National Competitiveness Levers: How it Looks in Bulgaria

Abstract

Summary:

Measuring national competitiveness goes beyond the mere ranking of countries by knowing and understanding the factors of competitiveness and by decomposing the sources of competitiveness into their constituent parts. A comparison between countries provides policy makers with the tools necessary to identify areas in which countries are lagging behind. The paper addresses two main issues: the notion of competitiveness and the factors of competitiveness. Within the scope of this study on the evolution of the competitiveness factors are the factors that influence the so called sustainable competitiveness. The relation between competitiveness and productivity, competitiveness and well being and public wealth are discussed and examples from different countries are presented. The two most popular indicators by which competitiveness is measured (the ones of World Economic Forum and International Institute for Management Development) are elaborated upon with regard to the factors that they encompass. Furthermore the competitiveness levers of Bulgarian economy according to the latest competitiveness indices, provided by the World Economic Forum, are outlined and briefly analysed.