The Impact of Uncertainty on National Port Throughput: Evidence From European Countries

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of economic policy uncertainties on national port throughputs of selected European countries. For this purpose, we used quarterly observations of 21 European countries covering the periods between 2005 Q1 and 2018 Q3. The Granger noncausality test was used for heterogeneous panel data models and we found that economic policy uncertainties have a considerable impact on port throughputs in the selected sample. Causality tests on individual country level have shown that uncertainties in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom have an influence over their port throughputs. Moreover, the present results show cross-sectional dependencies in uncertainty and port throughput variables, indicating that collaborative efforts by European nations are needed to avoid the risks associated with economic policy uncertainties due to the integrated structure of the countries.