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The Business of Piracy in Somalia

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Author Info

  • Anja Shortland

Abstract

Piracy off the Horn of Africa has grown substantially in recent years: 217 ships reported being attacked by Somali pirates during 2009. Although less than one percent of ships transiting the Gulf of Aden in 2009 suffered attacks, Somali piracy creates considerable economic costs and distortions. Some ships now routinely avoid the region and the estimated additional costs of specialty marine risk insurance for ships using the Gulf of Aden trade route were estimated to be in the region of US$ 400mn for 2009. International naval forces (including missions from the EU and NATO) are present in the Gulf of Aden to ensure the delivery of food aid to displaced people in Somalia, to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden and to deter pirates from operating in the region. In our research we show that the naval presence has prevented an explosion of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, but does not appear to have had a significant deterrent effect on pirates. Some ship owners gamble that they will not be attacked and do not co-operate with the navy, thereby providing easy targets for pirates. In the meantime pirates' risk of injury, detention and trial in encounters with the navies remains relatively low. In any case sea-based naval operations will have limited success as long as Somalia remains a failed state. However, we show that partial improvements in local stability and governance are likely to increase pirate attacks. Therefore the most promising solution of the piracy problem would be to establish and fund a Somali coastguard. This would enforce both anti-piracy laws and stop illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia, providing new opportunities for economic for Somalia's coastal communities.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research in its journal Weekly Report.

Volume (Year): (2010)
Issue (Month): 23 ()
Pages: 182-186
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwrp:wr6-23

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Related research

Keywords: Piracy; Underdevelopment; State infrastructure;

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References

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Olaf J. de Groot & Matthew D. Rablen & Anja Shortland, 2011. "Gov-aargh-nance: "Even Criminals Need Law and Order"," Economics of Security Working Paper Series 46, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  2. Anja Shortland & Marc Vothknecht, 2010. "Combating "Maritime Terrorism" off the Coast of Somalia," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1079, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  3. Anja Shortland & Sarah Percy, 2011. "The Business of Piracy in Somalia," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 11-08, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
  4. Leeson, Peter T., 2007. "Better off stateless: Somalia before and after government collapse," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 689-710, December.
  5. Varese, Federico, 2001. "The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297369, August.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The economics of piracy in Somalia
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-08-23 14:33:00
  2. Weekly Wisdom Roundup 93: A Linkfest For The Smartest People On The Web
    by Miguel in Simoleon Sense on 2010-08-29 20:35:30
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
  1. Anja Shortland & Sarah Percy, 2011. "The Business of Piracy in Somalia," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 11-08, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
  2. Olaf J. de Groot & Matthew D. Rablen & Anja Shortland, 2011. "Gov-aargh-nance - "even criminals need law and order"," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 11-01, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
  3. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Sami Bensassi, 2011. "The price of modern maritime piracy," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 213, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.

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