文档介绍：3 The petitiveness of Nations
The question about the international petitiveness of nations
has received a lot of attention in recent years, not only in academic litera-
ture. In times of economic globalization, open economies are concerned
about a possible loss of Furthermore, in-
anizations and fora like the WTO, the United Nations Indus-
trial anization (UNIDO), anization of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International ary Fund
(IMF), the UNCTAD, and the World Economic Forum are interested in the
petitiveness of nations and their industries and financial
markets, They try to assess national economies in order to prevent
fundamental problems for the growth and stability of world economy, to
support the integration of developing countries into global trade and to
forecast future developments on global markets.
This multitude of publications about the petitiveness of
nations contrasts with the uncertainty about its exact meaning and the lack
of its theoretical foundation, so that the aim to strengthen a nation´s inter-
petitiveness could be misused as a justification for diverse po-
litical and legislative aims and projects. Despite these theoretical and prac-
tical problems, the concept of petitiveness shall be taken
as a theoretical basis of this investigation. Therefore, in order to be able to
analyze the role of petition policy for the pe-
titiveness of nations in Chap. 4, it is necessary to get clear about the con-
cept of petitiveness.
The following Chap. gives a short description of several historical
economic concepts and theories about the sources of national and interna-
tional welfare and about the benefits of international trade. These theories
offer an historical introduction into the debate about the concept of interna-
petitiveness. Afterwards, Chap. presents the current debate
concerning the fundamental and controversially discussed issues whether