Abstract (may include machine translation)
One of the most important lessons learned during the 2008-09 financial crisis was that the informational toolbox on which policymakers base their decisions about competitiveness became outdated in terms of both data sources and data analysis. The toolbox is particularly outdated when it comes to tapping the potential of micro data for the analysis of competitiveness – a serious problem given that it is firms, rather than countries that compete on global markets.
This Blueprint provides some concrete examples from recent advances in the analysis of competitiveness. The book is organised around European Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi’s definition of a competitive economy as one in which “institutional and macroeconomic conditions allow productive firms to thrive and in turn, the development of these firms supports the expansion of employment, investment and trade”. This point of view led us to highlight throughout the book the role of a small number of highly-productive firms as drivers of competitiveness at the country and industry level and, associated with that, the relevance for economic growth of the extent to which an economy is able to reallocate labour and capital towards those more-productive firms. Equally important is the context in which these productive firms operate, and thus the significance of developments in international trade and international fragmentation of production through the changing patterns of global value chains.
This Blueprint provides some concrete examples from recent advances in the analysis of competitiveness. The book is organised around European Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi’s definition of a competitive economy as one in which “institutional and macroeconomic conditions allow productive firms to thrive and in turn, the development of these firms supports the expansion of employment, investment and trade”. This point of view led us to highlight throughout the book the role of a small number of highly-productive firms as drivers of competitiveness at the country and industry level and, associated with that, the relevance for economic growth of the extent to which an economy is able to reallocate labour and capital towards those more-productive firms. Equally important is the context in which these productive firms operate, and thus the significance of developments in international trade and international fragmentation of production through the changing patterns of global value chains.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Brussels |
Publisher | Bruegel |
Number of pages | 133 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789078910398 |
State | Published - 2016 |
Publication series
Name | Bruegel Blueprint Series ; 24. |
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