New Measures of Port Efficiency Using International Trade Data

Journal of Development Economics, 2004

Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries, transport costs are a greater barrier to U.S. markets than import tariffs. We investigate the determinants of shipping costs to the United States with a large database of more than 300,000 observations per year on shipments of products aggregated at six-digit Harmonized System (HS) level from different ports around the world. Distance, volumes, and product characteristics all matter. In addition, we find that port efficiency is an important determinant of shipping costs. Improving port efficiency from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs by 12%. Bad ports are equivalent to being 60% farther away from markets for the average country. Inefficient ports also increase handling costs, which are one of the components of shipping costs. In turn, factors explaining variations in port efficiency include excessive regulation, the prevalence of organized crime, and the general condition of the country's infrastructure. Reductions in country inefficiencies, associated to transport costs, from the 25th to 75th percentiles imply an increase in bilateral trade of around 25%.

Infrastructure Investment in Indonesia, 2019

This paper develops a port productivity and efficiency analysis of all developing regions between 2000 and 2010, using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. From a unique dataset – our sample covers 70 developing countries, 203 ports, and 1,750 data points–, we carry out an analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity and efficiency changes across developing regions. We show that productivity growth rates between 2000 and 2010 vary significantly and that this heterogeneity is explained by pure efficiency changes rather than scale efficiency of technological changes. Therefore, we carry out a detailed efficiency analysis to determine the drivers of port efficiency. Time series results show an upward trend for port efficiency in developing regions, as it increased from 47 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2010. Our analysis indicates that private sector participation, the reduction of corruption in the public sector and improvements in liner connectivity and the existe...

2002

2004

Available studies have not provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of making international comparisons of port efficiency. This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to provide an efficiency ranking for five Australian and eighteen other international container ports. While DEA has been applied to a wide number of different situations where efficiency comparisons are required, this technique has not previously been applied to ports. The DEA technique is useful in resolving the measurement of port efficiency because the calculations are nonparametric and do not require specification or knowledge of a priori weights for the inputs or outputs, as is required for estimation of efficiency using production functions. * G. Poitras is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, J. Tongzon is a Sr. Lecturer, Department of Economics and Statistics, National University of Singapore and H. Li is a Lecturer, Department...

Maritime Policy & Management, 2011

International Handbook of Maritime Economics. Ed.: K. Cullinane, 2010

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2001

Available studies have not provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of making international comparisons of port eciency. This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to provide an eciency measurement for four Australian and twelve other international container ports. While DEA has been applied to a wide number of dierent situations where eciency comparisons are required, this technique has not previously been applied to ports. The DEA technique is useful in resolving the measurement of port eciency because the calculations are non-parametric, can handle more than one output and do not require an explicit a priori determination of relationships between output and inputs, as is required for conventional estimation of eciency using production functions. The ports of Melbourne, Rotterdam, Yokohama and Osaka are found to be the most inecient ports in the sample, based on constant and variable returns to scale assumptions, mainly due to the enormous slack in their container berths, terminal area and labor inputs. The study also draws some policy implications for ports and recommends certain areas for future research. Ó

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 2013

During the last years, there was rapid development in the world port industry which is considered to have resulted from the increase of universal trade. The key to the development of each port is its adaptability to the earliest developments and its resistance to the increasing competition. The influence zones of each port are characterised by instability, while each port authority aims at the creation and exploitation of competitive assets, setting store on specialisation and increase of productivity of each port's functions. The aims of this study are the comparative efficiency evaluation of ports in the Mediterranean with the use of DEA analysis, the exploitation of the factors that affect ports' efficiency using a second-stage Tobit analysis and the potential of each port in the era of larger container volumes attraction. The study will focus on the ports which display or are able to display significant achievement in transhipment movement.