LANDMARKS ON THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS. ANALYSIS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES.

Summarizing the results of theoretical and empirical research, the paper highlights key aspects of the evolution of the debates in the field, it presents the methodology of determining the global competitiveness index and reproduces its development in the Member States of the European Union. More than half of European Union Member States recorded an increase in the global competitiveness index on the account of the basic influence factors. With the exception of six countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta), the other EU countries show a favorable influence of the efficiency on the index of global competitiveness. The highest contribution of the efficiency on the increase of global competitiveness is recorded in Portugal, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria; on the opposite side is Malta, Cyprus and Germany. Regarding the influence of innovation, only three countries stand out by a negative impact on the global competitiveness index: Finland (-0.08), Spain (-0.08) and Austria (-0.01); Romania, Cyprus and Portugal show the highest favorable effect of innovation (0.21; 0.19 0.13 respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]