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Assessing Competitiveness Using Industry Unit Labor Costs: An Application to Slovakia

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  • International Monetary Fund

Abstract

Conceptual ambiguities and statistical weaknesses hamper the assessment of external competitiveness. The term competitiveness, while applied extensively, is often imprecisely defined, which can result in analytical errors and mistaken policy advice. Furthermore, aggregate statistical measures of competitiveness in terms of exchange rate misalignment can be biased. To address these issues, this paper makes two contributions. First, it clarifies the external competitiveness concept, highlighting the dichotomy between productivity-driven long-run growth and short-run deviations from the underlying growth trajectory, which can be related to exchange rate misalignment. Second, it develops a disaggregated statistical approach for examining competitiveness based on unit labor costs at the three digit industry level in a group of comparable countries. The case of Slovakia is used to illustrate these concepts, but the analytical insights have general application.

Suggested Citation

  • International Monetary Fund, 2012. "Assessing Competitiveness Using Industry Unit Labor Costs: An Application to Slovakia," IMF Working Papers 2012/107, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2012/107
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    Cited by:

    1. Fidrmuc, Jarko & Klein, Caroline & Price, Robert & Wörgötter, Andreas, 2013. "Slovakia: A Catching Up Euro Area Member In and Out of the Crisis," IZA Policy Papers 55, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. repec:ags:aoeisl:170471 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Fidrmuc, Jarko & Wörgötter, Andreas, 2014. "Euro Membership, Foreign Banks And Credit Developments During The Financial Crisis In Slovakia: A Case Study," Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics (RAAE), Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, vol. 17(1), March.

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