship of a given shipping line will be injured (given that the ship is not involved in an accident). A Probit regression statistical model is used to investigate such determinants when ships are in port and on given types of containerships. Probit estimation results suggest that an individual is less likely to be injured in port onboard a ship that is larger in size and underway, but more likely to be injured if involved in a fall. An individual is less likely to be injured onboard a containership with AMO union officers if it is larger in size and during the daytime. An individual is less likely to be injured onboard a containership with MEBA and MMP union officers if it is larger in size, when the weather is clear and when he/she is wearing steel-toed safety boots

Modeling of Commercial Maritime Port Recoverability from Security Disruptions: Work-in-Progress

This article describes active research in commercial maritime port\u27s recovery from security disruptions which explores the synergy of economic and simulation models in investigating the recoverability of ports after security incidents. Previous study has identified decision variables and throughput simulation models of port operation. However, none of these models have been utilized to investigate port\u27s recovery from a security disruption and in evaluating recoverability investments. The method of research includes analysis of recorded disruptions, identification of impediments to recovery and investment criteria for recoverability. This article provides managers insight into including security and continuity of operation in managing various types of systems

Forecasting Empty Container Volumes

The accumulation and repositioning of empty containers have become acute problems for container ports and are expected to intensify in the future given the expected growth in trade imbalances among trading nations. These problems are major costs and operational challenges for container ports. More accurate forecasting of volumes of port empty containers will enable container ports to develop more cost efficient plans for the repositioning of empty containers. This paper compares the Tioga Group, United Nations and Winters method (utilizing empty container volumes of three U.S. container ports) in forecasting volumes of port empty containers. The Winters method is found to provide more accurate forecasts of volumes of port empty containers than the Tioga Group and United Nations methods

Motor Bus Deregulation and the Gender Wage Gap: A Test of the Becker Hypothesis

This study provides a test of Becker's hypothesis that wage discrimination within an industry depends on the degree of market competition by analyzing earnings in a deregulated transportation sector--the motor bus industry. The empirical findings provide strong support for the hypothesis that motor bus deregulation, by creating an increasingly competitive environment, makes discrimination more costly and provides greater incentives for firms to employ female drivers. The earnings status of unionized white female drivers relative to white males improved significantly subsequent to deregulation, with female wages increasing even as the real wage level for male drivers declined.Bus; Deregulation; Discrimination; Female; Gender; Transportation

The Effects of Subsidies on Public Transit Long-Run Costs

This paper investigates sources of public transit long-run cost increases attributable to transit subsidies. The sources include wage, vehicle capital price and service increases. Service expansion is found to be the major source. Transit cost increases related to subsidies are classified as input price, output and finance effects of these subsidies. Transit costs are more responsive to federal operating subsidies, followed in declining order by local operating, state operating and capital subsidies, respectively

Determinants of injuries in passenger vessel accidents

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Accident Analysis & Prevention 82 (2015): 112-117, doi:10.1016/j.aap.2015.05.025.This paper investigates determinants of crew and passenger injuries in passenger vessel accidents. Crew and passenger injury equations are estimated for ferry, ocean cruise, and river cruise vessel accidents, utilizing detailed data of individual vessel accidents that were investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard during the time period 2001-2008. The estimation results provide empirical evidence (for the first time in the literature) that crew injuries are determinants of passenger injuries in passenger vessel accidents.This study was partially funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Code: A-PL59). Di Jin would like to thank the support from the J. Seward Johnson Fund in Support of the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Maritime Economics in a Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era

(First paragraph) The 2016 opening of an expanded Panama Canal will allow for Post-Panamax containerships up to 12 500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) in size to transit the Panama Canal. In response, some US East Coast container ports are having their channels and berths dredged deeper—to allow Post-Panamax containerships from Asia (transiting the expanded canal) to call at their ports. What are the implications for the US West Coast ports? Will there be a cargo shift from West Coast to East Coast ports? These topics as well as the impacts of other changes in global shipping lanes (e.g., the Suez Canal and the Arctic shipping lanes) on global trade and ports in the Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era were discussed in various sessions of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) 2014 Conference. This special issue is dedicated to the study of the above impacts. The goal of this special issue is to encourage research in this important area by highlighting the influence of the Panama Canal expansion to the global maritime sectors and examining the potentially dramatic changes in the Post-Expansion Era. Hence, five IAME conference papers and an additional paper by Ducruet are chosen for this reason