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National Competitiveness in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stephen Weymouth  and
Richard Feinberg
Stephen Weymouth
Affiliation:
McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, University of California, San Diego. sw439@georgetown.edu
Richard Feinberg
Affiliation:
Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center, Global Leadership Institute (executive education). rfeinberg@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

The term competitiveness is widely applied as a catch-all for investor-friendly policies and institutions. This article argues that sloppy applications of the term ignore the possibilities of policy tradeoffs and varieties of institutional choices. Popular conceptualizations of the term describe three discernible clusters of economic policies and institutions. One cluster captures openness to international trade; a second gauges regulatory impediments to private sector competition; a third refers to public sector investments in human capital, security, and infrastructure. This essay develops three empirical indexes to operationalize these clusters and shows that these concepts are not only theoretically but also empirically distinct. In particular, the correlation between these measures is not especially high in a sample of Latin American countries. The larger economies in the region tend to be more competitive on the regulatory and public goods dimensions but fall well behind smaller economies in terms of external competitiveness, broadly conceived.

Type
Policy Issues
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , Fall 2011 , pp. 141 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2011

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