Shipping companies frequently outsource the management of their vessels. In this paper, we use data from Lloyd's Register Fairplay [(2009) IHS Fairplay World shipping encyclopaedia. Avail-able at http://www.ihs.com/products/maritime-information/ships/world-shipping-encyclopedia.aspx? pu=1&rd=ihsfairplay_com] on 45 456 vessels belonging to 9580 different ship-owners to investigate the extent of outsourcing in shipping and to identify the key factors affecting the likelihood of outsourcing. The results of our econometric analysis indicate that ship-owners' decisions to outsource are explained by the characteristics of the vessels in question (age, type and size) and the characteristics of the ship-owner (country of domiciliation and number of vessels). In addition, a specific country effect is identified for Greek ship-owners, which is in line with the findings of previous studies.
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