An input-output-based methodology to estimate the economic role of a port: The case of the port system of the Friuli Ven
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An input-output-based methodology to estimate the economic role of a port: The case of the port system of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Italy R o m e o D a n i e l i s a n d Tu l l i o G r e g o r i Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]
A b s t r a c t The article illustrates the results of a research project aimed at identifying the main economic and industrial characteristics of the port system of the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) Region, Italy, and the role it plays within the economy. Combining a top-down and bottom-up approach, based on interviews and detailed data at firm level, a bi-regional input-output (I-O) table is built with a special disaggregation of the 12 port-related sectors of the FVG region. The I-O table provides the basis for the estimation of a bi-regional I-O model. Drawing from the I-O literature, the article also implements two methodologies to estimate: (a) the level of self-sufficiency of the port system and (b) its degree of substitutability, that is, what would happen if the FVG port system closes down, completely or partially. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2013) 15, 222–255. doi:10.1057/mel.2013.1
Keywords: port economics; port impact studies; input-output model; inputoutput table; maritime transport; shipping
Introduction Estimating the economic role of a port is a relevant topic both in the political and in the scientific debate.1 In the political debate, the estimate of the direct and indirect economic significance of a port is often used to motivate the request for public r 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1479-2931 Maritime Economics & Logistics Vol. 15, 2, 222–255 www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/
Input-output-based methodology to estimate the economic role of a port
funds for building new port infrastructure or to justify its social costs, such as expropriation of land, pollution, noise, community severance and so on. Such estimate is usually commissioned by a Port Authority or a local government. In the scientific debate, the evaluation of the economic role of a port is also of interest since it allows to compare among different ports (for example, gateway ports versus trans-shipment ports, European versus North American ports, Northern-range ports versus Mediterranean ports, specialized versus unspecialized ports) and to trace the historical evolution of a port, for instance, as it changes from the eighteenth century ‘emporion’2 nature to the nineteenth and twentieth century commercial nature, from handling only conventional cargo to handling mostly containers, and so on. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the economic role of a port is fraught with difficulties that are discussed at length in the literature and that are not completely solved, yet. The article presents in the section below an extensive literature review of such difficulties, of the methodologies used to estimate the role of a port and of their most recent applications. The next section sum
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