| As the international division of labor deepens and economic globalization develops, ports are increasingly regarded as a breakthrough point for the enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage. Today, the international division of labor is based on the flow and recombination of production factors, and is deepening into the production processes and sessions. The the factors are allocated to different countries or regions according to the factor intensity of each production phrase. However, since logistic costs and transaction costs increase sharply with the accelerated flow of factors and products, the gains resulting from the enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage may be offset. Therefore, dynamic comparative advantage can not be enhanced automatically. This is a especially significant problem for a large developing country like China, where the logistic network is not so sound and transaction costs are comparatively high. With a view of enhancing dynamic comparative advantage and achieving gains from internation trade, it is important that China should improve the logisitic efficiency. Regarding that ports play a key role in the global logistic network, the improvement of port efficiency is essential for the enchancement of China’s dynamic comparative advantage.With the evolution of functions under the present mode of international division of labor, ports’ performance and its most important measurer, namely port efficiency, tend to bear new meanings. Therefore, this paper decomposes port efficiency according to the three main types of economic relationship during the functioning of ports. The efficiency of input with regard to output during the internal operation of a port is defined as the Operative Efficiency, namely Port Efficiency I. Similarly, the efficiency in the economic activities between a port and other ports, and efficiency in the economic activities between a port and its hinderland, are respectively defined as the Network Configuration Efficiency, namely Port Efficiency II, and the Radiant Efficiency, namely Port Efficiency III. These three levels of port efficiency interact between each other, and consist of the concept system of port efficiency. The improvement of the above three Port Efficiencies will help promote the deepening of international division of labor, and hence the enchancement of dynamic comparative advantage. Firtly, with the improvement of Port Efficiency I, the separability of intenational production processes strenghthens based on increasing returns to scale in logisitic service activities, a key aspect of a port’s internal operation. Resultantly, the division of labor deepens. Secondly, with the improvement of Port Efficiency II, a port will co-provide logisitic service with other ports in a horizontal and vertical integration of supply chain, generating direct and indirect network effects. As a result, logistic costs and transaction costs can be further reduced, which is a necessary foundation for the deepening of division of labor. Thirdly, with the improvement of Port Efficiency III, significant effects of agglomeration of factors and industries will emerge based on ports’particular location advantage. Such effects will enable a port and its hinderland to integrate into the global value chain with a higher productivity and achieve more gains, which is exactly the fundamental driving force for the deepening of division of labor.Moreover, the deepening of division of labor will give rise to two main results, namely increasing returns to scale and expansion of market size, which provide the major source and driving power for the enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage. Thereby, this paper analyzes the enhancing mechanism of dynamic comparative advantage based on the improvement of port efficiency. As a direct reflection of the enchancement of dynamic comparative advantage, the trade volume of a coutry will expand. Seeing that, this paper introduces the variable of port efficiency into a common Gravity Model before empirically studying the relationship between port efficiency and trade volume. It is found that the improvement of port efficiency will have a significant positive impact on China’s trade volume. This econometric result confirms the above-mentioned impacts of port efficiency on the enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage and expansion of trade volume.In view of this, the three levels of efficiencies of China’s main ports are measured and assessed via DEA. Mains results are as follows. Firstly, as far as Port Efficiency I is concerned, except for few ports like Ningbo-Zhoushan, Tianjin, Qingdao and Rizhao, the majority of China’s ports are inefficient, including some dominant ports like Shanghai and Shenzhen. Secondly, as far as Port Efficiency II is concerned, port clusters in Yangtze River Delta, Shandong Province and Southeatern Region are efficient, while those in Jin-Ji, Pearl River Delta and Liaoning Province are not. Moreover, the efficiencies of port clusters are closely related to those of ports in the clusters. Thirdly, as far as Port Efficiency III is concerned, Port-Hinderland relationship in Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are efficient. However, some ports and hinderland are inefficient while taking a large account in China’s trade volume. Last but not the least, the three-leveled port efficiencies do not strengthen stepwise in most cases, except for few ports in Yangtze River Delta and Shandong. To sum up, most of China’s ports, port clusters and port-hinderland are inefficient to some extend, including those playing an important role in China’s international trade. And in most cases, the three-leveled port efficiency do not strengthen stepwise.Further analysis show that main reasons for inefficiency lie in the absence or excessiveness of market competition, as well as stakeholder malpositioning in the process of factor allocation. Accordingly, this paper puts forward several suggestions with a view of improving China’s port efficiency.To sum up, this paper attempts to make progress in the following aspects. Firstly, it broadens the commonly-used narrow definition of port efficiency by building up a three-leveld system, which consists of Operative Efficiency, Network Configuration Efficiency, and Radiant Efficiency. Secondly, it reveals the mechanism of promoting international division of labor and enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage by improving port efficiency. Thirdly, it estimates and assesses the relative efficiencies of China’s major ports, port clusters and hinderland via DEA, and analyzes reasons for inefficiency and ways to better off by means of projecction. Fourthly, it puts forward several suggestions with a view of efficiency improvement. All these analyses help improve China’s port efficiency, and hence have realistic significance to China’s enhancement of dynamic comparative advantage. |
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