This project focuses on the economic significance of the existing tax incentives and framework conditions of the Danish shipping industry for: 1) the shipping industry, 2) the maritime cluster, and 3) the Danish society.

The project rests on the overall assumption that the tonnage tax and the DIS arrangement impact positively on Blue Denmark and on Danish society in general. Especially, the project starts with the hypothesis that the DIS arrangement vitally supports the operation and development of the Danish merchant fleet; maintains the affiliation of suppliers with the shipping industry; and – by improving the retention of Danish workers on Danish merchant ships – contributes to maintaining and developing the internal coherence of Blue Denmark as well as qualifications of its workforce.

To explore the overall assumption stated here, the study is divided into two parts; one focusing on what might be called cluster effects and the other on the implications and challenges for Danish maritime policy.

The first part looks at:

1) the internal coherence of Blue Denmark as represented by the sectoral affiliation and inter-industry mobility of the maritime workforce; and

2) the issue of critical mass as illustrated by the retention and attraction of companies and competence.

Furthermore, with the collaboration of researchers from the Centre for Maritime Research and Innovation at University of Southern Denmark, this part of the study includes a case analysis of the maritime clusters of Norway and Sweden. In these countries, changing political conditions have caused maritime businesses to decline rapidly, and it has turned out to be very difficult to reinvigorate maritime industries.

The second part explores:

1) what can be considered good maritime policies when seen from a behavioural, evolutionary economics perspective (replacing optimising policy with a more provisional and adaptive policy approach)

2) policy instruments for cluster maintenance and development, with a special focus on tax incentives (especially the DIS arrangement).

The project is co-financed by the Danish Maritime Foundation and CBS.

Staff: Henrik Sornn-Friese

This project seeks to explain why the Danish shipping industry has been so effectively able to gain from the opportunities of world trade by sea since the early 1990s so as to obtain European leadership in that area and to perceive world leadership to be within its grasp in the near future.

Staff: Henrik Sornn-Friese and Martin Iversen

This project examines the role played by container shipping in integrating developing countries into global value chains. It focuses particularly on the role of A. P. Moller – Maersk’s investments in building container shipping infrastructure in South East Asia and more specifically Vietnam.

The project is part of a larger project carried out at the Centre for Business and Development Studies at Copenhagen Business School, focusing on outsourcing for development.

The Danish Development Research Council funds the project.

Staff: Michael W. Hansen and Henrik Schaumburg-Müller