Abstract
This paper analyses the main economic factors that are influencing the competitiveness of Central and Eastern European (C.E.E.) countries. The research was carried out on a sample of ten countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia), over the period 2004–2016. These countries were grouped by their stage of economic development, respectively: efficiency driven economies, in transition between efficiency and innovation and innovation driven economies. An econometric analysis on panel data was used, considering as a dependent variable the competitiveness of a country, quantified by the Global Competitiveness Index. As independent variables, we took into account a set of seven macroeconomic and business environment indicators which could have an impact on a country’s competitiveness. The results obtained show important differences between countries, but also some resemblance. Although all the considered countries are emerging ones, the factors that have a significant influence on the competitiveness differ significantly. Thereby, if for efficiency-driven countries, G.D.P., inflation rate, trade, labour productivity and costs are important determinants of competitiveness, for innovation-driven countries the determinants of competitiveness are: G.D.P., inflation rate, tax rate, F.D.I., trade and costs. As regards the C.E.E. countries in transition only G.D.P., inflation rate and labour productivity are determinants of competitiveness.
Highlights
A major preoccupation of the policy-makers in both developed and developing countries is nowadays the national competitiveness and how they can increase it
Based on the results of the applied regression models and their statistically significant coefficients, we can conclude that G.D.P., inflation rate, trade, labour productivity and cost of business start-up procedures are the determinants of competitiveness for the efficiency-driven C.E.E. countries
For the countries in transition between efficiency and innovation only G.D.P., inflation rate and labour productivity have an important influence on competitiveness
Summary
A major preoccupation of the policy-makers in both developed and developing countries is nowadays the national competitiveness and how they can increase it. 40; Porter, Sachs, & Warner, 2000) highlight that national competitiveness refers to the economic structures and institutions of a country that help the economic growth as a weight in the structure of global economy. European Competitiveness Report (European Commission, 2014) presents a competitive economy as being that economy that has a consistently high rate of productivity growth. The report indicates that the economic competitiveness of a country depends on the performance of the small and medium enterprise (S.M.E.) sector, on the growth and employment potential of these firms. The mentioned study shows that efficient public administration is a key driver of E.U. countries competitiveness
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