Maritime transport costs and port efficiency

Details

• Creators:
  Clark, Ximena ; Dollar, David ; Micco, Alejandro
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Port operations
  • Freight handling
  • Economic analysis
  • Costs
  • Maritime transportation costs
  • Port efficency
  • Shipping costs
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  World Bank
• Abstract:
  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. The determinants of shipping costs to the U.S. were investigated using a large database of more than 300,000 observations per year on shipments of products at the six-digit HS level from different ports around the world. Distance and containerization matter. In addition, efficiency of ports is an important determinant of shipping costs. Improving port efficiency from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs by 12 percent. (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. Finally, variations in port efficiency can be linked to excessive regulation, the prevalence of organized crime, and the general condition of the country's infrastructure. References, appendices, tables, figures, 38 p.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/16030/dot_16030_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.85 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1879f30675cf3fb2b4bee33c35a921be3b42b7fe00b1c09772347978cc970f6d49f1ba1d06b21018401ce1199ce21393a39c89e9b2ad5a13b9928aba65d42b00