Andrew Yuen

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 delays around the port is associated with a 0.90–2.48% decrease in the ports container throughput but a 0.62–1.69% increase in the rival ports 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.

Effects of hinterland accessibility on US container port efficiency

As the bottleneck of intermodal transportation system has shifted from the ship/port interface to the port/inland interface, container port productivity is likely to be constrained by the connection between ports and hinterland. This study empirically explores the impacts of hinterland accessibility on efficiency of U.S. container ports. In particular, a two-stage approach is implemented. First, the container port efficiency is measured by data envelopment analysis (DEA). Then, Tobit regression analysis is undertaken to explore the relationship between the DEA efficiency scores and the ground transportation conditions, such as provision of on-dock rail facility, Class I rail services connecting to hinterland, and road congestion around the ports. The empirical results suggest that provision of on-dock rail facility at container terminals is negatively correlated with container port efficiency whilst the impacts of class I rail services are ambiguous. In general, there is a negative association between road congestion around the port and port productivity. However, this relationship tends to be negligible or even positive for primary ports of entry which enjoy substantially larger container throughput volume.

AIRPORT CONGESTION PRICING AND ITS WELFARE IMPLICATIONS: THE CASE OF VARIABLE PASSENGER TIME COSTS

This paper develops an analytical framework for airport congestion pricing by considering variable passenger time costs. We find that, first, congestion delays will not be fully internalized at the carrier level under different market structures, including those airports dominated by a monopoly airline. Therefore, congestion pricing is necessary regardless of the market structures. Second, although congestion pricing is welfare‐improving, it may not be Pareto‐improving. This might explain why congestion pricing is unpopular in the real world.

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Strategic Trade and Transport Policies with Congestible Facilities

This paper investigates strategic trade and transport policies in situations where transportation of traded goods involves congestible facilities (here, roads) of both the importing and exporting countries. It is found that the presence of road congestion can have an important effect on strategic trade policies of both countries. In particular, with perfectly competitive exporting firms and hence an absence of the rent-extraction incentive, the importing country may still impose a positive tariff. Furthermore, when regional free trade blocs remove trade barriers, whether the countries can impose discriminatory road tolls between the local users and the traded-good traffic can affect: With uniform tolls, road tolls, while being regarded as a domestic (internal) policy, may serve partially as strategic trade policies. In this case, local highway users tend to be worse off than in the absence of trade liberalization. This analysis also provides a potential explanation for the “border effect.”