Jones Act Waiver Yields Rich Data

Cato's Scott Lincicome considers economic data from Trump's wartime waiver of the century-plus-old protectionist disaster known as the Jones Act.In just over two months, economists like himself have harvested a trove of information about what happens when the government doesn't dictate who builds, operates, and owns a ship that operates between two American ports:[T]he waiver reveals some of the domestic shipping demand that the Jones Act has suppressed, thus hinting at the law's substantial economic costs. As industry publication TradeWinds reports, foreign vessels utilizing the waiver have supplemented a fully-booked Jones Act fleet instead of displacing it. This implies the existence of latent demand for coastwise shipping that the law has thwarted -- additional transactions between U.S. companies and U.S. ports that would occur daily but for the Jones Act's costs. In non-waiver times, this activity goes to foreign suppliers, along overland U.S. routes, or via ridiculous…