Ports and the local embedding of commodity flows

Empirical evidence remains lacking about the territorial embedding of material flows. An analysis of 189 port regions in advanced economic areas (Europe, Japan, and the United States), validates a number of ideas proposed by regional science and transport geography. Core economic regions such as large urban tertiary centres concentrate most valued, diversified, and weighty traffic, while more peripheral and traditional ones tend to specialize in bulky traffic. Moreover, the level of industry relatedness of port traffic appears as a key component of the socio‐economic wealth of port regions. The research also underlines noticeable linkages between types of port regions and types of port‐related policies across the three studied areas.