INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITION AND PROBLEMS OF PORT ECONOMY IN UKRAINE

Topicality. The unsuccessful attempt to privatize the Ust-Dunaysky seaport indicates the objective need to strengthen not only the organizational, but also the scientific and methodological basis of port reform in Ukraine. The scientific and methodological foundations of port reform should be built taking into account the modern achievements of not only the neoclassical mainstream of economic science, but also institutional economics. And if these opportunities are not used in the future, then in the future this may cast doubt on the success of the transition to a concession form of relations in such large seaports as Odesa, Chornomorsk and Izmail. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to apply the concept of institutional competition to the study of the institutional and economic mechanism of the functioning of the port economy in Ukraine. The tasks of the article are: analysis of the reforming property relations problems in the seaports of Ukraine using the example of an unsuccessful attempt to privatize the Ust-Dunaysky seaport; use of the concept of institutional competition as a methodological mediator between the neoclassical theory of natural monopoly and economic practice. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the article is formed by the methods of neoclassical and neoinstitutional analysis of the economy, as well as elements of the dynamic theory of competition of the Chicago school and the neo-Austrian approach to the analysis of monopoly and competition problems. The information base of the study was domestic and foreign scientific publications, information and analytical materials, legislative and regulatory acts of Ukraine. Research results. It is shown that the unsuccessful privatization of the relatively small Ust-Dunaysky port can serve as a symptom of a strategic error associated with the privatization of integral property complexes and underestimation of the significance of institutional competition between their elements. It is proved that in the process of preparing privatization and concession in seaports it is important to fully take into account the conclusions of modern institutional economics, which shows how natural monopoly can be supplemented by institutional competition based on the principle of differential optimization. Conclusion. The story of the Ust-Dunaysky port shows the negative results of the one-sided application in practice of the concept of natural monopoly without its supplementation by institutional competition. Therefore, the main practical conclusion is that in the process of reforming the port economy, depending on specific circumstances, it is possible to privatize and concession not only integral real estate complexes, but also their individual elements to create relations of institutional competition between them. The main methodological conclusion is the need to take into account the possibilities of differential optimization as fully as possible during the preparation for the concession of large ports, especially since in large ports the scale and structure of economic activity create favorable objective conditions for institutional competition.