Measuring Port Evolution, Growth and Vulnerability: ‘Port Growth Performance Evaluation’ Approach

Abstract

This study proposes a group of indicators in the analysis of port performance. Section one presents a new model of analysis to evaluate how the port cargo openness, the productivity level, the cargo expansion, and the technological change adaptability can affect directly on the marginal productivity growth rate and performance of a port. This new model, “The Port Growth Performance Evaluation model (PGPE-Model)” is intended to offer policy makers and researchers an additional analytical tool to study the impact of dynamic changes such as change in international trade trends an the impact of technology or competition on port performance from a new perspective. The PGPE-Model can be applied to the study of any production unit or a group of economic activity and not constrained by geographical area or development stage of the entities on study. The PGPE-Model is simple and flexible. Section two, summarizes the results on the performance of Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and China. In an era of dynamic global change and supply change where production units change location, the PGPE-Model’s strength is the ability to capture and measure the change, vulnerability and port performance.

Keywords: Ports performance, productivity, port dynamic, international trade, technology

JEL Classification: R40