THE ROLE OF THE MARKET POTENTIAL IN THE PORT CHOICE PROCESS: A CASE STUDY

摘要

According to the theoretical postulates of the New Economic Geography, the ability of ports to attract traffic from the economic activity centres should be influenced by their geographical location regarding them. The aim of this paper is to test that hypothesis through the Spanish case study by introducing the concept of market potential in the analysis. For this purpose a double perspective is used: that of the province where the port is located and that of the province where the traffic is generated. The obtained results validate the stated hypothesis and open the door to very interesting queries about the planning of both the infrastructure map and the regional economic policy.