Exports and international logistics

Alberto Behar (), Philip Manners () and Benjamin Nelson

No 5691, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Do better international logistics reduce trade costs, raising a developing country's exports? Yes, but the magnitude of the effect depends on the country's size. The authors apply a gravity model that accounts for firm heterogeneity and multilateral resistance to a comprehensive new international logistics index. A one-standard deviation improvement in logistics is equivalent to a 14 percent reduction in distance. An average-sized developing country would raise exports by about 36 percent. Most countries are much smaller than average however, so the typical effect is 8 percent. This difference is chiefly due to multilateral resistance: it is bilateral trade costs relative to multilateral trade costs that matter for bilateral exports, and multilateral resistance is more important for small countries.

Keywords: Economic Theory&Research; Free Trade; Trade Policy; Common Carriers Industry; Trade Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Journal Article: Exports and International Logistics (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5691

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