Title: A port choice model with logit models: a case study for the Spanish container trade

Authors: Simme Veldman; Lorena Garcia-Alonso; José Ángel Vallejo-Pinto

Addresses: ECORYS Nederland, Watermanweg 44, 3067 GG Rotterdam, The Netherlands ' Department of Applied Economics, REGIOlab, University of Oviedo, Avda. Del Cristo s/n, 33006 Oviedo, Spain ' Department of Computer Science, University of Oviedo, Campus de Viesques s/n, 33204, Gijón, Spain

Abstract: Earlier research by the authors showed that transport costs, port specific dummy variables and proxies for quality of service aspects have a statistically significant impact on port choice. The objective of this paper is to improve the earlier models through the use of a nested logit model and further by including new variables. The results show that the nested model is an improvement, that the variable indicating the inland transport balance has a statistically significant impact and that the split of variables into distance dependant and independent components gives no improvement. The model outcomes can be used to assess the impact of interventions in ports, and thereby to serve as a basis for the economic and financial evaluation of port projects.

Keywords: port choice; nested logit models; disaggregated data; container shipping; Spain; port selection modelling; container ports; inland transport balance; financial evaluation; economic evaluation; port projects.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2013.055277

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2013 Vol.5 No.4/5, pp.373 - 389

Received: 22 Sep 2012
Accepted: 03 Feb 2013
Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

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