Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability and performance of a firm, sub-sector or country to sell and supply goods and/or services in a given market. The usefulness of the concept, particularly in the context of national competitiveness, is vigorously disputed by economists, such as Paul Krugman [1]. A market is, as defined in economics, a social arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to discover information and carry out a voluntary exchange. ...

The term may also be applied to markets, where it is used to refer to the extent to which the market structure may be regarded as perfectly competitive. This usage has nothing to do with the extent to which individual firms are "competitive'. There are two kinds of market structures that are usually discussed. ... Perfect competition is a model in economic theory. ...

Market Competitiveness

At the market level, the two academic bodies of thought on the assessment of competitiveness are the Structure Conduct Performance Paradigm and the more contemporary New Empirical Industrial Organisation model. Predicting changes in the competitiveness of business sectors is becoming an integral and explicit step in public policy making.

Firm competitiveness

Within capitalist economic systems, the drive of enterprises is to maintain and improve their own competitiveness. In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... For the Macintosh operating system, which was called System up to version 7. ...

National Competitiveness

The term is also used to refer in a broader sense to the economic competitiveness of countries, regions or cities. Recently, countries are increasing looking at their competitiveness on global markets. Ireland (1997), Croatia (2004), Greece (2003) and the Philippines (2006) are just some examples of countries that have advisory bodies or special government agencies that tackle competitiveness issues.

National competitiveness is said to be particularly important for small open economies, which rely on trade, and typically foreign direct investment, to provide the scale necessary for productivity increases to drive increases in living standards. The Irish National Competitiveness Council uses a Competitiveness Pyramid structure to simplify the factors the affect national competitiveness. It distinguishes in particular between policy inputs in relation to the business environment, the physical infrastructure and the knowledge infrastructure and the essential conditions of competitiveness that good policy inputs create, including business performance metrics, productivity, labour supply and prices/costs for business. The National Competitiveness Council is an independent policy advisory body in the Republic of Ireland. ...

International comparisons of national competitiveness are conducted by the World Economic Forum, in its Global Competitiveness Report, and the Institute for Management Development, in its World Competitiveness Yearbook. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based foundation whose annual meeting of top business leaders, national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists is usually held in Davos, Switzerland. ... World map of the 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Index. ...

Criticism

Krugman argues that "As a practical matter, however, the doctrine of 'competitiveness' is flatly wrong. The world's leading nations are not, to any important degree, in economic competition with each other." As Krugman notes, national economic welfare is determined primarily by productivity in both traded and non-traded sectors of the economy. [2].

See also

• Global Competitiveness Report
• Ireland's National Competitiveness Council

World map of the 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Index. ... The National Competitiveness Council is an independent policy advisory body in the Republic of Ireland. ...

External Links

• Global Competitiveness Report
• World Competitiveness Yearbook
• Ireland's National Competitiveness Council
• Croatia's National Competitiveness Council