Demand of Mozambique seaports

Abstract

This paper presents an Analysis of Mozambique seaports from 2001-2015 using the Anderson, De Palma and Thisse’s ideal type demand model. The seaports of Mozambique serve not only Mozambique but also other countries without acess to sea. For example Beira seaport as a specific train line to Zambia. The ideal type model of Anderson, Palma and Thisse is a model of heterogenous seaports that is estimated in two steps and accounts for endogeneity of the price. The results reveal that the seaport market share increases with income and with the price of container cargo, while decreases with the price of maritime transport services and the price of truck transportation.. The price is endogenous in demand equation and the endogeneity is taken into account in the demand estimation. The price of trucks has a negative coefficient and therefore is a complementary good. Demand elasticities are presented. A robustness test is done estimating also the Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes approach and comparing the results.