The Arctic policy and port development along the Northern Sea Route: Evidence from Russia's Arctic strategy

Abstract

As global warming continues, the melting rate of Arctic glaciers is further accelerated, which provides favorable conditions for the development of the Arctic's abundant resources, shipping, and ecological research. Accordingly, Russia, as the country with the longest Arctic coastline, has promulgated a series of policies and guidelines which aimed at the development of the Arctic region and the revitalization of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). By strengthening infrastructure construction, reducing port dues, and improving handling efficiency to promote the development of ports along theNSR and also to gives full play to the transportation potential of NSR, which is an inherent need for the development of Russian Arctic region. However, how Russia's Arctic strategy may affect port development along the NSR and whether the Russian arctic strategy can promote the development of ports along the NSR remain to be investigated. This study, based on the multi-source data, uses the difference-in-difference (DID) method to estimate the impact of Russia's Arctic strategy on the development of ports along the NSR. The results from this study indicate that Russia's Arctic strategy has failed to promote the development of ports along the NSR during 2003–2012, and the growth of port cargo throughput is overly reliant on energy exploitation. All of our preliminary results throw light on the nature of the impact of Russia's Arctic strategy on the development of ports along the NSR.