Europos Sąjungos šalių konkurencingumo ir jį lemiančių veiksnių vertinimas

LTStraipsnyje analizuojama, kas yra būdinga skirtingą ekonomikos išsivystymo lygį turinčių šalių konkurencingumo veiksniams. Pirmoje straipsnio dalyje yra rašoma apie konkurencingumo sampratą, o antroje parengtos metodikos pagrindu identifikuojami konkurencingumą lemiantys veiksniai. Pagal BVP, tenkantį vienam gyventojui, vertinamas Europos Sąjungos šalių konkurencingumas, pasitelkiant rangavimą ir klasterinę analizę ES šalys pagal konkurencingumą suskirstomos į šešis klasterius. Konkurencingumą lemiantys veiksniai įvertinami pasitelkus dekompozicinę indeksų analizę, aprašoma, kas lemia kiekvienos šalių grupės konkurencingumo pokyčius. [Iš leidinio]

ENGlobal competition, changes in the economic cycle, ICT development, etc. require that national competitiveness of EU countries was assessed and compared. A country’s social and economic growth and national competitiveness are highly affected by government decisions. New and advanced technology and innovations should be used to create value added and facilitate national competitiveness. Competitiveness, a term broadly used in economics and political sciences, is one of the most important and controversial issues of recent economic and political discussions. Scientific literature focuses on organizational or regional competitiveness but national competitiveness has not been widely analysed. Usually one or more factors determining national competitiveness are selected and analysed but that does not show which of them have the greatest impact on national competitiveness. The goal of the paper is to identify and analyse factors that have the greatest impact on national competitiveness in the context of the EU. To reach the goal scientific literature was overviewed, comparative, econometric, descriptive analysis of quantitative data, cluster analysis, index decomposition and indicator analysis were done. Competitiveness and its main indicators have long been known. The definitions of competitiveness provided in scientific literature depend on the research object and research objectives. Competitiveness is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. The concept of national competitiveness can be described as a country’s participation in the international market, its economic growth, employment rate, income level, productivity level, well-being, etc.12 indices of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), proposed by the World Economic Forum, The International Institute for Management Development and The Institute for Industrial Policy Studies are analysed in this paper: institutional, business and social environmental, infrastructure, macroeconomics, consumption, financial and labour market, health care, education, research and development. They all are interrelated and interact. GDP per capita was selected for several reasons because the GCI is calculated by forming the sub-indices the weighting of which depends on a country’s economic development level. Since national competitiveness is linked to economic growth, consequently, GDP per capita is commonly used for this purpose. Cluster analysis was done and EU countries were grouped into six categories: four countries make up the group of high competitiveness, and even half – of weak competitiveness. In order to compare their competitiveness they were ranked by GDP per capita (highest rank – 1, lowest rank – 28). The research showed that in 2004-2013 Luxembourg was the most competitive country, Romania and Bulgaria – the least competitive countries. It was found that in 2009 competitiveness of all countries decreased. The decomposition analysis of the GCI, consisting of 12 indices, was done to identify which factors have the greatest impact on national competitiveness and how each factor changes it. Summing up the analysis it could be stated that during certain periods foreign direct investment flows as a percentage of GDP had the greatest impact on competitiveness of all EU countries, other factors, not taking into account a country’s economic development level, were the unemployment rate and exports per capita meanwhile labour productivity and labour force with tertiary education had the least impact [...].