This study is a comprehensive, empirical analysis of the linkages between governance, institutions, and regional infrastructure. The empirical results indicate that governance and institutions are crucial for regional infrastructure development: every one point improvement in governance results...

Trade costs incorporate the cost of transportation along with tariffs, nontariff measures, insurance, distribution costs, infrastructure quality, and cross-border connectivity. The high costs of trade make the production process slow and costly, which forces international trade flows to...

This paper attempts to distinguish and estimate the direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity. The latter arises from the infrastructure-agglomeration link and has been largely overlooked in the literature on infrastructure. An analytical framework is then developed to...

In this paper, the literature on trade and development is surveyed, especially that regarding the role of complementarities associated with trade infrastructure. The empirical literature shows that, on average, trade causes growth, but the relationship is far from homogeneous across countries...

Thailand's increasing importance as a regional co-production base and as an intra-regional trade and border trade hub is due mainly to recent changes in its economic structure, namely, the lack of operational workers, rises in wages, and increases in outward foreign direct investment (FDI),...

This paper presents three approaches to the evaluation of cross-border transport infrastructure in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). First, it estimates benefit-cost ratios for selected segments of economic corridors. The results indicate differing degrees of economic viability among different...

International trade has played an essential role in Asia's remarkable growth, development, and integration in recent decades. Infrastructure, both hard and soft, has played an integral part in facilitating that trade, primarily through reducing the associated transaction costs. Regional...

Infrastructure services, from both hard and soft infrastructure, play a vital role in facilitating Asia's export-led growth by keeping the prices of delivered goods in export markets competitive. Efficient infrastructure services lower transaction costs, raise value added, and increase potential...

As trade is an important driver of growth and infrastructure is a necessity for trade, infrastructure development has a key role to play in economic development. This study aims to quantify the potential benefits of the development of the economic transport corridors, along with the...

Nepal's lackluster economic performance during the post-conflict period (that is, after November 2006) has been driven by remittances from the export of labor services and the improved performance of the agricultural sector, which is still very much weather dependent. The authors make the case...