Exports and international logistics

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.Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Trade Policy,Common Carriers Industry,Trade Law

The Relationship between Liberalisation in the Logistics Sector and Trade Facilitation

This study demonstrates that the improvement of the performance of logistics services through domestic liberalisation may generate a virtuour cycle, whereby international trade is increased and the this, in turn, may increase the deman for logistics services.Liberalisation, Logistics Sector, Trade Facilitation

Significance of Trans-European Transport Networks for Logistics Centre Localization as Exemplified by the Łódź Region

This work complements and structures knowledge in the field of logistics centres (with focus on the Łódź region). It presents a thorough analysis of strategic documents of the European Union in reference to the functioning of international transport networks. It also provides a detailed description of logistics facilities operations from the theoretical standpoint and definition of relations in points where logistics centres and TEN-T networks overlap. The result of this work is a set of recommendations referring to effective development of logistics centres on the background of transport corridors

Does the logistics sector gain from manufacturing internationalisation? An empirical investigation on the Italian case

The present paper deals with the impact of manufacturing internationalisation, in the forms of international trade, cooperation agreement and FDI, on the logistics sector. Some descriptive statistics are provided for the Italian macro-areas and the logistics employment and an econometric analysis is carried out at the "regional-industry" level (20 NUTS2 regions and 11 logistics sub-sectors) with reference to the Italian case in the period 1996-2001. Results show that export and FDIs positively affect the logistics employment variation in 1996-2001, while import and cooperation agreements display a negative or not significant impact.logistics, employment, internationalisation, trade, FDI, cooperation agreement.

Exploring Vietnamese logistics service quality in the run up to AEC 2015

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Logistics and Transport, 17th to 20th November, Lyon, France. Abstract: The logistics and supply chain management domain faces a number of ongoing trends and resultant challenges including costs, the globalisation of supply and markets, time compression, product complexity and shrinking product life cycles, quality of performance and service, a shortage of logistics and supply chain management talent, their impact on the natural environment, and risk and disruption and supply chain security (Grant, 2014). This is particularly true in and important for developing economies such as Vietnam

Global logistics indicators, supply chain metrics, and bilateral trade patterns

Past research into the determinants of international trade highlighted the importance of the basic spatial gravity model augmented by additional variables representing sources of friction. Studies modeled many sources of friction using various proxies, including indices based on expert judgment in some cases. This paper focuses on logistics friction and draws on a data set recently compiled by the World Bank with specific quantitative metrics of logistics performance interms of time, cost, and variability in time. It finds that the new variables that relate directly to logistics performance have a statistically significant relationship with the level of bilateral trade. It also finds that a single logistics index can capture virtually all of the explanatory power of multiple logistics indicators. The findings should spur public and private agencies that have direct or indirect power over logistics performance to focus attention on reducing sources of friction so as to improve their country's ability to compete in today's global economy. Moreover, since the logistics metrics are directly related to operational performance, countries can use these metrics to target actions to improve logistics and monitor their progress.Common Carriers Industry,Transport and Trade Logistics,Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Trade Policy

Cross-collaborative supply chains. How logistics services contribute to social responsibility.

Abstract Purpose - The collaboration between profit and nonprofit entities has become a burning topic in supply chain management studies and corporate strategies. The world’s largest logistics service providers (LSPs) have been developing several practices improving social responsibility while collaborating with nonprofit actors. In particular, their core competences and offered services become extremely relevant in the context of humanitarian logistics initiatives. A key purpose of this article is to examine the projects currently undertaken by LSPs in humanitarian logistics. Methodology/Approach - This research follows a qualitative approach based on multiple case studies. Findings - The paper provides an overview of the leading LSPs’ involvement in humanitarian logistics and presents an analysis of their current “best practices” services in disaster relief with high impact in terms of social responsibility. Research Limitations/implications - There has been increased interest on the part of international academic and professional communities in humanitarian logistics. This study constitutes a platform for benchmarking analysis of logistics services to assure effective implementation of social responsibility principles. Originality/Value of paper - Humanitarian logistics is a rather new field in logistics management. This paper addresses the innovative socially responsible initiatives undertaken by the main international LSPs in the area of humanitarian logistics. Keywords - logistics services, logistics service providers, humanitarian logistics and supply chain management, disaster relief, social responsibility, profit/nonprofit collaboration Type of paper - Research pape

Trade Logistics and Regional Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean

During the past few decades, the landscape of the world economy has changed. New trade patterns reflect the globalization of the supply chain and intra-industry trade, and increasing flows between neighboring countries and trading blocs with similar factor endowments. Similarly, the approach to production, trade, and transportation has evolved incorporating freight logistics as an important value-added service in global production. This integrated approach have become essential, and as such, both the trade agenda and freight logistics are beginning to converge providing an unparalleled opportunity for countries to deepen their integration with neighboring countries and their national performance in transport related services. Consequently, developing countries are finding themselves hard-pressed to adjust their policy agendas to take into account costs not covered in past rounds of trade negotiations. This paper focuses on the importance of freight logistics in trade facilitation measures, examines the transport and logistics cost in international trade, addresses logistics performance in Latin America and the Caribbean and regional initiatives to advance the integration process and finally, exchanges views on the potential for trade logistics to impact the regional agenda and to deepen integration.latin america caribbean trade; regional integration; infrastructure trade facilitation

Competitive Positioning in International Logistics: Identifying a System of Attributes Through Neural Networks and Decision Trees

Firms involved in international logistics must develop a system of service attributes that give them a way to be profitable and to satisfy customers’ needs at the same time. How customers trade-off these various attributes in forming satisfaction with competing international logistics providers has not been explored well in the literature. This study explores the ocean freight shipping sector to identify the system of attributes that maximizes customers’ satisfaction. Data were collected from shipping managers in Singapore using personal interviews to identify the chief concerns in choosing and evaluating ocean freight services. The data were then examined using neural networks and decision trees, among other approaches to identify the system of attributes that is connected with customer satisfaction. The results illustrate the power of these methods in understanding how industrial customers with global operations process attributes to derive satisfaction. Implications are discussed