Title Assessing competitiveness using industry unit labor costs : an application to Slovakia / prepared by Mark De Broeck, Anastaisa Guscina, and Gil Mehrez

Published [Washington, D.C.] : International Monetary Fund, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource (26 pages) : illustrations Series IMF working paper ; WP/12/107 IMF working paper ; WP/12/107. Contents Cover; Abstract; Contents; I. Introduction; II. International Competitiveness: Concept and Measurement; III. Overview of Slovakia's Economy since 1993; IV. Long-term Perspective: Competitiveness and Productivity; A. The Level and Composition of Government Spending and Revenue; B. Government Efficiency and Transparency; C. Business Climate; D. Human Capital: Level and Quality of Education; V. Short-term Perspective: External Competitiveness as Related to Possible Exchange Rate Misalignment; A. Exchange Rate and Export Share Dynamics; B. Current Account Dynamics C. Analytical Approaches to Exchange Rate Misalignment AssessmentVI. Competitiveness Analysis Based on Sectoral ULC; VII. Conclusions; References Summary Conceptual ambiguities and statistical weaknesses hamper the assessment of external competitiveness. The term competitiveness, while applied extensively, is often imprecisely defined, which can result in analytical errors and mistaken policy advice. Furthermore, aggregate statistical measures of competitiveness in terms of exchange rate misalignment can be biased. To address these issues, this paper makes two contributions. First, it clarifies the external competitiveness concept, highlighting the dichotomy between productivity-driven long-run growth and short-run deviations from the underlying growth trajectory, which can be related to exchange rate misalignment. Second, it develops a disaggregated statistical approach for examining competitiveness based on unit labor costs at the three digit industry level in a group of comparable countries. The case of Slovakia is used to illustrate these concepts, but the analytical insights have general application Bibliography Includes bibliographical references Subject Competition -- Slovakia -- Econometric models Labor costs -- Slovakia -- Econometric models Foreign exchange rates -- Slovakia -- Econometric models Competition -- Econometric models Economic history Foreign exchange rates -- Econometric models Labor costs -- Econometric models SUBJECT Slovakia -- Economic conditions. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001004138 Subject Slovakia Form Electronic book Author Guscina, Anastasia, author Mehrez, Gil, author International Monetary Fund. European Department, issuing body. ISBN 9781475587739 1475587732 9781475503289 1475503288

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