IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/marpmg/v53y2026i2p161-182.html

Determinants of vessels’ fixtures allocation over contracts of different duration and global economic uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Manolis G. Kavussanos
  • Stergiani (Stella) A. Moysiadou
  • Dimitris A. Tsouknidis

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodological framework to investigate the decision of economic agents to allocate vessel fixtures between ‘short,’ ‘medium,’ and ‘longer-term’ contracts and reveal the economic forces that drive decisions and the risk preferences of the participants in these markets. A unique database of individual vessel fixtures in the dry-bulk sector of the maritime industry is utilized. Application of the methodology to the data shows that relative freight rates of ‘short,’ ‘medium,’ and ‘longer-term’ contracts and the global ‘economic sentiment’ are the driving forces in the choice of the vessel fixture duration. An economic uncertainty index is introduced for the first time, which is able to capture the global ‘economic sentiment’ in the markets. This is found significant in driving decisions in this international industry, which is affected by global geoeconomic and political events. Specifically, it is shown that periods of high economic risk lead dry-bulk market participants to opt for relatively shorter, over longer-term, vessel fixtures.

Suggested Citation

  • Manolis G. Kavussanos & Stergiani (Stella) A. Moysiadou & Dimitris A. Tsouknidis, 2026. "Determinants of vessels’ fixtures allocation over contracts of different duration and global economic uncertainty," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 161-182, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:marpmg:v:53:y:2026:i:2:p:161-182
    DOI: 10.1080/03088839.2025.2491813
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03088839.2025.2491813
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03088839.2025.2491813?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:marpmg:v:53:y:2026:i:2:p:161-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TMPM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.