The outsourcing of logistics activities has driven the emergence of an urban logistics real estate market. Urban land and floor space scarcity and economies of scale have mostly relocated logistics facilities towards less dense and more peripheral areas of cities1–6. This process, known as ’logistics sprawl,’ has compromised urban sustainability, livability, and economic growth1–4. Through this research, as a contribution to the Logistics City Chair, we explore the hypotheses that logistics sprawl is higher in cities with a high differential between central and suburban land/rent values. We have compared the urban spatial structure with warehouses’ location and rent prices in 53 metropolitan areas worldwide. The methodological steps of this research were based on two primary analyses: (i) the characterization of the urban spatial structure in each metropolitan area and the relationship among urban variables, warehouse location, and real estate rent prices; and (ii) a comparative analysis among the metropolitan areas under investigation, considering the meta-analysis of logistics sprawl in published studies (Palacios-Argüello and Dablanc, 2020a) and the differential warehouse rent price concerning central and suburban areas.

Mergers between companies are motivated by synergy effects that can improve profitability. On February 11, 2015, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) approved, the merger between America Latina Logistica (ALL), the largest railroad transport company in Brazil and Rumo Logistics (RUMO), an operator with national impact with restrictions, and formed a new entity RUMO-ALL. The approval of this merger suggested that there could be an increase in operational efficiency without compromising the competition. In this work, the operational efficiency of RUMO-ALL is evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models for the return of adequate scale. Statistical tests of structural break are performed in order to understand if there are an ex-post merger effects on the operational efficiency after the expansion of the service. The results indicate that the rail service after the merger is efficient, but with marginal reduction of production with an increase of input, which is expected according to neoclassical economic theory for monopolies.