A committee
was established to help organize an
international maritime economists group,
but meetings continued to be ad hoc and
dominantly involved economists from
Europe with representatives from national
institutions such as the Japan Maritime
Research Institute ( JAMRI). After 1986, the
World Conference on Transport Research
Society (WCTRS) encouraged a maritime
special interest group. Following a 1991 conference
in Rotterdam which concluded that
shipping “ justifi ed the recognition of a
special, albeit catholic, academic and intellectual
focus ” (Gwilliam 1993 ), IAME held