Port City Factors and Port Production: Analysis of Chinese Ports

The objective of this article is to analyze port production activities and city factors in port cities. Port activities take place in port cities and the analysis provides a good opportunity to integrate the study of ports and cities. The study uses the economic production equation to analyze the production of China's ports over the time period 1995–2007. Numerous studies have examined general port growth and development on the basis of conceptual discussion. It is generally accepted that the Anyport Model and the Port Generation Model are valuable models for analysis of a port developing into a port city. However, empirical studies on port growth and factors that influence the growth rate are rather few. This study seeks to identify the city factors that are critical in determining port growth and attempts to develop an empirical model in the macroeconomic perspective. Seven major China port cities and their interfaces with their associated ports are studied here. This article attempts to analyze the port activities as economic production outputs and the city factors as inputs. The article provides an empirical analysis of port growth and policy insights on the interdependence between ports and port cities.