Technology Management

Assignment-II
Indicators of competitiveness
1. Standard-of-Living Indexes:
Standard of living reflects how well people live in a certain country or region of the world. It
reflects the distribution of a country’s wealth among its citizens. The council of
competitiveness defines standard of living as gross domestic product per person. This index
of standard of living assumes that the country’s wealth is distributed evenly among the
inhabitants regardless of social or political differences. A more representative index for the
standard of living is purchasing power parity (PPP). This index measures how much it costs
to buy a standard basket of goods and services in a country relative to how much the same
basket costs in the united states. It adjusts for current prices and exchange rates between
countries. The organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD) uses PPP
index. The basket of goods and services is selected based on people’s purchasing patterns and
is updated periodically to account for changes over time.

2. Trade indexes:
A trade balance represents the difference between the total value of merchandises goods and
services exported by a country and total volume of goods and services imported. The trade
deficit is an index of the relative competitiveness of a country’s industry and service
organizations. The united states moved from positive trade balance in early 1980’s to serious
trade deficit as the 1980s progressed. The negative trend continued in 1990s reaching $210
million in 1997. A great contributor to the U.S. deficit was the loss of a competitive edge to
countries such as Japan, Germany, and the Asian Tiger nations. This was particularly true in
the manufactured goods sector. In the service sector, the U.S. had positive trade balance.

3. Productivity indexes:
Productivity index is the ratio of output to input. It reflects the efficiency of an operation.
Several indexes can be used to express and track productivity (Sumanth, 1984). The index
commonly used to track national productivity as an indicator of national competitiveness is
based on GDP per total employed persons.

4. Investment indexes:
Investment in R&D, plant and equipment (P&E), and education provides a base for long-term
economic growth. Therefore, it is very important to track these indicators and to sound the
alarm when they take a wrong turn. Savings are another indicator, reflecting the accumulation
of resources necessary to unleash investment.

5. Patent indexes:
Is the number of patents granted per year, as patents reflect innovativeness or country’s
ability to create technologies.

Table-1: Ranking of Countries’ Competitiveness

World
competitiveness Country 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Score 2018
98.553 Singapore 4 5 3 3 4 3 3
99.162 Hongkong 1 3 4 2 1 1 2
100.00 USA 2 1 1 1 3 4 1
97.143 Switzerland 3 2 2 4 2 2 5
95.659 UAE 16 12 8 12 15 10 7
97.534 Netherlands 11 14 14 15 8 5 4
92.145 Ireland 20 17 15 16 7 6 12
96.385 Denmark 13 7 9 8 6 7 6
95.046 Sweden 5 4 5 9 5 9 9
95.424 Norway 8 6 10 7 9 11 8
88.888 Qatar 10 10 19 13 13 17 14
93.135 Luxembourg 12 13 11 6 11 8 11
94.337 Canada 6 7 7 5 10 12 10
89.028 China 23 21 23 22 25 18 13
88.420 Finland 17 20 18 20 20 15 16
88.754 Germany 9 9 6 10 12 13 15
68.765 India 35 40 44 44 41 45 44

References:

1.https://www.imd.org/wcc/world-competitiveness-center-rankings/world-competitiveness-
ranking-2018/

2. Khalil and Shankar, Second Edition. Management of Technology: Mc Graw Hill.

By:

Trinath Ojha

Id: 18020347

Dt: 07.09.2019