 Beyond Competitiveness: Is Productivity Everything?Nikolaos Antonakakis, Boris Fisera and Menbere Workie Tiruneh Review of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 29, issue 3, 1522-1545 Abstract: This study examines and compares the predictive power of competitiveness, approximated by the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), and productivity for economic growth. Using a panel dataset of 62 countries over the period 2007–2019 and the local projections (LP) approach, we find that both higher productivity and higher GCI contribute to higher economic growth over the next 5 years. However, productivity has a stronger predictive power for economic growth than the GCI. We find evidence that this divergence between productivity and GCI could be explained by ‘productivity beyond competitiveness’: As economies develop and converge towards the world technological frontier, the GCI, unlike productivity, no longer captures the key determinants of economic growth. We then examine the determinants of ‘productivity beyond competitiveness’ that can help economies increase their productivity, and by extension growth, even as they approach the technological frontier. We find that higher financial development, institutional quality, as well as some cultural traits explain the divergence between productivity and competitiveness in advanced economies. Date: 2025 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:3:p:1522-1545 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Review of Development Economics is currently edited by E. Kwan Choi More articles in Review of Development Economics from Wiley Blackwell |
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