Supply chain performance and economic growth: The impact of COVID-19 disruptions

Reliable supply chains are crucial to the productivity and economic growth of nations. Despite the recognition of its importance, especially brought to the forefront by the challenges of the coronavirus crises, formal research on the contribution of supply chain logistics is less forthcoming. This paper uses data on 130 nations to examine the relative effects of different aspects of supply chain logistics, including overall logistics performance, and the performance of the input and output dimensions of logistics, on economic growth. The results show that improvements in the supply chain logistics performance yield positive growth dividends. Further, the input and output dimensions of logistics performance have positive growth effects, with some quantitative differences. Significantly, the growth impact of logistics performance varies across nations with different growth rates. Implications for public policy and spillovers for COVID-19 initiatives are discussed.