• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.165-182
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• 2016

This study examines the competitiveness and cooperativeness among the container ports in East Asia by analyzing their monthly dynamics in eight years (2008-2015). Time series data on container throughput divided into origin and destination (O/D), such as the top six Chinese ports and the transshipment (T/S) ports such as Hong Kong, Busan, and Singapore, are computed with two methods based on the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The first Granger causality test results show that Busan T/S has significant bilateral relations with three Chinese O/D ports; and significant unidirectional relations with three other O/D ports. Shenzhen port has significant bilateral relations with Singapore, and has a significant unidirectional relation with Hong Kong port. Co-integrating test results showed that Busan holds negative co-integration with all Chinese O/D ports. Impulse response function (IRF) results show an opposite direction between paired ports. The ratios of the impulse from T/S ports are significantly high to one another in the short-run, but its power declines as time passes. The ratio of the impulse from the Chinese ports to T/S ports is less significant in the short-run period, however, it becomes more significant as time passes. The significance of most shocks was high in the second period, but was diluted after the sixth period.