دانلود رایگان مقاله "چرخش پیچ '' در اصلاحات بندر و اثر تغییرات در قوانین بندر

ABSTRACT

This article examines the determinants of traffic generated by Spain’s port authorities, using data from 2003 to 2012. The interest of the study lies on examining the impact of recent legislative measures that have implied an increasing liberalization of port charges. We find that port charges influence the amount of traffic that a port is able to generate, while traffic is also affected by geographical attributes, economic wealth, the extent of industrial activity and population. Our main result is that we find evidence that the legislation of 2003 did not have a significant impact on traffic while the impact of the legislation of 2010 seems to have been stronger. Political conflicts associated to a lack of consensus on the approbation of the 2003 legislation plus a clear decline in tariff freedom wiped out the inter-port competition slightly promoted by earlier laws, versus the 2010 reform featured by a strong political agreement and a flexible port charges framework.

5. Discussion and concluding remarks

Spanish ports of general interest have experienced significant continual changes over the last 20 years with five successive legislation frameworks. This process of successive reforms has sought to boost the port sector’s and the Port Authorities’ (PAs) managerial, financial and organizational autonomy. However, these rapid changes over a period of just a few years have been non-linear compared to the liberalization and deregulation processes of other neighboring countries, i.e., with apparent contradictions between the various Laws, a mix of global and local approaches to governance, and evidence of the reluctance and hostility from certain groups. All of these circumstances contribute to creating a climate of uncertainty and instability that may lessen the impact of the successive reforms. In this respect, the literature published in recent years addressing the effects of the reforms on the Spanish Port System gives contradictory and non-homogeneous results for each of the changes in the law when considered individually.