Landlockedness, Infrastructure and Trade:New Estimates for Central Asian Countries

This paper assesses the impact of internal infrastructure and landlockedness on Central Asian trade. The impact of landlockedness on Central Asian's trade costs is split into several components, using a panel gravity equation estimated on a large sample of countries (167 countries over 1992-2004). Our findings highlight that an improvement in the own infrastructure of Central Asian countries from the level of the median Central Asian country to that of other landlocked countries would raise exports (imports) by a modest 2.4% (3.1%). By contrast, an improvement in Central Asian transit-country infrastructure to the level of the other landlocked countries would raise the representative CAC's exports by a whopping 49%. Other dimensions of landlockedness considered in this study are also great impediments to trade. Either diminishing the extra overland costs or enhancing the ability to negotiate sea access would significantly increase Central Asian trade, ‘'transit monopolies'' (single transit corridors) reducing trade significantly.