Abstract: This empirical paper sheds light on a significant element of the debate of whether infrastructure services have a strong impact on economic development by exploring the impact of innovative road freight services on downstream business users. The paper uses a new and purpose-specific survey of 165 logistics service providers and 493 user enterprises in food processing, food distribution, and the automotive industry in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The main findings are that there are substantial downstream benefits from innovations in road freight services, both dampening cost increases and raising sales revenues of business users. The additional finding that increased intensity of competition in road freight services is significantly associated with the provision of innovative services suggests that easing any remaining barriers to competition in upstream business sectors should be a priority.

This empirical paper sheds light on a significant element of the debate of whether infrastructure services have a strong impact on economic development by exploring the impact of innovative road freight services on downstream business users. The paper uses a new and purpose-specific survey of 165 logistics service providers and 493 user enterprises in food processing, food distribution, and the automotive industry in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The main findings are that there are substantial downstream benefits from innovations in road freight services, both dampening cost increases and raising sales revenues of business users. The additional finding that increased intensity of competition in road freight services is significantly associated with the provision of innovative services suggests that easing any remaining barriers to competition in upstream business sectors should be a priority.

Regulatory reform can spur innovations in infrastructure services, generating new downstream activities and magnifying the economywide benefits of reform. The national competition agency can help greatly in laying the groundwork for reform by making a compelling case for the reform's expected benefits.

This open access book explores supply chains strategies to help companies face challenges such as societal emergency, digitalization, climate changes and scarcity of resources. The book identifies industrial scenarios for the next decade based on the analysis of trends at social, economic, environmental technological and political level, and examines how they may impact on supply chain processes and how to design next generation supply chains to answer these challenges. By mapping enabling technologies for supply chain innovation, the book proposes a roadmap for the full implementation of the supply chain strategies based on the integration of production and logistics processes. Case studies from process industry, discrete manufacturing, distribution and logistics, as well as ICT providers are provided, and policy recommendations are put forward to support companies in this transformative process.

Transport prices for most African landlocked countries range from 15 to 20 percent of import costs. This is approximately two to three times more than in most developed countries. It is well known that weak infrastructure can account for low trade performance. Thus, it becomes necessary to understand what types of regional transport services operate in landlocked African nations and it is critical to identify the regulation disparities and provision anomalies that hurt infrastructure efficiency, even when the physical infrastructure, such as a road transport corridor, exists. Transport Prices and Costs in Africa analyzes the various reasons for poor transport performance seen widely throughout Africa and provides a compelling case for a number of national and regional reforms that are vital to the effort to address the underlying causes of high transport prices and costs and service unpredictability seen in Africa. The book will greatly help supervisory authorities throughout the region develop and implement a comprehensive transport policy that will facilitate long-term growth.

The main message of the study is that Central America's ability to exploit the opportunities created by ongoing trade liberalization will depend on the ability of the region to implement a complementary policy agenda that creates an enabling policy and institutional environment.

"Trade costs and nontariff barriers are at the forefront of discussions on competitiveness and expanding trade opportunities for developing countries. This paper provides a summary overview of data and indicators relevant to these issues and has been informed by work underway at the World Bank on trade facilitation over the past several years to catalogue data sets and indicators. Although there has been progress in expanding data sets and developing policy-relevant indicators on trade costs and barriers, much more is needed. In order to assess progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, evaluating the impact of development projects, and whether meeting Aid for Trade goals will be met, for example, a dedicated and expansive new effort to collect and assess data is needed. This paper attempts to highlight gaps in data on trade costs and provides insight into the type of new data that might be developed in the future. "--World Bank web site.