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This paper seeks to shed some light on the extent to which infrastructure sub-sectors - energy, telecommunications, water supply, sanitation, and transport - contributed to growth in East Asia during 1985-2004. It also attempts to provide additional insights on whether the relationship between infrastructure and growth depends on five additional variables: the degree of private participation in infrastructure, the quality of governance, the extent of rural-urban inequality in access to infrastructure services, country income levels, as well as geography. The findings show that greater stocks of infrastructure were indeed associated with higher growth. However, a more nuanced look at the sensitivity of infrastructure impacts on the five additional variables yields different results, with some sectors supporting conventional expectations and others yielding mixed or counter-intuitive results. In particular, the telecom and sanitation sectors yield statistically significant results supporting the a priori hypotheses; electricity and water infrastructure provide mixed results; and road infrastructure consistently contradicts a priori expectations. The results are consistent with the widely-accepted idea in policy research that infrastructure plays an important role in promoting growth, as well as with the viewpoint that certain countries' endowments influence the growth-related impacts of infrastructure.

Banks and Banking Reform --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Externalities --- Finance infrastructure --- Governance --- Governance Indicators --- Infrastructure development --- Road --- Road infrastructure --- Roads --- Sanitation --- Tax --- Transparency --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Urban Development --- Urban Services to the Poor --- Urban Slums Upgrading

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Using individual level employment data from Bangladesh, this paper presents empirical evidence on the relative importance of farm and urban linkages for rural nonfarm employment. The econometric results indicate that high return wage work and self-employment in nonfarm activities cluster around major urban centers. The negative effects of isolation on high return wage work and on self-employment are magnified in locations with higher agricultural potential. The low return nonfarm activities respond primarily to local demand displaying no significant spatial variation. The empirical results highlight the need for improved connectivity of regions with higher agricultural potential to urban centers for nonfarm development in Bangladesh.

Agglomeration economies --- Agriculture --- Airport --- Congestion --- Crops and Crop Management Systems --- Infrastructure development --- Labor Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Road --- Road Infrastructure --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Rural roads --- Social Protections and Labor --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Transport infrastructure --- Travel times

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This paper reviews recent progress and indicators of trade facilitation in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The findings show that import and export costs vary considerably in the member countries, from very low to moderately high levels. Tariff and non-tariff barriers are generally low to moderate. Infrastructure quality and services sector competitiveness range from fair to excellent. Using a standard gravity model, the authors find that trade flows in Southeast Asia are particularly sensitive to transport infrastructure and information and communications technology. The results suggest that the region stands to make significant economic gains from trade facilitation reform. These gains could be considerably larger than those from comparable tariff reforms. Estimates suggest that improving port facilities in the region, for example, could expand trade by up to 7.5 percent or USD 22 billion. The authors interpret this as an indication of the vital role that transport infrastructure can play in enhancing intra-regional trade.

Air --- Air transport --- Common Carriers Industry --- Driving --- Economic Theory and Research --- Free Trade --- Freight --- Industry --- International Economics & Trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Port facilities --- Public Sector Development --- Road --- Road infrastructure --- Trade Policy --- Transparency --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Transport infrastructure