Competitiveness Policy in the 1990s

Bibliographic Data

ID9706777
AuthorsChristine Oughton (0000-0002-4637-6412, University of Birmingham, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume107
Issue444
Pages1486-1503
Publication date1997-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-0297.1997.tb00060.x
OpenAlexW2153829977
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited13

In recent years there has been considerable debate about competitiveness and the nature and direction of industrial and trade policy in the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). The term 'competitiveness' appears to have aroused considerable controversy. On the one hand, the word has become a kind of umbrella term for a wide‐ranging set of industrial and trade policies in the 1990s. On the other hand, the term evokes an analogy which suggests that nation states compete in the same way that firms compete: there may be winners and losers. In this context, competitiveness has been dismissed as a 'dangerous obsession' or 'pretentious rhetoric' (Krugman, 1994, 1996). While recognising the problematic nature of the analogy between firms and nation states and the associated suggestion of winners and losers, the purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of UK competitiveness policy in the context of the theoretical and empirical debate surrounding industrial and trade policy

Analogy · Commercial policy · Context (archaeology · Economics · Empirical evidence · European union · Industrial policy · International economics · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Rhetoric · Global Trade and Competitiveness · Global trade and economics · History · Regional Development and Policy

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