基于国际贸易数据测算港口效率的新方法外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 New Measures Of Port Efficiency Using International Trade Data Material Source: /papers/w1205 Author: Bruce A.Blonigen; Wesley W.Wilson As the clearinghouses for a major portion of the worlds rapidly increasing international trade flows,ocean ports and the efficiency with which they process cargo have become an ever more important topic. Yet, there exist very little data that allows one to compare port efficiency measures of any kind across ports and, especially, over time. This paper provides a new statistical method of uncovering port efficiency measures using U.S. Census data on imports into U.S. ports. Unlike previous measures, this studys methodology can provide such estimates for a much broader sample of countries and years with little cost. Thus, such data can be used by future researchers to examine a myriad of new issues, including the evolution of port efficiencies over time and its effects on international trade flows and country-level growth. 1、Introduction Despite the obvious significance of port efficiency, consistent and comparable measurement of such efficiencies is a daunting task. A myriad of factors contribute to port efficiency. Some of the more obvious factors include dock facilities, connections to rail and trucking lines, harbor characteristics (including channel depth and ocean/tidal movements), time to clear customs, and labor relations. However, both consistent data and methods that allow construction of a measure or index that allows comparisons across ports are not currently available. The literature is not devoid of attempts to measure port efficiency. One common methodology is through the use of surveys. A recent indicator of port efficiency has been constructed from annual firm-level surveys for the years 1995 through 2000 and reported in the Global Competitiveness Report. These surveys ask firms to rank countries’ port efficiency from 1 to 7, where 1 indicates that the firm strongly disagrees wi