Cross-Border Transport Infrastructure, Regional Integration, and Development

An important part of moves toward closer regional integration are cross-border infrastructure schemes that involve neighboring countries. This paper assesses current thinking from the economics literature on the potential benefits from these projects.

Transport projects offer particular scope for regional cooperation and the reduction in trade cost that they offer can have an important impact on trade flows between participating countries. The allocation of benefits between countries from these projects may be unequal and this poses challenges for their financing and implementation.

The paper gives case studies from the Mekong and Central Asian regions and suggests directions for future research.

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