Publication: Maritime Transport Costs and Port Efficiency
Date
2002-02
ISSN
Published
2002-02
Author(s)
Clark, Ximena
Dollar, David
Micco, Alejandro
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 authors investigate the determinants of the
costs of shipping to the United States using a large
database (more than 300,000 observations a year) on
shipments of products at the six-digit level of the
Harmonized System of classification from different ports
around the world. They find that distance and
containerization matter. They find that the efficiency of
ports is also important. Improving the efficiency of a port
from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs
by 12 percent. (On average, having bad ports is equivalent
to being 60 percent farther away from markets.) Inefficient
ports also increase handling costs, which are part of
shipping costs. Finally, the authors try to explain
variations in port efficiency. They find that the variations
are linked to excessive regulation, the prevalence of
organized crime, and the general condition of the
country's infrastructure.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Clark, Ximena; Dollar, David; Micco, Alejandro. 2002. Maritime Transport Costs and Port Efficiency. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2781. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15758 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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