Scotland’s international competitiveness within Western Europe

The paper measures regional competitiveness of Scotland in comparison to ten EU regions and small countries using the International Benchmarking Index Family (‘IB Index Family’) developed by BAK Basel Economics.1 The IB Index Family contains an index with three dimensions of competitiveness: Performance, Attractiveness and Structural Potential. The Performance Index measures recent economic success; the Attractiveness Index measures how well a region is an attractive location to companies and highly-qualified individuals; and the Structural Potential Index estimates future potential economic growth based on current economic structure. The application of the IB Index Family provides a first-step into a more in-depth benchmarking of the competitiveness of a region, which is necessary when working towards detailed policy conclusions. The paper explains these measurement tools and applies them in a short benchmarking analysis of Scotland and ten EU regions and small nations (e.g. Ireland, Norway, Western Sweden etc.)

International Competitiveness of Sugar Production

Sugar market is one of the most protected markets for agricultural products world wide. In almost every sugar producing country the sugar market is regulated in some way. With an increasing liberalization of agricultural trade in the "Millennium Round" of the WTO trade negotiations, the question of international competitiveness is of increasing importance. Based on empirical studies, in this article the competitiveness of sugar production in the most important sugar producing countries is analysed, including the whole production process from beet or cane production in the field to sugar processing in the factory. Special emphasis is focussed on the different location factors and their influence on competitiveness, so that finally, conclusions can be drawn on future development of the world sugar market and the single production locations. From the countries included in this study, at present only Brazil, Australia, Thailand and partly South Africa would be able to produce sugar under world market conditions. While Brazil and Australia profit from favourable natural, economical and political location factors, in Germany high opportunity costs as well as high environmental and social standards predominate the advantages of high efficiency in the sugar industry. In the United States partly disadvantageous climatic conditions together with high opportunity costs are responsible for the insufficient international competitiveness of sugar production. Low productivity in Thailand and South Africa is overbalanced by low wages as well as comparatively low environmental and social standards. Without standardised environmental and social regulations, a liberalization of the world market would force movements of sugar production from beet to cane areas with favourable natural, economical and political conditions.Crop Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Sectoral Leadership in International Competitiveness

The purpose of this paper is to identify the type of labour and the sectors where labour productivity should be improved to raise the international competitiveness of Portugal. A static multi-sectoral general equilibrium model, with multi-national and single-country versions is used. The model allows the identification of the sectors that are leaders in competitiveness improvement. It is expectable that for some countries this role should be played by the traditional exporting-sectors, while for other countries the effort should be concentrated on the suppliers of intermediate goods. The results show that the choice of sector, and type of labour are crucial for the improvement of the international competitiveness of the Portuguese economy. In addition, the criterion used to measure competitiveness also has an important role. While the multifactor productivity is especially increased when the promotion of labour competencies occurs in exporting-sectors and importing-sectors, the population welfare have a greater impact with the generalised improvement of unskilled labour competencies.General equilibrium models, competitiveness, productivity.

International Competitiveness and Environmental Regulations

This study follows the standard factor endowment approach to explain the effects of environmental regulations on net exports in different product-based industries. It constructs an econometric model which includes factor endowments and environmental regulations to examine how strict environmental policy impact export competitiveness. Cross-sectional and time series (panel) data for 6 countries and 17 years were used in this model. In this study, capital services increase net exports in labor-intensive industries like textiles, textile products, leather and footwear industries. The effects of increased labor intensity in food, textiles and machinery is higher than for other capital intensive good industries. The environmental regulation imposed in textile, textiles products, leather and footwear industry, and manufacturing (n.e.c) industry negatively impact net exports.Environmental Economics and Policy,

International Competitiveness—Where Pakistan Stands?

The concept of competitiveness has been widely accepted and has become a part of discussion in world-wide forums. Today global economy cannot be explained in the same manner as it was a few decades ago. Improved competitiveness of economies is a need of the day and ability to compete in the world market is of major concern. This paper attempts to assess the position of Pakistan in the International Competitiveness. As a survey paper, the concept, definition and the measurement of competitiveness have been analysed further to assess Pakistan’s position in the region. Competitiveness is linked with export performance of other trading and non trading countries. Pakistan’s export performance is analysed in this context. Lessons for Pakistan have been drawn on the basis of experiences of emerging economies. It has been concluded that countries can strengthen their export markets with the passage of time. They need to improve the governance as well as technological progress to increase high-tech exports. Developing countries like Pakistan start from low technology and with passage of time shift to improved technologies. Technology-based activities help improving export performance that brings competitiveness of a country. The paper also suggests a model to government of Pakistan which describes that high technology exports will be a result of extensive Research and Development (R&D) using human capital as an investment in the country. The success depends upon the combined efforts of the government, individuals and business initiatives both in public and private sectors.Competitiveness, Growth Performance

Impatience, International Competitiveness, and Political

In this paper we present a model that describes how historical political constraints by themselves, or in combination with a sufficient degree of impatience, may be the cause of bankruptcy in some industries when a closed economy is opened to foreign competition. The model assesses the behavior of two types of firms, impatient and patient, which may or may not adopt foreign technology. The costs involved are not only economic but also political. These political costs are, nonetheless, measured in monetary terms. At some moment, which depends on the political constraints, a third firm enters the market, the foreign one. Depending on the national firms’ degree of impatience and the costs associated with political constraints, Nash equilibria, in which one or even both firms–at the moment the economy is opened–have to shut down, exist. All these strategies result to be subgame perfect equilibrium. Further, as a by-product, our results shed new light on the topic of temporary protection: The degree of impatience, by itself, my be the reason of why temporary protection may o may not fail to induce firms to adopt advanced technologies, even if the threat of liberalization is credible; furthermore, if both firms are sufficiently patient, both firms adopt the new technology and temporary protection results to be operative in order to maximize social welfare, so this equilibrium pass the “renegotiation-proof” criterium (along the equilibrium path).