Maritime infrastructure and growth: Econometric measurement using panel data from Tunisia

This study applied a Cobb-Douglas production function in an attempt to assess the effect of increased maritime sector investment on economic growth. It did this for the Tunisian economy based on panel data for the 1985-2020 period, thus making it possible to confirm the importance of spillover effects resulting from developing the Tunisian maritime infrastructure. Increases in added value for market services and non-manufacturing industries proves the benefits of investments but also the harm caused by the structuring effects of marine infrastructure. The results reveal, however, that the positive induced effects are not guaranteed, because the development of maritime infrastructure can have the opposite effect, such as by shrinking the size of the manufacturing industries in relation to services, which is a striking example of a negative effect that was suffered by the Tunisian economy.