The Structure of Production, Technical Change and Productivity in a Port

Abstract

The primary focus of this paper is the modelling and estimation of the structure of production, technical change and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a port. Special attention is given to the specification of technical change which is measured as the percent of containerization. Our findings indicate that technical change has been labour saving and capital using. TFP has been growing from 1966-1983 at an annual average rate of 0.11. The main contribution to TFP growth has been containerization. On the average, 85% of the growth in TFP has been due to containerization and 15% of the growth has been due to economies of scale and output growth.