Infrastructure, Geographical Disadvantage, Transport Costs, and Trade
The authors use different data sets to investigate the dependence of transport costs on geography and infrastructure. Infrastructure is an important determinant of transport costs, especially for landlocked countries. Analysis of bilateral trade da...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/17737466/infrastructure-geographical-disadvantage-transport-costs-trade http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17438 |
| Summary: | The authors use different data sets to
investigate the dependence of transport costs on geography
and infrastructure. Infrastructure is an important
determinant of transport costs, especially for landlocked
countries. Analysis of bilateral trade data confirms the
importance of infrastructure and gives an estimate of the
elasticity of trade flows with respect to the trade cost
factor of around-3. A deterioration of infrastructure from
the median to the 75th percentile raises transport costs by
12 percentage points and reduces trade volumes by 28
percent. Analysis of African trade flows indicates that
their relatively low level is largely due to poor infrastructure. |
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