| Abstract: | The United States Congress reasserted the desire for continued financial support to domestic merchant-ship construction when in 1970 it amended the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 1]. With regard to the shipbuilding industry, the most significant changes contained in the Merchant Marine Act of 1970 2] are those designed to reduce the construction differential subsidy and to increase the variety of vessels that might be subsidized. Sections 501(a), 502(a), and 502(b) of the 1936 Act were amended to facilitate the reduction in subsidies; Section 905(a) was modified to encourage the subsidized construction of liquid and dry bulk cargo vessels. After a cursory review of the 1970 amendments to the 1936 Act, this paper is directed to ascertaining the results, in general, of the changes and whether they have generated increased domestic shipyard productivity and lower subsidy rates. |
