Towards a toolkit for port related socio-economic impacts: a meta-analysis of socio-economic impact studies conducted for seaports

Port authorities increasingly need to communicate with external stakeholders in order to maintain and strengthen societal acceptance of seaport activities.. The posting of socio-economic impact studies on the internet (e.g. via port and government agency websites) has often made this information available to the public at large. However, the differences in methodologies adopted to define and measure various types of socio-economic impacts sometimes lead to misconceptions as well as misleading comparisons across ports within and between regions. In this paper, we analyze a large sample of recent socio-economic impact assessment reports in terms of the types of impacts measured and the methodologies applied. We draw conclusions on the design and applicability of a potential best practice from an interregional perspective. The paper aims to develop guidelines for comparing the socio-economic impacts of ports across regional and national borders and discusses the development of a European port economic impact measurement toolkit.