scholarly journals DO CLUSTERS AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT FOSTER NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN BULGARIA? A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH EU COUNTRIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hristo Katrandjiev ◽  
Yovka Bankova ◽  
Radica Jovanović

The business environment and cluster development in given economy have a defining role for the development, maintenance and enhancement of national competitiveness and this has been proven repeatedly in theory and in practice. Cluster development in Bulgaria started with some delay compared to the other European countries. In Bulgaria, companies even though being a member of a cluster, they do not fully realize their advantages in terms of competition and joint efforts. The reason is that clusters in Bulgaria are still in a process of building efficient internal interactions between their members. The study focuses on the way and the extent the state of business environment and cluster development foster national competitiveness in the case of Bulgaria and selected Central and Eastern European EU member states countries. For the purposes of the study of business environment the Diamond Model of Michael Porter is employed and it is carried out through the World Economic Forum’s indicators of Global Competitiveness Reports. Both, business environment and the level of cluster development in Bulgaria are evaluated in a comparative context with selected Central and Eastern European EU member states countries. The results of the study show domination of limitations and obstacles to enhancing national competitiveness. We may conclude that the state of the business environment, the level of cluster development, and their interaction are not very favourable for more intensive competitive development of Bulgarian economy.

Ekonomika ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jekaterina Rojaka

In recent years, the concept of national competitiveness and favourable business environment is broadly associated with economic development. The countries are increasingly paying attention to their competitiveness on global markets by promoting national programs and founding institutions aimed at tackling competitiveness issues. A number of leading international organizations, research institutes and business entities carry out global comparative studies on nation’s competitiveness. However, the global competitiveness ranking results are often inconsistent with economic trends. This raises a question whether the international competitiveness ran kings provide a proper guidance for an individual economy in improving the business environment. The paper aims at revealing the factors behind the discrepancies in evaluating a national competitiveness by international institutions and national agents. The analysis is based on the datasets of two influential publications - Doing Business (the World Bank) and Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum). The study was enriched by a questionnaire, specially tailored to assess the most problematic issues in measuring the business and investment environment. The research has shown that the international comparisons only partially correspond to the national perception of competitiveness. The paper also addresses policy insights for enhancing Lithuania’s competitiveness.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 132-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menbere Workie ◽  
Edita Hekelová

This paper critically discusses whether, and to what extent, the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) compiled by the World Economic Forum is informative, given the cross-positive effect across indicators that involve ranking of countries. The results suggest positive cross-effects between sub-indices for a group of economies in the European Union (EU) and other certain advanced economies. Economies with an advanced level of higher education and training, and a superior level of innovation, tend to experience a higher level of ranking in the global competitiveness index compared to countries with lower levels of education and innovation. The results of this study for a group of 28 EU member states during 2007-2015 reveal a heterogonous position of the EU member states despite their obvious achievement of converging income-per-capita in the same period. However, the results also indicate potential methodological inconsistencies in terms of the ranking of countries, relating to a common problem in economics, known as endogeneity or reverse causality, and based on variables that, statistically, appeared significantly correlated to each other.


Author(s):  
Dariusz Malinowski

The article contains an analysis of the budget deficit variability and public debt variation in the EU in 2010. Comparing the scale and economic determinants of changes in the state budget deficit and public debt in 2010 in the Central and Eastern European EU member states and in other EU countries we reach the following conclusions: 1) The average scale of the improvement of the economic result of the state budget as % of GDP was higher in the Central and Eastern Europe countries comparing to other EU member states. In the first group of countries, economic results improved on average by 1.1 percentage points, and in the other by 0.75 percentage points. 2) In most Central and Eastern European countries, as well as in most other EU countries the decline in budgetary expenditure, expressed in% of GDP was the only or major determinant of the reduction of the economic deficit of the state budget as % of GDP. Reduction of public spending in GDP was in turn the result of reducing the fiscal growth of nominal spending. In the Central and Eastern European countries in 2010, the nominal budget spending, decreased on average by 0.4%, while in 2009 increased on average by 16.1%. 3) In the rest of the EU average increase in public debt as % of GDP was higher than the average increase in public debt in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. For the rest of the EU member states, public debt at the end of 2010 as % of GDP was by 4.65 percentage points higher than at the end of 2009, and for the Central and Eastern European countries by 4.14 percentage points higher. At the end of 2010 Central and Eastern European countries had significantly lower average level of public debt as % of GDP in comparison with other EU members states (38.9% of GDP and 74.8% of GDP). In most other EU countries there is virtually no limit for increasing the public debt, therefore there is no limit for a high budget deficit. Among Central and Eastern European EU member states only Hungary are in similar situation while Poland is close by. Therefore, most other EU countries and some countries of Central and Eastern Europe must immediately substantially reduce the scale of the economic deficit of the state budget. Countries where public debt is relatively low should not delay further restrictions of the state budget deficit as later on they will have to make this reduction under pressure of time. Above else, high economic deficit negatively impacts the economy, including economic growth. If EU member states fail to implement quickly the low economic state budget defi cit policy, they will plunge into economic recession that will last for many years.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matea Zlatković

Foreign direct investments present a valuable source of national competitiveness as they have attributes of capital flows provide knowledge and technology transfer from one country to target country. In this paper are used variables defined by World Economic Forum which construct Global Competitiveness Index for assessing competitiveness of the country. The purpose of the research is to examine does the national competitiveness increase enhance the level of FDI flows in transition Western Balkan economies that are not yet full members of European Union. The findings claim that larger increase in FDI per capita stocks in majority analyzed countries would have if making infrastructure more competitiveness, accelerate their technological readiness and improve innovation while certain countries should work on health and primary education and higher education and training. According to the results, there is no correlation between FDI flows and macroeconomic environment, institutions, development of financial markets, good market efficiency, labor market efficiency and business sophistication. Applying benchmark method, it is established the most competitive WB country as benchmark value for other transition countries in its neighborhood for enhancing their competitiveness, specially in the regional market. Also, it is obtained what if analysis to detect potential rise of FDI per capita stocks as a consequence of potential changes in some competitiveness variables. It is also calculated the potential increase in FDI/capita due to similar changes in different competitiveness variables.


Author(s):  
Vladimir Radivojević ◽  
Bojan Krstić ◽  
Tanja Stanišić

Technological readiness is an important determinant of the economic and social development in recent decades. Therefore, technological readiness has a substantial impact on the global competitiveness of national economies in the contemporary business environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the level of Serbian economy competitiveness in terms of technological readiness and to identify the critical factors for its further development. The analysis is based on the data published by World Economic Forum in annual The Global Competitiveness Reports in the period from 2013 to 2017. The research is conducted through comparative analysis and benchmarking method. The results show significant deviations and negative trend of technological readiness of Serbia in comparison not only with European countries but even with Balkan countries. The conclusions of this research may serve as the directions for technological readiness policy makers in Serbia and other Balkan countries.


Author(s):  
Olha Ovechkina

In connection with the decision to withdraw the UK from the EU a number of companies will need to take into account that from 1 January 2021 EU law will no longer apply to the United Kingdom and will become a "third country" for EU Member States, unless the provisions of bilateral agreements or multilateral trade agreements. This means that the four European freedoms (movement of goods, services, labor and capital) will no longer apply to UK companies to the same extent as they did during the UK's EU membership. The purpose of the article is to study, first of all, the peculiarities of the influence of Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union on the legal regulation of the status of European legal entities. Brexit results in the inability to register European companies and European economic interest groups in the UK. Such companies already registered before 01.01.2021 have the opportunity to move their place of registration to an EU Member State. These provisions are defined in Regulations 2018 (2018/1298) and Regulations 2018 (2018/1299).British companies with branches in EU Member States will now be subject to the rules applicable to third-country companies, which provide additional information on their activities. In the EU, many countries apply the criterion of actual location, which causes, among other things, the problem of non-recognition of legal entities established in the country where the criterion of incorporation is used (including the United Kingdom), at the same time as the governing bodies of such legal entities the state where the settlement criterion is applied. Therefore, to reduce the likelihood of possible non-recognition of British companies, given the location of the board of such a legal entity in the state where the residency criterion applies, it seems appropriate to consider reincarnation at the actual location of such a company. Reducing the risks of these negative consequences in connection with Brexit on cross-border activities of legal entities is possible by concluding interstate bilateral and multilateral agreements that would contain unified rules on conflict of law regulation of the status of legal entities.


Author(s):  
Petr David ◽  
Danuše Nerudová

There still exist the differences in provision of VAT, in interpretation of VAT provisions and application of the rules in practice between the EU member states. Application of VAT during the supply of goods with installation to other EU member state, both during the existence of establishment in the state of customer and also without it, is considered to be one from the problematic field. Other discrepancies are created by inclusion of the sub suppliers, who can come from other EU member state or from the same state as customer, to this transaction. Questions of VAT application during the supply of goods with installation to other EU member state were processed by using standard methods of scientific work in the frame of five selected EU countries – Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-598
Author(s):  
Lucia Alessi ◽  
Peter Benczur ◽  
Francesca Campolongo ◽  
Jessica Cariboni ◽  
Anna Rita Manca ◽  
...  

AbstractBased on the JRC conceptual framework for resilience (Manca et al. in Building a Scientific Narrative Towards a More Resilient EU Society, JRC Science for Policy Report, JRC28548, 2017), this study presents an empirical analysis of the resilience of EU Member States to the recent financial and economic crisis. We address two main research questions: (1) Which countries had a resilient outcome, in terms of both shock absorption during the crisis and recovery in its aftermath? (2) Are there pre-determined country characteristics that help to explain resilient performance? To address these questions, we first select 34 key indicators of economic performance and societal well-being, going well beyond the merely economic growth perspective. Resilience is then measured by the properties of the joint dynamic response of these variables to the crisis shock at different time horizons. Our results demonstrate substantial differences between countries in each of the resilience capacities considered. Regression analysis also reveals that certain predetermined characteristics—such as government expenditures on social protection, political stability or a favourable business environment—are strongly associated with resilient outcomes. Our methodology and findings offer lessons for monitoring resilience and for entry points for effective policy interventions in the future.


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Herschinger ◽  
Markus Jachtenfuchs ◽  
Christiane Kraft-Kasack

In recent years, a growing literature has argued that European Union (EU) member states have undergone a profound transformation caused by international institutions and by the EU, in particular. However, the state core – the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force, embodied by the police – seemed to remain intact. The literature has argued that in this area, international institutions are weak, and cooperation has remained informal and intergovernmental. We take issue with these claims and evaluate the strength of international institutions in two core areas of policing (terrorism and drugs) over time. We find that in terms of decision-making, precision, and adjudication, international institutions have become considerably stronger over time. Even when international institutions remain intergovernmental they strongly regulate how EU member states exercise their monopoly of force. Member states are even further constrained because adjudication is delegated to the European Court of Justice. Thus, even the state core is undergoing a significant transformation.


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