Containerized shipping has brought profound changes to maritime transport, including a shift from labor-intensive to more capital-intensive activities. Revising the traditional organization of seaports everywhere will prepare ports for a more competitive market and less financial dependence on governments.

Containerized shipping has brought profound changes to maritime transport, including a shift from labor-intensive to more capital-intensive activities. Revising the traditional organization of seaports everywhere will prepare ports for a more competitive market and less financial dependence on governments.With containerized shipping, maritime transport has changed profoundly. Among other things, it has shifted from labor-intensive to more capital-intensive activities, including larger specialized ships that require substantial investments in port infrastructure and equipment.Integrated transport chains have reduced transport costs so much that a shipper may find a distant port cheaper than a closer one. Modern ports must be competitive on times and prices for their services.Seaports must be integrated within logistical chains to serve their many functions. An efficient seaport requires infrastructure, superstructure, equipment, adequate connections to other modes of transport, a well-motivated management, and qualified employees.The public sector has been an important port organizer in the past, but private participation in port operations and infrastructure could make ports significantly more competitive.Trujillo and Nombela provide an overview of changes in maritime activity, discuss concession contracts (a key instrument of privatization), and analyze how regulatory mechanisms affect such factors as seaport tariffs, port congestion, port safety, the quality of cargo handling, and relevant indicators of performance, finances, and factor productivity.They describe how an optimal seaport system should allocate tasks between the various institutions involved, including the port authority.The degree of a seaport`s decentralization, they conclude, depends on a country's size, the number of ports it has, and its legal tradition. Among several national governments in Latin America - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela - there is an evident trend toward decentralization and greater autonomy for port authorities.This paper - a product of Governance, Regulation, and Finance, World Bank Institute - is part of a larger effort in the institute to increase understanding of infrastructure regulation. Gustavo Nombela may be contacted at [email protected].

This book offers an expert examination of the ideology and motives behind the privatization or the nationalization of an industry, based on real case studies. Is it always more effective and less expensive to use taxpayer dollars to engage private companies rather than have the government run enterprises itself? Do consumers always benefit from the privatization of services? What happens when privatization stops being an abstract, theoretical debate and is actually put to the test in the real world? Privatize This? Assessing the Opportunities and Costs of Privatization is the place to find out. Privatize This? provides a clear, easy-to-apply model for evaluating the pros and cons of the privatization process and then puts the model to work in examining nine real-world case studies—ranging from Spain's privatization of its cigarette industry to Pennsylvania's "state store system" for selling liquor. Throughout, the book focuses on the central issues of privatization—profit versus public good, protection from fraud and waste—while also showing how the recent economic upheaval has changed public opinion and public policy on privatization.

The relationship between ports and governments has changed profoundly over the past quarter of a century. Many governments have sought to extract themselves from the business of port operations and, in many cases, the provision of port services has devolved to local governments, communities or private management and administration. As such devolution implies a change in governance model, this trend raises questions about consequent performance. This issue examines the changed port management environment, focusing particularly on government policies such as devolution, regulatory reform and newly imposed governance models, all of which have exerted a significant influence over the nature of that changed environment. The issue is structured so as to first explore the devolution and port reform approaches for 14 countries or regions, before examining how ports are governed and what the choice of governance might mean for their performance. Part I introduces the issue, and provides a framework for defining the basic concepts involved in devolution; it paints a picture of the current port environment, its likely future evolution and the expected impact this will have on the functioning of ports. Part II examines the port industry in 14 countries or administrations, and presents the thinking behind any devolution programs that have been implemented. Part III focuses on port governance and devolution generally, and examines governance from both strategic management and economics perspectives, including topics such as governance models, supranational governance and stakeholder conflict. Part IV examines the measurement of port performance and closes by providing conclusions and a future research agenda. This issue will be of interest to port managers, government officials and academics alike.*Examines the relationship between ports and governments with a focus on devolution*Divided into sections that provide an overview, evaluate the port industry, disucss port governance, and suggest new measures of port performance*14 countries or regions are addressed

The 1990s saw an increase in the liberalisation of transport policies and a strengthening of the role of private operators and investors in transport infrastructure worldwide. The search for sustained improvement in efficiency is probably secondary to the need to find additional financing, but it is improvement in services that is at the core of the new role of the government in transport. Governments must now become fair economic regulators of many of the privately operated transport services and infrastructures. This book examines the major challenges that governments are likely to face in taking on their new role in transport.

Sea freight remains overwhelmingly the most common form of transport for goods globally. Grasp the core theories and understand the latest research in maritime logistics, along with how this field operates and contributes to global supply chains, with this key textbook. Maritime Logistics provides a complete overview of the core concepts within this discipline from a range of international expert contributors. This textbook examines the recent developments in the ports and shipping industries including supply chain strategies and emerging, innovative practices. Designed for maritime students and professionals, the structure offers a complete approach with an emphasis on developing a well-rounded knowledge and understanding of the field. The third edition is fully updated with new content on maintenance optimization, supply chain integration, economies of scale within liner shipping and port performance and management. In addition, this edition examines new technologies, considers new and existing risks to the maritime supply chain as well as generally how maritime logistics will continue to evolve. For those seeking to become maritime logistics specialists, this is the authoritative companion.

In Regulation and Development Jean-Jacques Laffont provides the first theoretical analysis of regulation of public services for developing countries. He shows how the debate between price-cap regulation and cost of service regulation is affected by the characteristics of less developed countries (LDCs) and offers a positive theory of privatization that stresses the role of corruption. He develops a new theory of regulation with limited enforcement capabilities and discusses the delicate issue of access pricing in view of LDC's specificities. In the final chapter he proposes a theory of separation of powers which reveals one of the many vicious circles of underdevelopment made explicit by the economics of information. Based on organization theory and history, and using simple empirical tests wherever possible, Professor Laffont offers a comprehensive evaluation of the different ways to organize the regulatory institutions and opens up a rich new research agenda for development studies.