Effect of fuel prices on sailing speeds in short-sea shipping

Saana Ollila, Axel Merkel and Maria Börjesson

Applied Economics, 2025, vol. 57, issue 33, 4938-4954

Abstract: In this paper, we estimate fuel price elasticities of sailing speed for general cargo vessels using data covering the Baltic Sea and Norwegian coastal areas during the years 2007–2018. To disentangle the correlation between fuel prices and freight rates arising from changes in global demand, we instrument fuel prices on price changes triggered by supply shocks. The shocks are derived from the structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model proposed by Kilian (2009). In a sensitivity analysis, we use unanticipated oil supply shocks derived from oil supply outages as an alternative instrument for fuel prices. We find that disregarding the correlation between fuel prices and freight rates yields biased parameter estimates, which can partly explain the mixed results in the previous literature. Our preferred estimate for the fuel price elasticity of speed is −0.08.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2024.2364106

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