THE EFFECT OF USER FEES ON GREAT LAKES GRAIN TRANSPORTATION (MULTINOMIAL LOGIT)

Three alternative versions of deep draft user fee legislation are presented and analyzed in this dissertation. The framework of institutional economics is used to analyze the impact of each alternative on the structure of property rights within the export grain transportation system. Each alternative has different provisions for the treatment of the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway system and these are explored in detail.; A multinomial logit technique is used to model the export shipments of corn from the Great Lakes hinterland to the four alternative coastal ports: East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast, and Great Lakes. This model is then used to estimate the impact of two alternative user fee proposals on the pattern of shipments for export. The model is based on a theory of shipper choice, where inland grain elevators respond to the difference between price offered at the destination port and the transport charge of shipping to that port.; The results of both the institutional analysis and the empirical analysis show that the Hatfield proposal for a deep draft user fee would be more beneficial for the Great Lakes ports than the Moynihan or Reagan administration proposals. However, the empirical estimation showed little diversion of corn shipments under any of the currently proposed levels of user fees.