engleski

Determinants of Competitiveness and Economic Governance: Some Evidence from the New EU Member States and Croatia

The issues of competitiveness and economic governance are very much interrelated notions as they reflect well the general level of efficiency of an economy as a whole and especially of an enterprise sector. In the EU context, two levels of economic governance do affect the level of country competitiveness: domestic economic governance mechanisms (policies and institutions) and the EU economic governance mechanisms for both member states and acceding countries such as Croatia. Apart from that, at the country level, macroeconomic and microeconomic governance mechanisms have a direct impact on both domestic and international economic competitiveness. Coordination and economic policy mix coherence as well as institutions (rules and regulations) would be also examined including aspects of open mechanisms of coordination at the EU, when analyzing the level of competitiveness of selected countries. The paper will focus on examining and analyzing evidence on how domestic and EU economic governance rules affect the level of competitiveness in Croatia at both country and enterprise sector levels. It will also make some comparisons with new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe. The paper will make use of the data and findings of the Executive Opinion Survey conducted for the World Economic Forum, which are published in the Global Competitiveness Report 2008/2009. The analyses of economic governance and its impact on the level of country competitiveness and enterprise sector will especially lean on analyzing the WEF Survey findings and composite indicators on some issues such as government efficiency ; property rights ; ethics and corruption.

Economic Governance; Competitiveness; Open Mechanism of Coordination; Converegence

The paper has been produced within the FP6 EU CONSENT Network of Excellence Project - No.513416, for the Panel "Reforming EU Budget: A Way of Enhancing EU Competitiveness" organized by Prof Iain Begg, London School of Economics, UK to present the Project's output at the 11th EUSA Conference.