Open registry tanker operations: a comparative cost analysis

The pull of economic gravity on traditional tanker operators towards open registries has been caused primarily by the need to be cost‐competitive in a market which itself is competitive. By using transcendental logarithmic cost functions to model the cost structures of open and traditional tanker operations, this study highlights the general structure of the production technology of tanker services, the cost differentials between the two flag groupings and provides insights into the comparative statics effects of their production functions in the form of elasticities of factor substitution and demand, and scale economies.