What We Do Not Do

Balsa Research does not engage in lobbying. The political economy of maritime policy has proven remarkably resistant to direct advocacy efforts over the past century, and we don’t think that adding one more voice to the chorus will be a particularly high leverage move.

Our Thesis

We believe it is only a matter of time before market forces and external pressures effectively dissolve the Jones Act regime. The law has persisted not because it serves any coherent national interest, but because the concentrated benefits to a small number of shipyards and carriers have historically outweighed the diffuse costs borne by consumers, manufacturers, non-contiguous territories, and national security. However, we think several forces are converging to make this equilibrium increasingly unstable:

Increased Costs

The Jones Act effectively functions as a tax on domestic commerce, with estimates suggesting it costs consumers hundreds of millions to billions of dollars annually across petroleum products, consumer goods, and lost economic activity. As awareness of these costs grows, and as the domestic fleet continues to stagnate and serve only captive markets, the disparity between the law’s costs and its purported benefits will become increasingly difficult to justify.

Decarbonization Commitments

Increasingly rigorous domestic and international commitments to reduce carbon emissions will necessarily involve shifting freight from trucks to ships, which are dramatically more fuel-efficient per ton-mile. The United States currently ships only 4% of domestic goods by water, compared to 28% in Europe, despite having a comparable quality and quantity of natural waterways. As carbon costs rise (whether through environmental regulation, corporate commitments, or carbon pricing schemes) the economics will increasingly favor coastal shipping. The Jones Act stands directly in the way of this transition.

National Security

The Jones Act is typically defended on national security grounds, as the U.S. requires domestic shipbuilding capacity and a reserve of trained American mariners in times of national emergency. However, mariners cannot be trained without ships for them to work on. By making American-built and American-flagged ships economically untenable outside of a few routes where alternative transportation options do not exist, the Jones Act has shrunk the domestic fleet to the point where there simply are not enough billets to maintain reserve mariner capacity.

Our Role

When the political window for reform opens, there will be an intense scramble to develop viable policy proposals. Policymakers and staffers will need to quickly understand a complex regulatory regime, evaluate competing claims about its costs and benefits, and craft legislation that can actually pass.

We want the people doing that work to have access to the best information possible. To this end, Balsa Research is focused on creating genuinely thoughtful, informative, and unbiased documentation of how the Jones Act actually operates, what its real economic effects are, and what the best options for reform can look like. Our goal is to produce research that is rigorous enough to be cited by policymakers across the political spectrum, and neutral enough to give politicians cover to change their positions based on evidence rather than advocacy.

Once we are satisfied with our body of research, we will also develop draft model legislation that policymakers can use as a starting point for reform efforts. We believe that having well-designed legislative language ready when the political moment arrives will significantly increase the chances of achieving meaningful reform rather than cosmetic changes.

We are not trying to create the political conditions for reform. We are preparing the intellectual groundwork so that when those conditions emerge in their own time, the path forward is clear.

A Policy Solution that Works for Everyone

The good news is that we think repeal would generate such substantial economic benefits that we see no reason why established players (shipyards, carriers, mariners, and other workers in the maritime industry) cannot be made whole as part of any reform package. The gains from unlocking domestic maritime commerce are large enough to compensate those who currently benefit from the status quo while still leaving the country dramatically better off.

We are very eager to talk with industry stakeholders to understand their interests and ensure that any reform proposal protects them. If you are one such stakeholder and want to be part of this conversation, please reach out to hello@balsaresearch.com.

Last Updated April 7, 2026