Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania

Railway transport generally has the advantage for large-volume, long-haul freight operations. Africa possesses significant railway assets. However, many rail lines are currently not operational because of the lack of maintenance. The paper recasts...

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Main Authors:	Iimi, Atsushi, Humphreys, Richard Martin, Mchomvu, Yonas Eliesikia
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	FIRM PRODUCTIVITY TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE RAIL TRANSPORT INVENTORY COSTS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966401504009617940/Rail-transport-and-firm-productivity-evidence-from-Tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28348

id	okr-10986-28348
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-283482021-06-08T14:42:48Z Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania Iimi, Atsushi Humphreys, Richard Martin Mchomvu, Yonas Eliesikia FIRM PRODUCTIVITY TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE RAIL TRANSPORT INVENTORY COSTS Railway transport generally has the advantage for large-volume, long-haul freight operations. Africa possesses significant railway assets. However, many rail lines are currently not operational because of the lack of maintenance. The paper recasts light on the impact of rail transportation on firm productivity, using micro data collected in Tanzania. To avoid the endogeneity problem, the instrumental variable technique is used to estimate the impact of rail transport. The paper shows that the overall impact of rail use on firm costs is significant despite that the rail unit rates are set lower when the shipping distance is longer. Rail transport is a cost-effective option for firms. However, the study finds that firms' inventory is costly. This is a disadvantage of using rail transport. Rail operations are unreliable, adding more inventory costs to firms. The implied elasticity of demand for transport services is estimated at -1.01 to -0.52, relatively high in absolute terms. This indicates the rail users' sensitivity to prices as well as severity of modal competition against truck transportation. The study also finds that firm location matters to the decision to use rail services. Proximity to rail infrastructure is important for firms to take advantage of rail benefits. 2017-09-21T15:49:44Z 2017-09-21T15:49:44Z 2017-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966401504009617940/Rail-transport-and-firm-productivity-evidence-from-Tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28348 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8173 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Tanzania
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	FIRM PRODUCTIVITY TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE RAIL TRANSPORT INVENTORY COSTS
spellingShingle	FIRM PRODUCTIVITY TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE RAIL TRANSPORT INVENTORY COSTS Iimi, Atsushi Humphreys, Richard Martin Mchomvu, Yonas Eliesikia Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
geographic_facet	Africa Tanzania
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8173
description	Railway transport generally has the advantage for large-volume, long-haul freight operations. Africa possesses significant railway assets. However, many rail lines are currently not operational because of the lack of maintenance. The paper recasts light on the impact of rail transportation on firm productivity, using micro data collected in Tanzania. To avoid the endogeneity problem, the instrumental variable technique is used to estimate the impact of rail transport. The paper shows that the overall impact of rail use on firm costs is significant despite that the rail unit rates are set lower when the shipping distance is longer. Rail transport is a cost-effective option for firms. However, the study finds that firms' inventory is costly. This is a disadvantage of using rail transport. Rail operations are unreliable, adding more inventory costs to firms. The implied elasticity of demand for transport services is estimated at -1.01 to -0.52, relatively high in absolute terms. This indicates the rail users' sensitivity to prices as well as severity of modal competition against truck transportation. The study also finds that firm location matters to the decision to use rail services. Proximity to rail infrastructure is important for firms to take advantage of rail benefits.
format	Working Paper
author	Iimi, Atsushi Humphreys, Richard Martin Mchomvu, Yonas Eliesikia
author_facet	Iimi, Atsushi Humphreys, Richard Martin Mchomvu, Yonas Eliesikia
author_sort	Iimi, Atsushi
title	Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
title_short	Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
title_full	Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
title_fullStr	Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
title_full_unstemmed	Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania
title_sort	rail transport and firm productivity : evidence from tanzania
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966401504009617940/Rail-transport-and-firm-productivity-evidence-from-Tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28348
_version_	1764466676385972224

Rail Transport and Firm Productivity : Evidence from Tanzania

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