Abstract
Attempts to determine the main economic principles that should underline the policies towards safety of ships, cargoes and persons. They applied a model from welfare economics through which they established an “acceptable” or “optimum” level of marine accidents at a point where marginal cost of preventing marine accidents equals the marginal costs of fewer marine accidents. Using mainly graphical analysis they tested whether the Oil Pollution Act is a policy measure in the right direction or not. Similar insights were made for the International Safety Code of IMO which tries to establish quality in shipping through reducing marine accidents (and preventing pollution). This application, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, was performed for the first time.