The importance of the Logistics Performance Index in international trade
Logistics and transport increasingly play a pivotal role in international trade relations. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) analyses differences between countries in terms of customs procedures, logistics costs and the quality of the infrastructure for overland and maritime transport. The aim of this article is to analyse the impact that each of these components has on trade in emerging economies using a gravity model. Furthermore, the study also attempts to detect possible advances in logistics in developing countries, which are grouped into five regions (Africa, South America, Far East, Middle East and Eastern Europe) by comparing the first LPI data published in 2007 with the most re…
Industrial productivity and convergence in Chinese regions: The effects of entering the world trade organisation
Abstract Chinese economic growth is tremendously important, both due to how fast it is occurring and also its effect on the world economy as a whole. The size of the economy and the rate at which it is growing has opened up significant internal regional differences that are visible in the trends displayed by industry as the main exponent of this growth. This article analyses regional differences in industrial productivity using a dynamic approach (Malmquist index), that is, by determining regional productivity growth as well as the change in value added inequality from one region to another (sigma and beta convergence). Both approaches distinguish between the periods dating from 1995 to 200…
Relevance of trade facilitation in emerging countries exports
The objective of this article is to analyse trade flows in emerging nations with a maritime boundary, where trade facilitation plays a decisive role in their international development. In order to detect possible patterns in performance, we apply the economic approach of gravity models using the World Bank Logistic Performance Index (LPI) as a good proxy of trade facilitation. The results of the estimation lead to the conclusion that the more complex the transportation of goods is, the more influential the logistics indicator, trade facilitation being most prominent in Middle East exporters.