Container port pricing structure a vertical market model

Abstract

A three-stage game is used to model interactions between users, a shipping company, and a container port. Emphasis is placed on modelling the many services provided and priced by a port in order to compare pricing structures and price levels, and the subsequent division of surplus between agents under different port objectives (profit maximisation, efficiency, and second best). We find a strong trade-off between the benefits of the shipping company and those of the port, where the access price (a proxy for a fixed fee) is the preferred instrument to extract/inject surplus, while the other prices induce desired behaviours downstream.