Urban road congestion, capacity expansion and port competition: empirical analysis of US container ports

In this study, we empirically investigate the impacts of urban road congestion and road capacity expansion on the competition between major container ports in the US. We find that more delays on urban roads may cause shippers to switch to competing rival ports: a 1% increase in road congestion delay...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Maritime policy and management 2013-09, Vol.40 (5), p.417-438
Main Authors: Wan, Yulai, Zhang, Anming, Yuen, Andrew C.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benefits
Biological competition
Capacity
Channels
Competition
Congestion
Container industry
Containers
Delay
Empirical analysis
Expansion
Ports
Roads
Roads & highways
Traffic congestion
United States
Urban areas
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Summary:In this study, we empirically investigate the impacts of urban road congestion and road capacity expansion on the competition between major container ports in the US. We find that more delays on urban roads may cause shippers to switch to competing rival ports: a 1% increase in road congestion delays around the port is associated with a 0.90-2.48% decrease in the port's container throughput but a 0.62-1.69% increase in the rival port's throughput. Adding local roads tends to benefit the port and harm its rival (in terms of throughput) by reducing road congestion. However, the overall impact of road provision on ports' throughput varies among the sample ports, as road capacity expansion may affect ports' output through channels other than road congestion delays.
ISSN:0308-8839
1464-5254
DOI:10.1080/03088839.2013.797615