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Q: "role of government in national competitiveness in developing countries" ( Answered,   1 Comment )
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Subject: "role of government in national competitiveness in developing countries"
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: kamyon-ga
List Price: $150.00
Posted: 10 Jun 2004 02:32 PDT
Expires: 10 Jul 2004 02:32 PDT
Question ID: 359049
this is the subject of term paper at graduate level, references are
needed,there must be a hypothesis

Request for Question Clarification by nancylynn-ga on 10 Jun 2004 16:22 PDT
Hello kamyon-ga:

I'll be glad to gather some resources and references for your term paper. 

Can you tell me what the hypothesis of your paper is? 

Or do you mean that you need references that each pose a hypothesis;
that you're going to explore several hypotheses in your term paper?

Perhaps you could also amplify the context of the paper you're writing.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
nancylynn-ga
Google Answers Researcher
Answer  
Subject: Re: "role of government in national competitiveness in developing countries"
Answered By: nancylynn-ga on 12 Jun 2004 18:47 PDT
 
Hello kamyon-ga: 

I've collected some resources and references for you, in accordance
with Google Answers' policy on assisting students with school
assignments:
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#homework

All of the following references will lead you to more references that
are either cited within the text, or in footnotes:

HYPOTHESES /THEORIES /REFERENCES:

" 'IMD - World Competitiveness Yearbook - Fundamentals:
'Competitiveness of Nations: The Fundamentals,' (Updated annually), by
Stéphane Garelli, Director of the World Competitiveness Project and
Professor at IMD Business School and University of Lausanne:
http://www02.imd.ch/wcy/fundamentals/

" I Create a stable and predictable legislative environment.

II
Work on a flexible and resilient economic structure.

III
Invest in traditional and technological infrastructure.

IV
Promote private savings and domestic investment.

V
Develop aggressiveness on the international markets as well as
attractiveness for foreign direct investment.

VI
Focus on quality, speed and transparency in government and administration.

VII
Maintain a relationship between wage levels, productivity and taxation.

VIII
Preserve the social fabric by reducing wage disparity and strengthening the
middle class.

IX
Invest heavily in education, especially at the secondary level, and in the
life-long training of the labor force.

X
Balance the economies of proximity and globality to ensure substantial
wealth creation, while preserving the value systems that citizens desire. "

You can "Search Inside The Book" at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2970012170/qid=1087050126/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-1982475-8983959?v=glance&s=books
According to Amazon, the yearbook:
"Features 59 national and regional economies.
Includes 321 different criteria, grouped into four Competitiveness Factors.
Hard data are taken from international and regional organizations and
private institutes.
Survey data are drawn from our Executive Opinion Survey.
New regional dimension: Bavaria, Catalonia, Ile-de-France, Lombardy,
Maharashtra, Rhone-Alps, the State of Sao Paulo and Zhejiang.
Split ranking by population size, above and below 20 million inhabitants."

******
"High Quality Human Resources (Human Capital): Key Requirement for
Bolivia's National Economic Competitiveness and successful
participation in WTO/FTAA/CAN and the world economy," by Marco A.
Becerra and Raymond Saner.
Published in:  "Trade Negotiation Cases, Analyses, Strategies at
Bilateral, Regional and Multilateral Levels: Bolivia 2001:
http://www.csend.org/pdf/Q-Comp-Bol.pdf

"Drawing on Michael Porter's pioneering work on national
competitiveness and Christophe Koellreuter's application studies on
regional competitiveness, the author highlights the importance of high
quality human resources in general and of high quality education and
training in particular.

The paper goes on to cite Porter's work "The Competitive Advantage of
Nations" (New York, The Free Press, 1990) "for which the local
environment is the most dynamic and challenging. He has 
conceptualised his findings in his analytical 'diamond' frame which
consists of a) factor conditions (e.g. labour, capital, land), b)
demand conditions, c) dynamism of related and supporting industries
and d) firm strategy, structure and rivalry. In addition to the four
factors, chance (e.g. inventions, war, etc.) and *government also
plays an important role in supporting a nation's aim of achieving
economic success.*

You can order Porter's book, or read parts of it, at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684841479/qid=1086984090/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1982475-8983959?v=glance&s=books

*****
See the "Diamond" theory applied in the Baltic region:

"A Baltic Rim Regional Agenda," prepared by multiple authors, including:
Michael Porter, Harvard; Örjan Sölvell, Harvard;
Carl F. Fey, Stockholm School of Economics in Saint Petersburg; Kim Moller,
Oxford Research:
http://www.isc.hbs.edu/balticproject.pdf

"The teams will work strongly hypothesis-driven at any time collecting
their current views in working document that will be further developed
and testing using additional data."

I believe this study is still in progress. You can contact Harvard
Business School to inquire. (See contact information at the the link
cited above.)
  
*****
The Round Table Mechanisim (RTM), which is under the United Nations
Management Development and Governance Division, issued this 1999
Interim Report:
http://magnet.undp.org/Docs/aidcoord/rtm/Evaluation%20Paper%20of%20RTM.html

"The hypothesis to be tested by the evaluation is that the RTM has
been a relevant and effective instrument for assisting developing
countries achieve their development goals, and, specifically, that the
RTM has:
(i) served as a catalyst for developing country leaders to define and
present development objectives, policies, programmes and resource
requirements;
(ii) promoted a mutual understanding of country economic and social
circumstances affecting country development;
(iii) promoted agreement, within the country and with assistance
partners, on essential macro-socioeconomic, sectoral and thematic
polices, related programmes and their implementation and resource
requirements . . ."

*****
"BUSINESS, STATE AND MARKET IN THE GREATER CARIBBEAN," by Rita
Giacalone, "Facultad de Economía y Ciencias Sociales Universidad de
Los Andes":
http://www.isanet.org/noarchive/giacalone.html
"An analysis of the relationship of business associations and economic
groups of three developing countries of the Great Caribbean with their
governments provides an opportunity to look at what has happened with
both states and markets within these countries in the last  decades of
the 20th century. This paper analyzes  the relationship between
business and their governments during the 1980s and 1990s from the
point of view of international relations and international political
economy (IPE) approaches, in order to demonstrate that this
relationship mirrors important changes both within the make up and
functions of the state and of the market. This paper is divided in
three sections: 1) a general framework of analysis of state and
market; 2) an overview of recent changes in business-government
relations in Colombia, Mexico, and  Venezuela within the framework of
a case study; and 3) a discussion of the implications of this case
study for the concepts of state and market in developing nations."

*****
"Issues in Global Trade and Finance: Notes, Summaries and Questions,"
published by Auburn University of Montgomery (School of Business)
examines, among other topics, the Product Life Cycle Hypothesis, the
Heckscher-Ohlin Theory of Trade, the Leontief Paradox, and the
possible impact, due to changes in government:
http://www-biz.aum.edu/economics/GlobalG/GlobalTradeNotes.htm 

*****
Small Countries: " 'Scale and Administrative Performance: The
Governance of Small States and Microstates,' by Randall Baker. The
Hypothesis: Linear Deceleration or Quantum Theory?"
http://www.spea.indiana.edu/bakerr/Scale%20and%20Admin.htm
" Thus, the main purpose of a paper of this sort is not only to
explore the hypothesis that the nature of government changes with
scale, but to place the hypothesis on the research agenda for a number
of practical reasons."

*****
The United Nations Economic Commission's
"PAPERS OF THE  6TH FORUM ON BEST PRACTICE IN DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND SMEs [small-and-medium-sized-enterprises] IN COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION:
THE ROMANIAN AND SLOVAK EXPERIENCES," 31 March 2004:
http://www.unece.org/indust/sme/forum.html
The various papers address just issues as "GOVERNMENT POLICY TOWARDS SMEs."

*****
"Global Cities and Developmental States: Understanding Singapore's
Global Reach," a 2000 lecture by
Henry Wai-chung Yeung (Associate Professor at the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore) which is cached at:
http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=hypothesis+AND+%22role+of+government%22+AND+%22national+competitiveness%22+AND+%22developing&ei=UTF-8&cop=mss&u=www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/al2.html&w=hypothesis+%22role+of+government%22+%22national+competitiveness%22+developing&d=34F5EA5308&c=482&yc=23765&icp=1

"What then were the key institutions and agents for the PAP [People's
Action Party] state to implement its national development strategies?
In the early years of Singapore's independence, many state-controlled
statutory boards
were established to provide the city-state's roads, electricity,
transport and communication services. State-owned enterprises spun off
from these statutory boards sowed the seeds for the subsequent
domination of government-linked companies (GLCs) in the Singapore
economy during recent years. . . ."

*****
Harvard Business Review Online:
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/hbr/hbr_home.jhtml

At the right of the page, about midway down, see "Browse Back Issues:
To browse HBR by issue, click on the issue date."

Click on August 2003 issue:

Scroll down to "Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy," by Robert D.
Hormats.

I found this abstract of Hormats's article at EBSCO (the library
computer search system):

"Abraham Lincoln would have well understood the challenges facing many
*modern emerging nations. In Lincoln's America, as in many developing
nations today,* sweeping economic change threatened older industries,
traditional ways of living, and social and national cohesion by
exposing economies and societies to new and powerful competitive
forces.

Yet even in the midst of the brutal and expensive American Civil war
-- and in part because of it -- Lincoln and the Republican Congress
enacted bold legislation that helped create a huge national market, a
strong and unified
economy governed by national institutions, and a rising middle class
of businessmen and property owners. . .

" a.. Facilitate the upward mobility of low- and middle-income groups
to give them a significant stake in the country.
  b.. Emphasize the good of the national economy over regional interests.
  c.. Affirm the need for sound government institutions to temper the
dynamics of the free enterprise system.
  d.. Tailor policies to the national situation.
  e.. Realize that a period of turmoil may present a unique opportunity for reform.

These principles drove the reforms that helped Americans cope with and
benefit from rapid technological advances and the fast integration of
the American economy in the nineteenth century."

*****
"Asian Development Outlook 2003 - Overview of 2001 Developing Asian Economic
Trends"
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2003/part3_3-4.asp

"The key factor for developing countries is the creation of capability
to specialize in those industries for which world demand is rapidly
growing (in other words, for which there is a high income elasticity
of demand for exports). This means developing high value-added goods,
and government policy has a definite role in facilitating this. The
idea that nations
compete as if they were big corporations derives from the notion that
governments can implement polices that affect the competitiveness of
firms. . . .

"According to Stern and Stiglitz: Government has the central
responsibility to provide an institutional infrastructure in which
markets can function" (Stern and Stiglitz 1997, p.4; emphasis added).
This definition may seem to assign a rather minimalist role to the
government, but the opposite is true. . . .' "

*****
"Lessons of Global Neo-liberalism? The East Asian Economic Crisis
Reconsidered," by David A. Smith, 1999,
Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California, Irvine,
Research Papers collection:

". . . These policies have both a domestic and an international
component. Internally, they include disengagement of the government
from the management of the domestic economy, deregulation, a
privatization of state-owned enterprises, and cutbacks in social
welfare programs.  Internationally, they entail a reduction of tariff
barriers, the opening of capital markets, and a liberalization of
restrictions on foreign investment, combined with new incentives to
attract it.  Overall, they comprise a generalized enhanced reliance on
market mechanisms and on the private sector, as compared to the
previous period, supposedly in the service of upgrading national
competitiveness (Milner and Keohane 1996: 24; Cox 1996: 22; Gummett
1996:15).

" . . . but, ultimately, in this vision, the neoliberal process will
triumph (Strange 1996; Rodrik 1997). Although recently some of these
commentators acknowledge that governments can play a constructive role
in protecting workers via social safety nets (and may need to play
that role again to preserve the legitimacy of the economic system)
(Rodrik 1997; World
Bank 1997), the general sense of this view is that states are
inefficient, distort development, capture excessive rents through
corruption, etc. They move by political imperatives, which are
wasteful, rather than follow the laws of the self-regulating market."

*****
"Political Environment for Global Business - Course Guide," by Richard
Jerram, Michael Hodges, Louis Turner, and Richard Kurz, London School
of Economics and Political Science:
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/PEGB/index.html#metatop

See Chapter 6: "The Role of the State in Promoting Competitiveness":
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/PEGB/chap06.htm

*****
"Globalization, alliances and networking: A strategy for
competitiveness and productivity - Employment Sector," by Joseph
Prokopenko, an Enterprise and Management Development Working Paper,
written for the International Labour
Organization:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/ent/papers/emd21.htm

OTHER REFERENCES:

Competition and Comparative Advantage:
See this overview on the theories of Paul Krugman, Jagdish Bhagwati,
and David Ricardo, posted at the Olin School of Business:
http://students.olin.wustl.edu/~dempseyn/Papers/Comp%20and%20Comp%20Adv.htm

*****
This site, maintained by  geography professor James W. Harrington, of 
the University of Washington:
http://faculty.washington.edu/jwh/349compt.htm
features a roundup of "Supplemental notes on the sources of national
competitiveness," including "The Role of Government: MICROECONOMIC  OR
 SECTORAL POLICY ":
http://faculty.washington.edu/jwh/349compt.htm#government

*****
"Foreign Capital a Mixed Blessing for Poorer Nations," by Caroline
Lambert, for eCountries, October 3, 2000 :
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/wir.htm

*****
"Deficiencies of the Heckscher Ohlin Model,  as Discussed by Michael
Hudson in:  'Trade,  Development,  and Foreign Debt, 'Summary by Nick
Campolo, Oct.  1998":
http://my.execpc.com/~squall1/hudson/hudson.html
"The HO model is widely cited today by proponents of unrestricted free
trade. The problem is, there is little historical evidence to show
that the outcomes occur as predicted. There is, however, ample
evidence to show that increased free trade between fully developed
nations and an underdeveloped nations renders the underdeveloped
nations, poorer, and the richer nations richer. . . . "

See this overview of the Heckscher Ohlin Model, written by by Steven Suranovic:  
http://internationalecon.com/v1.0/ch60/60c010.html 

*****
DIRECTORIES:

The World Bank's directory of articles on governance:
http://econ.worldbank.org/topics/13/

Icon Group Online, studies on competitiveness:
http://www.icongrouponline.com/industries.asp?kw=competitiveness
Search by country at above link.

*****
Economic Development Capstone - PUBP 8550
http://www.cherry.gatech.edu/8550/xreading-b.htm
A directory of materials on the role of politics in economic
development, including such topics as "The Dynamics of Local, Regional
and National Competitiveness " and "Economy Perspective on the Third
World State."

BOOKS:
*****
"Competitiveness Strategy in Developing Countries: A Manual of Policy
Analysis," by Ganeshan Wignaraja (Routledge; 1st edition; April 1, 2003).
You can search inside this book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415228360/qid=1087082078/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1982475-8983959?v=glance&s=books
"Book Description
Globalization and structural adjustment offer many opportunities for export
orientated industrialization in developing economies. As a group,
competitiveness in the developing countries has improved, but, while East
Asian economies have had rapid export growth and technological upgrades,
South Asian and African economies have lagged behind. Old structures,
institutions, behavioural patterns and public policies are ill-adapted to
deal with the challenges posed by technological change and economic
liberalization. Consequently there is an urgent need for change in
government and private sector attitudes and strategies. This volume seeks to
generalise the lessons across developing country and enterprise cases, and
sheds light on which trade and industrial strategies and instruments work
best, and which do not work, in relation to manufacturing competitiveness."

*****
"Competitiveness in Small Developing Economies: Insights from the
Caribbean,"  by Alvin G. Wint  (University of West Indies Press,
2003)"
http://www.uwipress.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=review-191.html
Wint "makes the case convincingly that for small, developing
economies, the only way forward that makes sense begins with the
acknowledgement that the old, traditional survival strategy for small,
national economies must be abandoned. This outmoded policy he
identifies to be seeking to procure special concessions, restrictions,
and arrangements. All such must be abandoned, he maintains."

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"developing nations" AND competitive
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competitive advantage developing nation OR country
"role of government" AND "national competitiveness" AND "third world"
"hypothesis national competitiveness"
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I hope my research helps you in preparing and writing your term paper.
If you require assistance navigating any of the above links, or if you
need clarification on any of the above points, please post a "Request
For Clarification," PRIOR to rating my answer.

Best Regards,
nancylynn-ga
Google Answers Researcher
Comments  
Subject: Re: "role of government in national competitiveness in developing countries"
From: neilzero-ga on 10 Jun 2004 04:55 PDT
 
Are you thinking competitiveness inside the country on the local
market, or international trade competition or both. If only the
latter, a generous exchange rate on local currency makes exports look
atractive on the world market, and attracts tourists loking for a low
cost vacation.   Neil

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