Contemporary approaches to measuring competitiveness – the case of EU member states

Konkurentnost predstavlja koncept koji već nekoliko desetljeća privlači veliku pozornost ekonomskih teoretičara. Zbog svoje kompleksnosti i različitih sagledavanja, još uvijek ne postoji njegova jedinstvena definicija i sustav mjerenja. Problem provedenog istraživanja proizlazi iz činjenice kako zemlje, najčešće zbog strukturalnih i ostalih ograničenja u gospodarstvu, ali i u slučajevima kada raspolažu visokim razinama GDP-a, ne koriste u najboljoj mjeri dostupne inpute tj. ne ostvaruju zadovoljavajuću razinu ekonomske efikasnosti, a što se reflektira na konkurentnost njihova gospodarstva. Cilj provedenog istraživanja je dokazati kako je kombinacija korištenja metode analize omeđivanja podataka i GCI indeksa kod rangiranja zemalja prema makroekonomskoj konkurentnosti realnija, nego što je to slučaj kod primjene tradicionalnih indikatora. U radu je korištena metoda analize omeđivanja podataka (AOMP), kod ocjene efikasnosti i konkurentnosti odabranih zemalja članica EU. Temeljem rezultata istraživanja, utvrđeno je kako su tradicionalni pokazatelji konkurentnosti nepotpuni, budući da ne uzimaju u obzir efikasnost zemalja. Stoga se kao nužnost nameće primjena kombinacije GCI indeksa i rezultata efikasnosti dobivenih AOMP, u svrhu dobivanja realnije ocjene makroekonomske konkurentnosti. Kao ključni rezultat istraživanja, predložena je nova mjera konkurentnosti odnosno kombinacija tradicionalnih pokazatelja konkurentnosti i rezultata ocjene makroekonomske efikasnosti zemalja dobivenih primjenom AOMP.Competitiveness represents a concept that has occupied a great deal of the economic theorists’ attention for decades. Due to its complexity and different perceptions, it has not been uniquely defined yet and neither has its measurement system been completely developed. The problem of the conducted research arises from the fact that the countries mostly due to structural and other constraints in the economy (or in cases where they have high levels of GDP) do not use the available inputs in the best way, i.e. they do not achieve a satisfactory level of economic efficiency, which is then reflected on the competitiveness of their economies. The aim of the research paper is to demonstrate how a combination of using Data Envelopment Analysis Method (DEA) and the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in ranking the countries according to the macroeconomic competitiveness is more realistic than it is in the case of using the traditional indicators. In the paper, in evaluating the competitiveness of selected EU Member States the Data Envelopment Analysis Method (DEA) is used. Based on the previous researches and our research results it is found that the traditional indicators of competitiveness are incomplete because they do not consider the macroeconomic efficiency of the country. Therefore, we propose to apply a combination of GCI and the efficiency results obtained by DEA in order to achieve a more realistic evaluation of macroeconomic competitiveness. As a key outcome of the research, the new measure of competitiveness is proposed: a combination of traditional competitiveness indicator and the results of the evaluation of countries’ macroeconomic efficiency obtained by applying BCC model of DEA method