Producing Prosperity

CHAPTER 2

What Is Competitiveness?

Should business leaders in a country like the United States worry about the competitiveness of the national economy? Should government policy makers be concerned about how competitive their country’s or region’s economy is relative to others? Since a central purpose of this book is to help business leaders and government policy makers understand how their respective actions affect the competitiveness of the US economy and the health of its industrial commons, we need to provide a clear definition of competitiveness and how the competitiveness of a country differs from that of a company.

We define the competitiveness of a country as the advantage workers and organizations located in one place—a local commons—enjoy ...