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Access to basic infrastructure services - roads, electricity, water, sanitation - and the efficient provision of the services, is a key challenge in the fight against poverty. Many of the poor (and particularly the extreme poor) in rural communities in Latin America live on average 5 kilometers or more from the nearest paved road, which is almost twice as far as non-poor rural households. There have been major improvements in access to water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, ports, and airports, but road coverage has not changed much, although some effort and resources have been invested to improve the quality of road networks. This paper focuses on the main determinants of logistics costs and physical access to services and, whenever possible, provides evidence of the effects of these determinants on competitiveness, growth, and poverty in Latin American economies. The analysis shows the impact of improving infrastructure and logistics costs on three fronts - macro (growth), micro (productivity at the firm level), and poverty (the earnings of poor/rural people). In addition, the paper provides recommendations and solutions that encompass a series of policies to reduce the prevalent high logistics costs and limited access to services in Latin America. The recommendations rely on applied economic analysis on logistics and trade facilitation.

Airports --- Environment --- Environmental Economics and Policies --- Freight --- Road --- Roads --- Rural Roads --- Sanitation --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Transport services --- Transportation --- True

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Despite large amounts invested in rural roads in developing countries, little is known about their benefits. This paper derives an expression for the willingness-to-pay for a reduction in transport costs from the canonical agricultural household model and uses it to estimate the benefits of a hypothetical road project. Estimation is based on novel cross-sectional data collected in a small region of Madagascar with enormous, yet plausibly exogenous, variation in transport cost. A road that essentially eliminated transport costs in the study area would boost the incomes of the remotest households-those facing transport costs of about USD 75/ton-by nearly half, mostly by raising non-farm earnings. This benefit estimate is contrasted to one based on a hedonic approach.

High transport --- Infrastructure investment --- Road --- Road improvement --- Road projects --- Rural infrastructure --- Rural roads --- Transport --- Transport Costs --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Transport infrastructure

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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 report was written in 2008 in the wake of a World Bank mission to Mongolia in 2007. The team identified that the South Gobi region is poised for a major boom in economic activity, with a foundation based on planned development of mines of world class significance. The Mongolian Parliament is considering an greement with Ivanhoe Mines for the development of a copper and gold mine at Oyu Tolgoi, and a shareholder agreement that relates to proposed development of a coal mine at Tavan Tolgoi. Other proposed mines in the relatively near future include copper and molybdenum at Tsagaan Suvraga (TS) and export coal at Nariin Sukhait. It is likely that infrastructure development in the region will spur the development of additional mines and associated industries. The following discussion sets out the major infrastructure, environment, and regional development issued identified by the October mission of the World Bank.

Agriculture --- Air Quality --- Aquifers --- Coal --- Electricity --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Infrastructure Investment --- Investment Climate --- Mining --- Population Growth --- Railways --- Regional Rural Development --- Rural Development --- Rural Population --- Rural Roads & Transport --- Surface Water --- Sustainability --- Town Water Supply and Sanitation --- Transport --- Transport Costs --- Wastewater Treatment --- Water Supply and Sanitation