A global view on port state control: econometric analysis of the differences across port state control regimes

Abstract

This article is based on 183 819 port state control inspections from various port state control regimes for the time frame 1999 to 2004. Using binary logistic regression, we establish the differences of port state control inspections across several regimes, even though theory predicts there should be no significant differences in treatments of vessels. The results indicate that the differences towards the probability of detention are merely reflected by the differences in port states and the treatment of deficiencies and not necessarily by age, size, flag, class or owner as perceived by the industry and regulators. The analysis further shows that some differences can be found across ship types and regimes and that there appears to be room for further harmonization in the area of port state control.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement is given to the following port state control regimes for providing their inspection data: Paris MoU, Caribbean MoU, Viña del Mar Agreement on PSC, United States Coast Guard (USCG), Indian Ocean MoU and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). In addition, acknowledgement is further extended to various classification societies, P&I Clubs, port state control inspectors, flag state inspectors and vetting inspectors for their cooperation in allowing observation of 15 inspections. Finally, we thank an anonymous referee for making several very helpful suggestions.