U S Global Competitiveness

Examining the decline in American competitiveness in industries, trade, education, public policy goals, and sports, this book discusses United States efforts to regain global prominence and strategies for renewal in both the public and private sectors

The American position in trade and direct investment has not recovered from the large deficits incurred during the 1980s. Foreign investors expand their foothold in the United States economy daily and create the lion's share in the American trade deficit, while America's leadership in the global economy continues to decline. From U. S. Trade, Foreign Direct Investments, and Global Competitiveness, you'll derive an understanding of the position of the United States in the global market since the 1950s when it emerged as the world's largest trader and direct investor. You will also learn the new approaches that are necessary to adequately portray and measure structural changes in the world economy and the roles of the major players in this new environment.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin (John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies), course: US Economic Policy, language: English, abstract: Despite the actual recession and financial crisis, the USA is currently the most competitive economy in the world. Competitive strengths like innovation and business sophistication next to well-functioning markets keep the USA highly productive. They outweigh the competitive weaknesses of great macroeconomic imbalances and improvable institutions. The financial market is just a part of the whole picture. Although the global economic landscape changed dramatically, the rise of emerging markets like China pose no general threat to U.S. competitiveness, because it is not a zerosum game. But the superior competitive position is eroding. Forces from within the U.S. economy put the future U.S. competitiveness at great risk. Inconsistencies like a decreasing percentage of R&D-spending, the ignorance of regional industry clusters by the federal government, the low-quality education system, and ineffective regulation of markets, display piecemeal, uncoordinated policy decisions and the lack of a coherent economic strategy. The formulation and implementation of a longterm economic strategy is recommended, which addresses these inconsistencies in the short- to midterm, the enforcement of strengths and reduction of weaknesses in the long-term. Only if the USA is governed strategically, it could sustain its current superior competitive position.

The aim of this book is to consider theoretically the notion of the global competitiveness of regions, as well as giving attention as to how such competitiveness may be empirically measured. With this in mind, the book has three specific objectives: first, to place the concept of regional competitiveness within the context of regional economic development theory; second, to present a rationale and method for quantifying the global competitiveness of regions; and, third, to undertake the most geographically widespread analysis of regional competitiveness differences across the globe. With regard to the third goal, the analysis incorporates more than 500 regions across Europe, North and South America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the so-called BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The importance of the concept of competitiveness has increased rapidly in recent years, with the issues surrounding it becoming, at the same time, more empirically refined and theoretically complex. The focus on regions reflects the growing consensus that they are the primary spatial units that compete to attract investment, and it is at the regional level that knowledge is circulated and transferred, resulting in agglomerations, or clusters, of industrial and service sector enterprises. This growing acknowledgement of the region’s role as a key spatial unit of organisation has led to attention turning to competitiveness at a more regional level. The book explores the results of the World Competitiveness Index of Regions (WCIR), covering the rankings and results of the 2014 edition. The WCIR provides a tool for analysing the development of a range of regional economies across the globe. It enables an illustration of the changing patterns of regional competitiveness on the international stage to be generated. In fundamental terms, the WCIR aims to produce an integrated and overall benchmark of the knowledge capacity, capability, and sustainability of each region, and the extent to which this knowledge is translated into economic value and transferred into the wealth of the citizens of each region.

This volume is composed of nine prominent scholars' interpretations of and answers to the question: “If ‘competitiveness’ were to have a rigorous and relevant meaning in your field, what might that be?”