Global Competitiveness of Europe: A Robust Assessment

Abstract National (global) competitiveness became the central issue during the global crisis. Using the values of the three main subdimensions of the Global Competitiveness Index, we propose alternative DEA-based competitiveness indicators. In our approach, the index is nested in the more general measure of the competitiveness-given-performance indicator. We find that globally competitive European countries do not transform competitiveness into income per capita efficiently. Decomposition of the scores suggests that most of the relative inefficiency concentrates in innovation activity. The results proved robust against the CCR model used in previous research as well as principal component analysis.