Person:
Iimi, Atsushi
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Industrial organization,
Development economics
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Transport Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
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.
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 13
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Publication
Infrastructure and Trade Preferences for the Livestock Sector : Empirical Evidence from the Beef Industry in Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)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. -
Publication
What is Missing Between Agricultural Growth and Infrastructure Development? Cases of Coffee and Dairy in Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11)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. -
Publication
Hidden Treasures in the Comoros: The Impact of Inter-Island Connectivity Improvement on Agricultural Production
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)The paper revisits the traditional transport-agricultural growth nexus. Connectivity is particularly challenging for small island developing states, such as the Comoros, where domestic markets are limited and transport and transaction costs tend to be high. Using household survey data from Comoros, the paper shows that significant untapped economic potential exists in the domestic market. The analysis shows that better transport connectivity increases crop production and market sales. Accessibility to Moroni, the primary market in the country, and inter-island connectivity are of particular importance. Not only transport infrastructure, but also services are important. Access to intermediary services, such as cooperatives and collectors, is also found to have a positive impact on crop production and market sales. -
Publication
Crop Choice and Infrastructure Accessibility in Tanzania: Subsistence Crops or Export Crops?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06)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. -
Publication
Agriculture Production and Transport Infrastructure in East Africa: An Application of Spatial Autoregression
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06)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. -
Publication
Port Rail Connectivity and Agricultural Production: Evidence from a Large Sample of Farmers in Ethiopia
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-03-27)Agriculture important in Africa, employing a large share of the labor force and earning foreign exchange. Transport connectivity has long been a crucial constraint in the region. In theory, railways have the advantage of shipping bulky freight, such as fertilizer, at low costs. However, in many African countries, railways were in virtual bankruptcy in the 1990s. Using a large sample of data comprised of more than 190,000 households over eight years in Ethiopia, the paper estimates the impacts of rail transport on agricultural production. The paper takes advantage of the historical event that a major rail line connecting the country to Port Djibouti was abandoned during the 2000s. With the fixed effects and instrumental variable techniques combined, an agricultural production function is estimated. It is found that deteriorated transport accessibility to the port had a significantly negative impact. The use of fertilizer particularly decreased with increased transport costs. -
Publication
Spatial Autocorrelation Panel Regression: Agricultural Production and Transport Connectivity
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)Spatial analysis in economics is becoming increasingly important as more spatial data and innovative data mining technologies are developed. Even in Africa, where data often crucially lack quality analysis, a variety of spatial data have recently been developed, such as highly disaggregated crop production maps. Taking advantage of the historical event that rail operations were ceased in Ethiopia, this paper examines the relationship between agricultural production and transport connectivity, especially port accessibility, which is mainly characterized by rail transport. To deal with endogeneity of infrastructure placement and autocorrelation in spatial data, the spatial autocorrelation panel regression model is applied. It is found that agricultural production decreases with transport costs to the port: the elasticity is estimated at -0.094 to -0.143, depending on model specification. The estimated autocorrelation parameters also support the finding that although farmers in close locations share a certain common production pattern, external shocks, such as drought and flood, have spillover effects over neighboring areas. -
Publication
Port Rail Connectivity and Agricultural Production: Evidence from a Large Sample of Farmers in Ethiopia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)Agriculture remains an important economic sector in Africa, employing a large share of the labor force and earning foreign exchange. Among others, transport connectivity has long been a crucial constraint in Africa. In theory, railways have a particularly important role to play in shipping freight and passengers at low cost. However, most African railways were in virtual bankruptcy by the 1990s. Using a large sample of data comprised of more than 190,000 households over eight years in Ethiopia, the paper estimates the impacts of rail transport on agricultural production. Methodologically, the paper takes advantage of the historical event that a major rail line connecting the country to the regional hub, the Port of Djibouti, was abandoned in the 2000s. With spatially highly disaggregated fixed effects and instrumental variables incorporated, an agricultural production function is estimated. The elasticity with respect to port connectivity is estimated at 0.276. The use of fertilizer is also found to increase with transport cost reduction, supporting the fact that a large amount of fertilizer is imported to Ethiopia. -
Publication
Agricultural Production and Transport Connectivity: Evidence from Mozambique
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07-02)Despite the richness of the existing literature, it remains a challenge to find rigorous evidence of the impacts of transport connectivity on agricultural production. The paper aims at contributing to the prolonged debate on the transport-agriculture nexus in Africa, by taking advantage of the unique circumstances in Mozambique where the government intensively invested in road infrastructure during a relatively short period of time in the 2010s. With the highly disaggregated location-specific fixed-effects and instrumental variable technique used to control for the endogeneity issue, the paper shows that the improved road connectivity increased agricultural production significantly. In particular, access to domestic markets is found to be important. It is also found that agricultural production exhibits decreasing returns to scale, heavily depending on land input. -
Publication
Crop Production, Transport Infrastructure, and Agribusiness Nexus: Evidence from Madagascar
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06)The literature suggests a wide range of impacts of improved transport connectivity on agricultural growth. Still, the infrastructure-growth nexus remains somewhat mysterious, particularly in the African context, because many rural farmers do not have their own transport means. Using data from Madagascar, the paper reexamines the important roles of agrobusinesses. By applying the spatial autoregressive model, it is shown that proximity to input-oriented agrobusinesses, such as input dealers and equipment suppliers, is particularly important to increase rice production. Fertilizer and irrigation use is also found important, indicating the needs for intensification in rice production. Market accessibility is always found as a significant determinant: transport infrastructure connecting farmers and markets, especially the capital city, Antananarivo, is therefore important to develop and maintain.