IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v6y1995i1p23-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competitiveness and its predecessors--a 500-year cross-national perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Reinert, Erik S.

Abstract

An important problem facing the standard economic theory of today, is that the countries which grew rich did so in the wrong way. In the neo-classical world, additional created wealth is supposed to spread through lowered prices. In a world with perfect information and no economies of scale, there is no room for wealth to be taken out in any other way. New technology in the form of added capital per worker increases the output of the economy, and - under the standard assumptions - this spreads through the world economy in the form of lowered prices. Both Adam Smith (12, p. 269) and David Ricardo (13, pp. 46-47) explicitly state that this would be the effect of improved techniques - prices would fall. However, as technology progresses a nation can get rich in two very different ways. One is the mechanism suggested by Smith and Ricardo: technological change only causes prices to fall. The other way, which is not discussed outside the field of labour economics, is that an important portion of the benefits from technological change is being distributed inside the producing nations through higher profits, higher wages, and higher taxable income overall. I call the first mechanism The Classical Mode of distribution of economic growth, and the second The Collusive Mode of distribution. When the first mechanism operates the benefits of technical change are spread exclusively to the consumers of goods produced. When the second mechanism operates, the producer (company and nation) of goods retains an important part of the benefits of improved productivity. (See 14, for a discussion of this). Only when the second system is at work - when there is a collusive spread of economic growth - there is a possibility for discussing competitiveness. Competitiveness in this way can be seen as the consequences on a national level of what labour economists refer to as 'industry rent'. The core of the competitiveness strategy is to locate industries where high industry rents exists - where
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Reinert, Erik S., 1995. "Competitiveness and its predecessors--a 500-year cross-national perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 23-42, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:6:y:1995:i:1:p:23-42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0954-349X(94)00002-Q
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krugman, Paul R, 1993. "What Do Undergrads Need to Know about Trade?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 23-26, May.
    2. Keith Smith & Karl Führer & Espen Dietrichs & Errko Autio, "undated". "Innovation Activities in Pulp, Paper and Paper Products in Europe," STEP Report series 199704, The STEP Group, Studies in technology, innovation and economic policy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Larch Mario & Lechthaler Wolfgang, 2011. "Comparative Advantage and Skill-Specific Unemployment," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-58, April.
    2. Sener, Fuat, 2001. "Schumpeterian unemployment, trade and wages," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 119-148, June.
    3. Bruno AMABLE & Iván LEDEZMA, 2013. "Export Performance And Product Market Regulation," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 37, pages 231-258.
    4. Morris, Adele C. & Nivola, Pietro S. & Schultze, Charles L., 2012. "Clean energy: Revisiting the challenges of industrial policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S1), pages 34-42.
    5. Baher Ahmed Elgahry, 2020. "Regional and Interregional Business Cycle Comovement in Europe, Asia, and North America," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 3088-3103.
    6. repec:gnv:wpaper:unige:77631 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Vesna Stavrevska, 2011. "The efficiency wages perspective to wage rigidity in the open economy: a survey," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(3), pages 273-299, June.
    8. Hidalgo, César A., 2023. "The policy implications of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    9. Neil Foster-McGregor & Anders Isaksson & Florian Kaulich, 2014. "Importing, exporting and performance in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 309-336, May.
    10. Albert, Max & Meckl, Jürgen, 1997. "Efficiency wages, unemployment and welfare: A trade theorists' guide," Discussion Papers, Series II 348, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    11. Ariel Dvoskin & Guido Ianni, 2020. "A Critical Assessment of Comparative Advantages," Department of Economics University of Siena 825, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    12. Céline Carrère & Anja Grujovic & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2020. "Trade and Frictional Unemployment in the Global Economy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 2869-2921.
    13. Richard A. Brecher & Zhiqi Chen, 2010. "Unemployment of Skilled and Unskilled Labor in an Open Economy: International Trade, Migration, and Outsourcing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 990-1000, November.
    14. Hall, Joshua C. & Podemska-Mikluch, Marta, 2015. "Teaching the economic way of thinking through Op-eds," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 13-21.
    15. Max Albert & Jürgen Meckle, 2001. "Efficiency‐Wage Unemployment and Intersectoral Wage Differentials in a Heckscher–Ohlin Model," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 2(3), pages 287-301, August.
    16. Timothy J. Brennan, 2009. "The Challenges of Climate for Energy Markets," UMBC Economics Department Working Papers 09-111, UMBC Department of Economics, revised 01 Sep 2009.
    17. Carl Davidson & Steven J. Matusz, 2010. "Our Motivation," Introductory Chapters, in: International Trade with Equilibrium Unemployment, Princeton University Press.
    18. Konstantins Benkovskis & Ludmila Fadejeva & Julia Wörz, 2013. "How Important Is Total Factor Productivity for Growth in Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Countries?," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 8-27.
    19. Oliver Falck & Siegfried Schönherr, 2016. "An Economic Reform Agenda for Croatia: a comprehensive economic reform package prepared for the Croatian Statehood Foundation," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 70, July.
    20. Georges, Patrick & Mérette, Marcel, 2011. "Trade Diversification Away from the U.S. or North American Customs Union? A Review of Canada’s Trade Policy Options," Conference papers 332084, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    21. Davidson, Carl & Martin, Lawrence & Matusz, Steven, 1999. "Trade and search generated unemployment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 271-299, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:6:y:1995:i:1:p:23-42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.