The LPI provides a simple, global benchmark to measure logistics performance, filling gaps in datasets by providing systematic cross-country comparisons. A joint venture of the World Bank, logistics service providers, and academics, the LPI is built around a survey of logistics professionals. By asking freight forwarders to rate countries on key logistics issues—such as customs clearance efficiency, infrastructure quality, and the ability to track cargo—it captures a broad set of elements that affect perceptions of the efficiency of trade logistics in practice. It is a “coarse-grained” indicator that shows where a country stands and that could motivate researchers to take on a deeper, finer, country-specific assessment of the determinants of logistics performance. LPI scores should not be overvalued—a country’s LPI score is less relevant than its quintile (whether it is among the best or worst performing countries or is somewhere in the middle). The authors use confidence intervals to examine the sensitivity of each country’s LPI score.
The LPI reflects the perspective of the global private sector on how countries are globally connected through their main trade gateways, so it might not fully capture changes at the country level. The LPI complements, rather than substitutes for, the in-depth country assessments that many countries have undertaken in recent years, many of them with World Bank support.