ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND INTENSITY OF COMPETITION IN POST-SOCIALIST COUNTRIES: A PANEL ANALYSIS.

The intensity of competition figures as an important factor in increasing economic activity. The intensification of market competition is one of the key goals of economic policy in post-socialist countries. The aim of this paper is to determine the contribution of the intensity of competition to the level of economic activity in these countries. In this article, a panel analysis is carried out on a sample of 22 post-socialist countries for the period between 2006 and 2019. The indicator of the intensity of local competition from the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum is taken as a measure of the intensity of competition. The results of the conducted research indicate that the increase in the intensity of competition has a positive effect on economic activity, expressed by the level of gross domestic product (GDP) in the selected post-socialist countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]