Regulatory Economics and the Future of Ports as Energy Hubs

This chapter summarizes selected key research areas and economic methods that can be relevant for the study of ports of future energy hubs. The three key areas covered in this review are economic regulation, public acceptance, and efficiency and productivity analysis of ports and related infrastructure sectors. Where relevant, we also point to the state of knowledge in literature.<br/>This chapter proceeds as follows. Section 2 describes economic regulation options for ports as energy hubs and discusses them against the background of economic regulations in other sectors. Section 3 addresses how social acceptance of sustainable ports can be examined using economic methods. Section 4 describes how efficiency analyses, space and network aspects of ports and key contextual aspects can be examined.