Iimi, Atsushi

Person:
Iimi, Atsushi

Transport Global Practice

Fields of Specialization

Industrial organization, Development economics

External Links

RePEc

Departments

Transport Global Practice

Last updated August 2, 2023

Biography

Atsushi Iimi is a Senior Economist in the Transport Global Practice of the World Bank where he specializes in development economics related to the Bank’s transport operations in Africa. He joined the World Bank in 2006 after earning a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University. Before joining the Bank, he also worked at IMF and JICA/OEFC, Japan. His research interests include spatial analysis, rural accessibility, evaluation of transport and energy projects, growth and public expenditure. His research on these topics has been published in scholarly journals, such as the Review of Industrial Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Applied Economics, the Development Economies, and IMF Staff Papers.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 16

Infrastructure and Trade Preferences for the Livestock Sector : Empirical Evidence from the Beef Industry in Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04) Iimi, Atsushi

Trade preferences are expected to facilitate global market integration and offer the potential for rapid economic growth and poverty reduction for developing countries. But those preferences do not always guarantee sustainable external competitiveness to beneficiary countries and may risk discouraging their efforts to improve underlying productivity. This paper examines the EU beef import market where several African countries have been granted preferential treatment. The estimation results suggest that profitability improvement achieved by countries under the Cotonou protocol compares unfavorably with the returns to nonbeneficiary countries in recent years. Rather, it shows that public infrastructure, such as paved roads, has an important role in lowering production costs and thus increasing external competitiveness and market shares.
What is Missing Between Agricultural Growth and Infrastructure Development? Cases of Coffee and Dairy in Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11) Iimi, Atsushi ; Smith, James Wilson

Although it is commonly believed that aggregate economic growth must be associated with public infrastructure stocks, the possible infrastructure needs and effects are different from industry to industry. The agriculture sector is typical. Various infrastructures would affect agriculture growth differently depending on the type of commodity. This paper finds that a general transport network is essential to promote coffee and cocoa production, perhaps along with irrigation facilities, depending on local rainfall. Conversely, along with the transport network, the dairy industry necessitates rural water supply services as well. In some African countries, a 1 percent improvement in these key aspects of infrastructure could raise GDP by about 0.1-0.4 percent, and by possibly by several percent in some cases.
Crop Choice and Infrastructure Accessibility in Tanzania: Subsistence Crops or Export Crops?

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06) Iimi, Atsushi ; Humphreys, Richard Martin ; Melibaeva, Sevara

Africa has great potential for agriculture. Although international commodity prices have been buoyant, Africa’s supply response seems to be weak. A variety of constraints may exist. Using the case of Tanzania, the paper examines the impact of market connectivity, domestic and international, on farmers’ crop choices. It is shown that the international market connectivity, measured by transport costs to the maritime port, is important for farmers to choose export crops, such as cotton and tobacco. Internal connectivity to the domestic market is also found to be important for growing food crops, such as maize and rice. Among other inputs, access to irrigation and improved seed availability are also important factors in the crop choices of farmers. The size of land area is one constraint to promote the crop shift. The paper also reports the finding that farmers are not using market prices effectively in their choice of crop, even after the endogeneity of local prices is taken into account.
Firm Inventory Behavior in East Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06) Iimi, Atsushi ; Humphrey, Richard Martin ; Melibaeva, Sevara

Firms normally keep certain inventories, including raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods, to operate seamlessly and not to miss possible business opportunities. But inventory is costly, and the optimal firm inventory differs depending on various economic conditions, including trade and transport costs. The paper examines firm inventory behavior in East Africa, in which transport connectivity, especially to the ports, is considered as one of the major business constraints. Using firm-level data from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, it is shown that transport connectivity significantly affects firm inventory behavior. In particular, road density and transport costs to the port are important to determine the optimal inventory level. With more roads in a city and/or cheaper access to the port, firms would hold smaller inventories.
Agriculture Production and Transport Infrastructure in East Africa: An Application of Spatial Autoregression

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06) Iimi, Atsushi ; You, Liangzhi ; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike ; Humphrey, Richard Martin

Africa is estimated to have great potential for agricultural production, but there are a number of constraints inhibiting the development of that potential. Spatial data are increasingly important in the realization of potential as well as the associated constraints. With crop production data generated at 5-minute spatial resolution, the paper applies the spatial tobit regression model to estimate the possible impacts of improvements in transport accessibility in East Africa. It is found that rural accessibility and access to markets are important to increase agricultural production. In particular for export crops, such as coffee, tea, tobacco, and cotton, access to ports is crucial. The elasticities are estimated at 0.3–4.6. In addition, the estimation results show that spatial autocorrelation matters to the estimation results. While a random shock in a particular locality would likely affect its neighboring places, the spatial autoregressive term can be positive or negative, depending on how fragmented the current production areas are.
Social and Economic Impacts of Rural Road Improvements in the State of Tocantins, Brazil

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04) Iimi, Atsushi ; Lancelot, Eric R. ; Manelici, Isabela ; Ogita, Satoshi

The aim of this paper is to provide feedback on the question of socioeconomic benefits from rural road development and the impact of transport infrastructure on the poor, particularly the poorest and the bottom 20 percent of the population. This paper relies on impact evaluation methodologies, which are traditionally used in social sectors but less so in the transport sector. The study, including first surveys, was launched in 2003 under the Tocantins Sustainable Regional Development Project. The paper highlights the context that led to the project’s design, which included an impact evaluation of the works envisaged under the project. The paper also highlights some of the main challenges faced by this impact evaluation and how these challenges were addressed for the present study. It then provides details about the data collected during the surveys and the key relevant characteristics of the population targeted by the surveys. It discusses the possible estimation methods envisioned to undertake the study and provides the main results of the assessment based on these methods. The analysis shows that improved rural roads changed people’s transport modal choice. People used more public buses and individual motorized vehicles after the rural road improvements. The paper also finds that the project increased school attendance, particularly for girls. Although the evidence is relatively weak in statistical terms, it indicates that the project contributed to increasing agricultural jobs and household income in certain regions.
Evaluating the Social and Economic Impacts of Rural Road Improvements in the State of Tocantins, Brazil

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04) Iimi, Atsushi ; Lancelot, Eric ; Manelici, Isabela ; Ogita, Satoshi

The aim of this paper is to provide feedback on the question of socioeconomic benefits from rural road development and the impact of transport infrastructure on the poor, particularly the poorest and the bottom 40 percent of the population. This study relies on impact evaluation methodologies, which are traditionally used in social sectors but less so in the transport sector. These methodologies were launched in 2003 under the Tocantins sustainable regional development project. This paper highlights the context that led to the project’s design, which included an impact evaluation of the works envisaged under the project. It also highlights some of the main challenges faced by this impact evaluation and how these challenges were addressed for the present study. It then provides details about the data collected during the surveys and the key relevant characteristics of the population targeted by the surveys. It discusses the possible estimation methods envisioned to undertake the study and provides the main results of the assessment based on these methods. The analysis shows that improved rural roads changed people’s transport modal choice. People came to use more public buses and individual motorized vehicles after the rural road improvements. The paper also finds that the project increased school attendance, particularly for girls. Although the evidence is relatively weak in statistical terms, it indicates that the project contributed to increasing agricultural jobs and household income in certain regions.
Adapting Road Procurement to Climate Conditions

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Iimi, Atsushi ; Benamghar, Radia

The world's climate is changing. It is well recognized that technical standards and project specifications of public infrastructure have to be adjusted, depending on the climate. However, it is less recognized that the public infrastructure procurement also needs to be adjusted. This paper examines a particular case of rural road procurement in Nepal. Severe weather conditions, such as heavy rains and storms, are likely to interrupt civil works and wash away unpaved or gravel roads. It is found that heavy precipitation causes delays, but not cost overruns. The paper also shows that budgetary efficiency and credibility could be improved by taking climate conditions into account. If future precipitation were anticipated by backward-looking expectations, many large project delays could be avoided. If the autoregressive precipitation model were used, the vast majority of the observed delays could be eliminated.
Optimizing the Size of Public Road Contracts

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Iimi, Atsushi ; Benamghar, Radia

Procurement packaging has important effects on not only the bidders' bidding behavior, but also contractors' performance. By changing the size of public contracts, procurers can encourage (or discourage) market competition and improve contract performance, avoiding unnecessary cost overruns and project delays. In practice, there is no single solution about how to package public contracts. With procurement data from road projects in Nepal, this paper examines the optimal size of road contracts in rural areas. The optimum varies depending on policy objectives. To maximize the bidder participation, the length of road should be about 11 kilometers. To minimize cost overruns and delays, the contracts should be much larger at 17 and 21 kilometers, respectively. Compared with the current procurement practices, the findings suggest that procurers take more advantage of enlarging road packages, although contracts that are too large may increase the risk of discouraging firms from participating in public tenders.
Estimating the Impact of Improved Roads on Access to Health Care: Evidence from Mozambique

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07) Iimi, Atsushi

The paper recasts light on the linkage between transport infrastructure and human capital development. Health care access is an important challenge in many developing countries. In particular in remote rural areas, it is not easy to access good quality health care services. Among others, transport connectivity is often an important constraint. The paper estimates the impact of transport connectivity on access to health care services in Mozambique, especially focused on people’s decision about whether they visit and ask for advice at a health facility if they have a fever. This is a critical question in Mozambique where malaria is still a life-threatening disease. About three-quarters of the total population does not have access to health facilities by walking. The paper shows that transport connectivity to health facilities is a significant determinant of people’s health care access. Owning transport means, such as a bike or a motorcycle, is also instrumental to promoting people’s access to health care. The rich are more likely to benefit from health care services, suggesting a need for other complementary policies, such as a health care subsidy and insurance, to improve health care accessibility.