如果一个国家是内陆国家，那么它可能很穷。事实上，大多数缺乏沿海国家的国家都是世界上最不发达国家（LDCs），其居民在贫困方面占据了世界人口“最底层十亿”的水平。在欧洲以外，用人类发展指数（HDI）衡量，没有一个成功的，高度发达的内陆国家，大多数HDI得分最低的国家都是内陆国家。联合国设有最不发达国家，内陆发展中国家和小岛屿发展中国家高级代表办公室。 UN-OHRLLS认为，由于距离和地形造成的高运输成本削弱了内陆国家的出口竞争优势。试图参与全球经济的内陆国家必须应对通过邻国运输货物的行政负担，或者必须寻求昂贵的航运替代方案，例如空运。有几个因素促成了这些内陆国家的成功。首先，由于位于欧洲，没有哪个国家离海岸很远，它们在地理上比其他大多数内陆国家更幸运。此外，这些富裕国家的沿海邻国享有强大的经济，政治稳定，内部和平，可靠的基础设施和跨境友好关系。例如，卢森堡通过公路，铁路和航空公司与欧洲其他地区保持着良好的联系，并且几乎可以毫不费力地通过比利时，荷兰和法国出口货物和劳动力。相比之下，埃塞俄比亚最近的海岸与索马里和厄立特里亚接壤，这些海岸通常受到政治动荡，内部冲突和基础设施薄弱的困扰。将国家与沿海地区分开的政治边界在欧洲并不像发展中国家那样有意义。


If a country is landlocked, it is likely to be poor. In fact, most countries that lack coastal access are among the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and their inhabitants occupy the “bottom billion” tier of the world’s population in terms of poverty. Outside Europe, there is not a single successful, highly developed, landlocked country when measured with the Human Development Index (HDI), and most of the countries with the lowest HDI scores are landlocked. The United Nations has an Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States. The UN-OHRLLS holds the view that high transport costs due to distance and terrain detract from landlocked countries’ competitive edge for exports. Landlocked countries that do attempt to participate in the global economy must contend with the administrative burden of transporting goods through neighboring countries or must pursue costly alternatives to shipping, such as air-freight. There are several factors that have contributed to the success of these landlocked countries. First, they are simply more geographically fortunate than most other landlocked countries by virtue of being located in Europe, where no country is very far from a coast. Furthermore, the coastal neighbors of these wealthy countries enjoy strong economies, political stability, internal peace, reliable infrastructure and friendly relations across their borders. Luxembourg, for example, is well-connected to the rest of Europe by roads, railways, and airlines and can count on being able to export goods and labor through Belgium, the Netherlands, and France almost effortlessly. In contrast, Ethiopia’s nearest coasts are across borders with Somalia and Eritrea, which are usually beset with political turmoil, internal conflict, and poor infrastructure. The political boundaries that separate countries from coasts are not as meaningful in Europe as they are in the developing world.

