The movement of passengers, goods, and information has always been fundamental components of human societies. It is all related to transport costs as well as to the attributes of what is being transported. However, regulations, laws, and tariffs can influence transportability. Countries around the world have been changing their international trade policies by reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Informal barriers hinder trade and the benefits of export, such as economic growth, that come with the achievement of trade liberalisation. It was found that the impact of transport costs on trade patterns has become an important study. Theoretical and empirical work in international trade only recently began considering the geography of exports as a possible explanation for high transport costs. For instance, factors such as distance, market size, scale economies, and agglomeration affect transportation costs around the world. Transport costs in South Africa are a relevant issue due to its geographical position. South Africa is situated far from its major trading partners. In addition, the majority of South African exports originate in Gauteng, which is around 600km from the nearest seaport. For South African exports to remain competitive, domestic transport costs must be reduced. One method of cutting costs is by connecting a container dry port with an intermodal transport system to the major seaports (namely Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town). The empirical study was conducted in the form an interview-based questionnaire. A total of 18 questions were asked to individuals at a terminal in Gauteng. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on the service delivery of South African inland terminals. This led to the conclusion that City Deep functions well in terms of service delivery and provides extra services to both exporters and importers. Potential problems regarding City Deep's infrastructure were identified. It was found that train and truck congestion within City Deep is an everyday phenomenon. The existing infrastructure cannot handle the train and truck traffic entering City Deep. It was found that clients prefer road transportation to rail transportation, therefore, the amount of trucks entering and leaving City Deep causes congestion. This not only affects the infrastructure at City Deep, but also that of South Africa. More trucks on the roads exacerbate air pollution and road accidents, and overloaded trucks damage South African roads. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The movement of passengers, goods, and information has always been fundamental components of human societies. It is all related to transport costs as well as to the attributes of what is being transported. However, regulations, laws, and tariffs can influence transportability. Countries around the world have been changing their international trade policies by reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Informal barriers hinder trade and the benefits of export, such as economic growth, that come with the achievement of trade liberalisation. It was found that the impact of transport costs on trade patterns has become an important study. Theoretical and empirical work in international trade only recently began considering the geography of exports as a possible explanation for high transport costs. For instance, factors such as distance, market size, scale economies, and agglomeration affect transportation costs around the world. Transport costs in South Africa are a relevant issue due to its geographical position. South Africa is situated far from its major trading partners. In addition, the majority of South African exports originate in Gauteng, which is around 600km from the nearest seaport. For South African exports to remain competitive, domestic transport costs must be reduced. One method of cutting costs is by connecting a container dry port with an intermodal transport system to the major seaports (namely Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town). The empirical study was conducted in the form an interview-based questionnaire. A total of 18 questions were asked to individuals at a terminal in Gauteng. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on the service delivery of South African inland terminals. This led to the conclusion that City Deep functions well in terms of service delivery and provides extra services to both exporters and importers. Potential problems regarding City Deep's infrastructure were identified. It was found that train and truck congestion within City Deep is an everyday phenomenon. The existing infrastructure cannot handle the train and truck traffic entering City Deep. It was found that clients prefer road transportation to rail transportation, therefore, the amount of trucks entering and leaving City Deep causes congestion. This not only affects the infrastructure at City Deep, but also that of South Africa. More trucks on the roads exacerbate air pollution and road accidents, and overloaded trucks damage South African roads. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Submitted by Lucas Pedreira do Couto Ferraz (lucaspcf@gmail.com) on 2010-09-28T19:40:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_PhD.pdf: 996294 bytes, checksum: cf266060bc6c236aa36c8a4e4775224d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado(andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2010-09-29T12:58:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_PhD.pdf: 996294 bytes, checksum: cf266060bc6c236aa36c8a4e4775224d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-10-01T17:44:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_PhD.pdf: 996294 bytes, checksum: cf266060bc6c236aa36c8a4e4775224d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-16 / This work presents a fully operational interstate CGE model implemented for the Brazilian economy that tries to quantify both the role of barriers to trade on economic growth and foreign trade performance and how the distribution of the economic activity may change as the country opens up to foreign trade. Among the distinctive features embedded in the model, modeling of external scale economies, port efficiency and land-maritime transport costs provides an innovative way of dealing explicitly with theoretical issues related to integrated regional systems. In order to illustrate the role played by the quality of infrastructure and geography on the country‟s foreign and interregional trade performance, a set of simulations is presented where barriers to trade are significantly reduced. The relative importance of trade policy, port efficiency and land-maritime transport costs for the country trade relations and regional growth is then detailed and quantified, considering both short run as well as long run scenarios. A final set of simulations shed some light on the effects of liberal trade policies on regional inequality, where the manufacturing sector in the state of São Paulo, taken as the core of industrial activity in the country, is subjected to different levels of external economies of scale. Short-run core-periphery effects are then traced out suggesting the prevalence of agglomeration forces over diversion forces could rather exacerbate regional inequality as import barriers are removed up to a certain level. Further removals can reverse this balance in favor of diversion forces, implying de-concentration of economic activity. In the long run, factor mobility allows a better characterization of the balance between agglomeration and diversion forces among regions. Regional dispersion effects are then clearly traced-out, suggesting horizontal liberal trade policies to benefit both the poorest regions in the country as well as the state of São Paulo. This long run dispersion pattern, on one hand seems to unravel the fragility of simple theoretical results from recent New Economic Geography models, once they get confronted with more complex spatially heterogeneous (real) systems. On the other hand, it seems to capture the literature‟s main insight: the possible role of horizontal liberal trade policies as diversion forces leading to a more homogeneous pattern of interregional economic growth.

As the global economy and market demands evolve to be more transparent, time-sensitive and competitive, privatisation in organisations has become a phenomenon renowned for the advantages it delivers of increased productivity and profitability. Port privatisation is no exception. Aimed at achieving improved operational efficiencies and the reduction of port costs, port privatisation has evolved and yielded varying results. Depending on prevailing social, economic and political circumstances, these effects differ amongst countries. This dissertation analyses this phenomenon, focusing on whether a port and its related services are public or private goods; why governments choose to produce and provide port services; what various international port privatisation models can positive lessons be drawn from; and what the impacts of port privatisation are. South Africa has recently avoided the arguments around port privatisation, due to pressing socio-political issues, and the analysis of economic gains and losses associated with privatisation may offer insights into why such government decisions would have been made. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Submitted by EDUARDO JUNQUEIRA (el.junqueira@gmail.com) on 2017-03-16T19:43:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoEduardoJunqueira.pdf: 5067579 bytes, checksum: 2f2d79aa0d4477ddd1f2d990cee8ff01 (MD5) / Rejected by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br), reason: Eduardo, Por gentileza, somente retirar a página em branco que consta antes da ficha catalográfica. Aguardo. on 2017-03-16T22:27:48Z (GMT) / Submitted by EDUARDO JUNQUEIRA (el.junqueira@gmail.com) on 2017-03-17T13:42:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoEduardoJunqueira.pdf: 5067030 bytes, checksum: 86cc2c5bf2a22e77b87b962f8b24b260 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br) on 2017-03-17T15:26:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoEduardoJunqueira.pdf: 5067030 bytes, checksum: 86cc2c5bf2a22e77b87b962f8b24b260 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-17T15:44:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoEduardoJunqueira.pdf: 5067030 bytes, checksum: 86cc2c5bf2a22e77b87b962f8b24b260 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-14 / This paper aims to understand the economic effect for Brazil and its ability to join Global Value Chains (GVC) when implementing the actions proposed in the Bali package, which intend to increase port efficiency (Trade Facilitations Agreement – TFA). Using a Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE model from GTAP), it was estimated that the actions would bring economic benefits worldwide, including to Brazil. In addition, the agreement would increase the competitiveness across the globe, which in turn would result in a rise of economic integration of regions in GVC, measured by the vertical specialization metric VS and VS1. The major effects to Brazil would come from VS1 metric, mainly because of the increase of manufacturing activities which focus on primary factors such as skilled labor and capital. / Este estudo pretende entender os efeitos que a implementação das ações propostas no acordo de facilitação do comércio de Bali produziriam no desenvolvimento econômico do Brasil e na sua inserção em cadeias globais de valor. Utilizando um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável, foi simulado a implementação do acordo e conclui-se que o mesmo traria benefícios econômicos para todas as regiões estudadas, incluindo o Brasil. Ao mesmo tempo, o acordo aumentaria a competividade global entre as regiões, produzindo uma maior integração econômica mensurada por meio do aumento das métricas de especialização vertical VS e VS1. Os maiores efeitos ao Brasil ocorrem pelo aumento da métrica VS1, direcionados pelo setor de manufatura com foco em trabalho especializado e capital.

As the global economy and market demands evolve to be more transparent, time-sensitive and competitive, privatisation in organisations has become a phenomenon renowned for the advantages it delivers of increased productivity and profitability. Port privatisation is no exception. Aimed at achieving improved operational efficiencies and the reduction of port costs, port privatisation has evolved and yielded varying results. Depending on prevailing social, economic and political circumstances, these effects differ amongst countries. This dissertation analyses this phenomenon, focusing on whether a port and its related services are public or private goods; why governments choose to produce and provide port services; what various international port privatisation models can positive lessons be drawn from; and what the impacts of port privatisation are. South Africa has recently avoided the arguments around port privatisation, due to pressing socio-political issues, and the analysis of economic gains and losses associated with privatisation may offer insights into why such government decisions would have been made. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)