PhD Student Jesper Lund Jørstian
2023-2026
Part of the Maritime Research Platform at SDU, funded by Dampskibsselskabet Orients Fond
Project description
Shipping occupies a rather unique position in the contemporary history of Danish industrial politics. With the enactment of policies such as the Danish International Ship Register (DIS) in 1988, which allowed for tax free labour on larger merchant ships, and the tonnage tax law in 2002, which replaced the regular corporate tax law, Danish shipping companies today navigate within a more liberal domestic policy framework than many other industries do.
But how did these polices actually come about? And what broader implications did their implementation have for the practises of Danish maritime politics in the period? This project investigates how the Danish shipping policy framework was developed. It covers the political processes which led to the enactment of the above-mentioned polices, specifically, and deals more broadly with other topics, such as the emergence of the concept of ‘The blue Denmark’, environmental regulation and the rise of the offshore economy in shipping. Analytically, the project employs a transnational perspective, emphasising that both national and transnational actors played important roles in shaping policy debates in the period.
Seminar
Studying Business Influence in Danish Politics (w. Christoph Ellersgaard and Jesper Lund Jørstian, 5 June 202 at SDU). Seminar: The Bermuda Triangle: A tax haven, Scandinavia and the EU in the invention of International Ship Registries in the 1980s (w. Jesper Lund Jørstian, 9 April 2025 at Dept. of Economic History, Uppsala University).