Investigating the Impact of Logistics Performance on the Sustainable Development of Emerging Countries: a Spatial Approach

In recent decades, the logistics performance of countries to achieve sustainable development has received serious attention. Creating trade corridors and improving transportation infrastructure have been among the important goals of some countries in recent years, which will determine the geography of development in the coming years and will face some other countries with the challenge of economic isolation. This study has investigated the role of logistics performance on sustainable development (which is a composite index indicating the development of countries in various fields) in emerging countries, including Iran, with the tool of econometric knowledge. The present study has been carried out with a space panel approach (two methods, SDM and SAR) to consider the spatial effects of the variables on neighboring countries. The results indicate that the performance of logistics in both models has a positive effect on the sustainable development of countries. Also, the improvement of logistics performance has positively affected the sustainable development of neighboring countries. Therefore, this study’s serious recommendations are joint ventures to improve commercial and transportation infrastructure, such as creating various commercial corridors. Based on this study, economic freedom, good governance, increasing the share of education and health sector expenditures have positively effected on sustainable development. In addition, population density and abundance of natural resources have negatively affected sustainable development