E29 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy: OtherReturn

The international competitiveness rankings can be seen as a way of evaluating countries' future economic potential and opportunities for further development and growth. The discussion of one clear definition of the term "national competitiveness" can be considered a "never-ending story" without an unambiguous generally accepted result. In every composite indicator analysis, the final index is the outcome of a number of choices: the framework (usually driven by theoretical models and experts' opinions), the indicators to be included, their normalisation, the weights assigned to each indicator, and the aggregation method. This paper is based on evaluating results of the Visegrad group countries (V4), Germany, and Austria. We take into account the sense and the methodology of Porter's Diamond model (SD model) and the Nine-factor model (9F model). The main aim of this paper is the identification of similarities and differences between these two models and the discussion of suitability of these models for countries with different economic characteristics.