Relationship Between Dry Ports and Regional Economy: Evidence from Yangtze River Economic Belt*

With the evolution of containerization and globalization of supply chains, aspects of port functions have made the transition from the sea to the inland region that forms the dry port. To explore the relationship between dry ports and regional economic development, this study uses a gravity model and forecast model to analyze 1,040 observations in 104 cities (22 dry port cities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2008 to 2017. The model includes economic variables, logistics variables, foreign relations variables, and human capital variables. It was found that the dry port is positively correlated with trade volume. Compared with a city without a dry port, the trade volume of a city with a dry port will increase 0.099 times. It can be concluded that a dry port is crucial for the economic development of the YREB. It was also found that per capita GDP as an economic variable, road area and rail number as logistics variables, and foreign relation variables are positively correlated with trade volume, while the human capital variable has no significant effect on trade volume. In addition, governmental policy implications are addressed from the aspects of dry port and industry cluster caused by foreign investment.