TY - JOUR
T1 - Maritime connectivity, transport infrastructure expansion and economic growth
T2 - A global perspective
AU - Li, Weijun
AU - Bai, Xiwen
AU - Yang, Dong
AU - Hou, Yao
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant numbers of 72001123 and 72188101 , and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China under Grant number PolyU 15201722 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Improving transport connectivity has become increasingly significant to international trade research and transport policy agendas. Little has been done so far to investigate the direct association between maritime connectivity and economic growth, let alone the exact effect magnitude. As the connection between ports, local economies, and global logistics networks becomes ever closer, the economic role of port connectivity deserves closer attention. This paper uses the Panama Canal expansion as a quasi-natural experiment, and proposes a dynamic difference-in-differences (DID) method for making causal inferences about the impact of port connectivity on regional economic growth. This study leverages data mining of multiple sources of satellite data to provide innovative measures of ship movement, port area, and economic activity. We construct an index based on the global shipping network data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to measure the extent to which the ports are exposed to the canal expansion. This allows careful handling of the endogeneity problem. Change in the port area is used as a proxy for port capacity expansion, and is identified via satellite imaging. Night light data provide a measure of regional economic activity around the ports, and of the effect of port connectivity on regional economic growth. Our findings suggest that improvements in port connectivity have a significant and fairly durable stimulating effect on regional economic growth, and that port infrastructure expansion is one potential channel for realizing this effect.
AB - Improving transport connectivity has become increasingly significant to international trade research and transport policy agendas. Little has been done so far to investigate the direct association between maritime connectivity and economic growth, let alone the exact effect magnitude. As the connection between ports, local economies, and global logistics networks becomes ever closer, the economic role of port connectivity deserves closer attention. This paper uses the Panama Canal expansion as a quasi-natural experiment, and proposes a dynamic difference-in-differences (DID) method for making causal inferences about the impact of port connectivity on regional economic growth. This study leverages data mining of multiple sources of satellite data to provide innovative measures of ship movement, port area, and economic activity. We construct an index based on the global shipping network data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to measure the extent to which the ports are exposed to the canal expansion. This allows careful handling of the endogeneity problem. Change in the port area is used as a proxy for port capacity expansion, and is identified via satellite imaging. Night light data provide a measure of regional economic activity around the ports, and of the effect of port connectivity on regional economic growth. Our findings suggest that improvements in port connectivity have a significant and fairly durable stimulating effect on regional economic growth, and that port infrastructure expansion is one potential channel for realizing this effect.
KW - AIS
KW - Port capacity expansion
KW - Port connectivity
KW - Regional economic growth
KW - Shipping network
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148329928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103609
DO - 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103609
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85148329928
SN - 0965-8564
VL - 170
JO - Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
JF - Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
M1 - 103609
ER -