Black Sea–Middle Corridor Integration Index (BSMCII): Dataset, Component Indices, Econometric Panel, and Replication Package for Measuring Multimodal Corridor Readiness

This dataset package provides the full empirical and replication material for the study on the Black Sea–Middle Corridor Integration Index (BSMCII). The package is designed to measure the integration readiness of the Middle Corridor and the Black Sea basin as a multidimensional multimodal logistics system rather than as a single rail, port, or maritime route. The dataset covers 19 port/route-year observations, 11 entities, and the 2020–2025 observation window. It includes Georgian Black Sea ports, EU Black Sea benchmark ports, Caspian nodes, the TITR full-route observation, a northern-route benchmark, a marine-route benchmark, and Anaklia counterfactual scenario cases. The empirical structure is comparative and proxy-aware, allowing Georgian ports and future corridor scenarios to be evaluated against wider Black Sea, Caspian, and Eurasian transport alternatives. The package contains the raw and processed data used to construct eleven Level-I component indices: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), Connectivity, Transit Cost and Document Integration Index (TCDI), Corridor Accessibility Index (CAI), Reliability, Resilience, Hinterland Integration, TradeCost, and Green Performance. These components are aggregated into the authorial Black Sea–Middle Corridor Integration Index (BSMCII), including quality-adjusted BSMCII values, component summaries, rankings, uncertainty logic, and audit fields. The package also includes an econometric panel prepared for testing the association between BSMCII-based corridor readiness and flow outcomes. The econometric architecture is designed for pooled OLS/WLS, fixed/random effects, two-way fixed-effects approximations, gravity-style controls, mediation/channel checks, nonlinear and threshold specifications, quantile diagnostics, and robustness testing. The dataset is intended for transparent replication, sensitivity analysis, and reviewer-safe validation rather than definitive causal identification. Files included in the package contain the unified Excel workbook, CSV exports, source mapping, variable codebook, methodology and replication notes, Zenodo metadata, citation file, license note, checksum manifest, and a Python replication script for recomputing BSMCII values. The dataset is calculation-ready but proxy-aware: several variables are official or official-derived, while selected indicators rely on structured proxy construction where final operator-level, port authority, AIS, freight-forwarder, customs, or emissions data are not yet publicly available. This replication package supports research on Eurasian transport corridors, the Middle Corridor, Black Sea logistics, port competitiveness, multimodal freight systems, feeder connectivity, trade-cost and document-continuity integration, corridor resilience, hinterland access, green logistics, composite-index construction, and applied transport econometrics.