Pillars of Competitiveness in Balkan Countries
Pillars of Competitiveness in Balkan Countries

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims at analysing the competitiveness (dis)advantages of the 8 selected Balkan countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia. In the case of basic requirements (functioning of institutions, developed infrastructure, macroeconomic performance, healthcare and primary education) the lags in all examined countries are not considerable (from 15 to 31 percent ). Relatively worse competitive position has been assessed for efficiency enhancers pillars: higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness and market size (lags from 21 percent in Slovenia to 32 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. International benchmarking shows important impact of human resources on competitiveness of any analysed economy. The worst competitive position was found for innovation and sophistication pillars (capacity for innovation, company spending on R&D, value chain breadth, production process sophistication, university-industry collaboration) where the lags in some countries are approaching to 50% of the most competitive economies.

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