PORT ECONOMICS

This book presents a study of various economic decisions together with their consequences of the providers and users of shipping port services. Port users include shippers, passengers, and carriers. Port, or terminal, operators will be the primary service providers; other service providers include, for example, ship agents, customs brokers, ship pilots, stevedores, freight forwarders.

Maritime economics itself consists of port and shipping economics. This book is an introduction to port economics. Although this is only a textbook, it is still expected to be useful in maritime research, to port users and service-provider decision makers, and to those of the general public who are interested in port issues. In 1984,1 and two other business professors established the center, Maritime, Trade and Transport (MTT), at Old Dominion University. Given that Norfolk, Virginia has one of the largest container ports on the east Coast of the United States, the main mission is to perform high-quality maritime researches in order to promote the Port of Virginia and international trade in the region.

Prior to 1984, although a transportation economist. I was not a student of maritime economics. However, MTT provided the author with the opportunity to become knowledgeable in the subject. In 1986, MTT was renamed the Virginia Center for World Trade and established as an economic development agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia...