This study is part of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), a project designed to expand the world's knowledge of physical infrastructure in Africa. The AICD will provide a baseline against which future improvements in infrastructure services can be measured, making it possible to monitor the results achieved from donor support. It should also provide a more solid empirical foundation for prioritizing investments and designing policy reforms in the infrastructure sectors in Africa. The AICD is based on an unprecedented effort to collect detailed economic and technical data on the infrastructure sectors in Africa. The project has produced a series of original reports on public expenditure, spending needs, and sector performance in each of the main infrastructure sectors, including energy, information and communication technologies, irrigation, transport, and water and sanitation. The first phase of the AICD focused on 24 countries that together account for 85 percent of the gross domestic product, population, and infrastructure aid flows of Sub-Saharan Africa. Under a second phase of the project, coverage is expanding to include as many of the additional African countries as possible.

Africa's infrastructure : a time for transformation

The Deadly Life of Logistics

This paper presents a survey of recent research on the economics of infrastructure in developing countries. Energy, transport, telecommunications, water and sanitation are considered. The survey covers two main set of issues: the linkages between infrastructure and economic growth (at the economy-wide, regional and sectoral level) and the composition, sequencing and efficiency of alternative infrastructure investments, including the arbitrage between new investments and maintenance expenditures; OPEX and CAPEX, and public versus private investment. Following the introduction, section 2 discusses the theoretical foundations (growth theory and new economic geography). Section 3 assesses the analysis of 140 specifications from 64 recent empirical papers-examining type of data used, level of aggregation, econometric techniques and nature of the sample-and discusses both the macro-econometric and micro-econometric contributions of these papers. Finally section 4 discusses directions for future research and suggests priorities in data development.

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Infrastructure and growth in developing countries : recent advances and research challenges

This paper examines the implications of global production sharing for economic integration in East Asia with emphasis on the behavior of trade flows in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Although trade in parts and components and final assembly within production networks (“network trade”) has generally grown faster than total world trade in manufacturing, the degree of dependence of East Asia on this new form of international specialization is proportionately larger than elsewhere in the world. Network trade has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among countries in the region with the People's Republic of China playing a pivotal role as the premier center of final assembly. However, contrary to popular belief, this has not lessened the dependence of the export dynamism of these countries on the global economy. This inference is basically consistent with the behavior of trade flows following the onset of the global financial crisis.

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Production Networks and Trade Patterns in East Asia: Regionalization or Globalization?

Uncertainty and supply chain risk: The moderating role of supply chain flexibility in risk mitigation

This is the fourth edition of Connecting to Compete: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy. It features the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which the World Bank has produced every two years since 2007. The LPI measures the on-theground efficiency of trade supply chains, or logistics performance. This year’s edition covers 160 countries.

Trade Logistics in the Global Economy: The Logistics Performance Index and Its Indicators

This is the third edition of Connecting to Compete, a report summarizing the findings from the new dataset for the 2012 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and its component indicators. Based on a worldwide survey of global freight forwarders and express carriers, the LPI is a benchmarking tool developed by the World Bank that measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country. The index can help countries identify challenges and opportunities and improve their logistics performance. The World Bank conducts the survey every two years. The 2012 LPI also provides expanded data on import and export supply chains in 143 countries, including information on time, cost, and reliability and ratings on domestic infrastructure quality, the performance of core services, and the friendliness of trade clearance procedures. The 2012 LPI and its indicators encapsulate the firsthand knowledge of movers of international trade. This information is relevant for policymakers and the private sector seeking to identify priorities for reform of their soft and hard trade and logistics infrastructure. Findings include the following. First, despite a positive trend in performance since 2007, infrastructure, clearance procedures, and quality of services remain serious constraints, except in high-income countries. Second, countries with substantial performance improvement are the ones that have implemented long-term and comprehensive reforms and investments. Third, efficient border clearance goes beyond customs and implies coordination of the various agencies involved. Fourth, greening the logistics is a growing concern, especially when shipping with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

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Connecting to compete 2010 : trade logistics in the global economy - the logistics performance index and its indicators

Based on a worldwide survey of global freight forwarders and express carriers, the Logistics Performance Index is a benchmarking tool developed by the World Bank that measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country. Allowing for comparisons across 167 countries, the index can help countries identify challenges and opportunities and improve their logistics performance. The World Bank conducts the survey every two years.

Connecting to Compete 2012 : Trade Logistics in the Global Economy

This paper shows that networked trade in parts and components is more sensitive to the importing country's logistics performance than is trade in final goods. In the baseline specification, the difference between the two trade semi-elasticities is around 45 percent, which suggests that the effect is quantitatively important. In addition, the analysis finds that logistics performance is particularly important for trade in the Asia-Pacific region, which is exactly where the emergence of international production networks has been most pronounced over recent years. The results suggest that policymakers can support the development of international production networks by helping improve trade logistics performance.

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Daniel Saslavsky

Papers

Trade Logistics in the Global Economy: The Logistics Performance Index and Its Indicators

Connecting to compete 2010 : trade logistics in the global economy - the logistics performance index and its indicators

Connecting to Compete 2012 : Trade Logistics in the Global Economy

Facilitating international production networks : the role of trade logistics

Connecting to Compete 2016