Abstract
Adapting to the rapid process of globalization requires nodes of international trade and global financial operations conveyed in the world urban system. Urban and metropolitan areas need to strategically approach to incorporating the city economic activities to enlarge the scope and complexity of the city service and commodity. Because strong urban agglomerations usually lead to technological innovation, investigating the relation between the expansion of Panama Canal and its state and regional economic impacts that will be potentially affected within the U.S. can provides various policy insights in urban growth and technical innovations for the local areas. This study estimated reduced impacts of transportation and warehousing activities for foreign imports and exports for the west coast seaports of California, Oregon, and Washington as well as the concurrent impacts in other states stemming from the trade diversion in their direction, which will affect urban growth and innovation. We applied both the supply- and demand-side National Interstate Economic Models. We assumed that foreign imports and exports that currently arrive and leave the west coast customs district ports and are now transported to other U.S. Southern and East Coast states by truck and rail modes would be directly shipped to these other states via the deepened and expanded Panama Canal. The total negative impacts of transportation and warehousing values lost in the three west coast states from foreign import diversion were estimated to be $5795 million; for foreign exports, $1630 million. However, total positive gains due to the shift of transportation modes and new warehousing activities for foreign imports in the other states were estimated at $6304 million, while the gains were $9218 million for the case of foreign exports. The net impacts resulting from port modernization investment and shipping route changes will be an economic engine to affect U.S. states.
Highlights
The Panama Canal Authority in 2006 decided to invest more than $5 billion to expand the Canal to increase container shipment capacity
Investigating the relationship between the expansion of Panama Canal and its state and regional economic impacts that will be potentially affected within the U.S can provides various policy insights in urban growth and technical innovations in the U.S For example, while West Coast cities may have inverse experiences, increase in international trade in East Coast cities may experience technological innovations through the new modernization investment process in bays and port facilities, which in turn lead to urban growth
For an impact analysis of Panama Canal expansion, we assumed: foreign imports and exports that currently arrive and leave in the various WCCD ports to be transported to the other South and East Coast states via truck and rail modes would be directly shipped to these states through the deepened Panama Canal
Summary
The Panama Canal Authority in 2006 decided to invest more than $5 billion to expand the Canal to increase container shipment capacity. Investigating the relationship between the expansion of Panama Canal and its state and regional economic impacts that will be potentially affected within the U.S can provides various policy insights in urban growth and technical innovations in the U.S For example, while West Coast cities may have inverse experiences, increase in international trade in East Coast cities may experience technological innovations through the new modernization investment process in bays and port facilities, which in turn lead to urban growth. We derived transportation (each truck and rail mode) and warehousing margins for total foreign imports and exports, respectively For this purpose, we used a use table from the National Input–output Accounts available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov). Many studies have used this USC Sector system since 2006 (see some recent examples in Richardson et al, 2014; Cho et al, 2015; Park and Richardson, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
