  We examine the spillover effect of neighboring ports on regional industrial
diversification and their economic resilience using the export data of South
Korea from 2006 to 2020. First, we build two distinct product spaces of ports
and port regions, and provide direct estimates of the role of neighboring ports
as spillover channels spatially linked. This is in contrast to the previous
literature that mainly regarded ports as transport infrastructure per se.
Second, we confirm that the knowledge spillover effect from neighboring ports
had a non-negligible role in sustaining regional economies during the recovery
after the economic crisis but its power has weakened recently due to a loosened
global value chain.
