The Impact and Spillover Effects of Chinese Ports on Urban Service Industry under De‐maritimization: A Perspective for Port Economic Geography Analysis

Abstract

AbstractWill ports become less important in a post‐industrial period dominated by service industries? This paper examines the impact and the spillover effects of ports on city economies. The results show that ports contribute to city economies primarily through producer and consumer services. To be specific, ports can drive the development of port‐related producer services, and port spillover effects from other cities have a broader impact on producer services; the port contributes to the development of wholesale and retail trades in the local city but the boost to consumer services comes mainly from spillover effects from other ports. This paper concludes that ports are still shaping economic geography by influencing the service sector, and inter‐city coordination mechanisms are suggested because of the spillover effects.