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Empirica (2014) 41:467480
DOI 10.1007/s10663-013-9241-z
ORIGINAL PAPER
Rosa Puertas Luisa Mart Leandro Garca
Published online: 6 December 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Logistics performance has become a decisive factor in export competitiveness. At the same time, and as a result of the continuous enlargement processes it has undergone, the European Union (EU) is a very interesting case to study how the reforms that enhance logistics performance have affected exports. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the importance of logistics performance in regard to EU exports over the period 20052010 in an attempt to identify possible advances on behalf of Member States. Several gravity equations are estimated using the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and its components as characteristic proxy variables of trade facilitation. In order to avoid the possible heterogeneity caused by sample bias, the two-stage model proposed by Heckman is used. The estimations of the gravity models using the two-stage Heckman model for all 26 EU countries have led us to conclude that logistics was more important for exporting nations than importing nations in both 2005 and 2010, reinforcing the interest in the exporter side of the paper. In reference to the components of the LPI, Competence and Tracking has acquired greater importance in recent years, in keeping with the weak domestic demand in European countries and the search for new international markets.
R. Puertas L. Mart
Grupo de Economa Internacional, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46021 Valencia, Spaine-mail: [email protected]
R. Puertas (&)
Facultad de Administracin y Direccin de Empresas, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spaine-mail: [email protected]
L. Garca
Instituto de Economa Internacional, Universidad de Valencia, Av de los Naranjos, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spaine-mail: [email protected]
Logistics performance and export competitiveness: European experience
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468 Empirica (2014) 41:467480
Keywords Logistic Performance Index Trade European Union Gravity
JEL Classication C5 F1 H54
1 Introduction
Logistics originally focused on the analysis of the supply chain in order to optimise the ow of components necessary for production processes. However, market globalisation and modernisation has resulted in this concept acquiring much broader functions, including space/time relationships. Buyers and sellers contract logistics services to transport freight from their place of origin to their destination. Authors such as Langley et al....