National Competitiveness of Ireland

Introduction:

Nowadays, the economic downturn has widely affected the entire world. In the meantime, the economics grows become harder and harder for many countries, especially for those small countries, such as Ireland. In this report, the authors are going to focus on the subject of how to make Ireland become more competitive, as well as we are going to discuss the key elements that will assist Ireland in order to regain its competitiveness.

In section A, we will discuss the definition of competitiveness. However, the importance of price stability will be mentioned in this section.

Section B, the comparison of Irish economy will be discussed. Mainly, the authors will concentrate on the Irish economy booming time and in contrast with other country's economy.

Section C, the authors are going to analysis the key elements for Ireland to regain its competitiveness through different perspectives, such as tax, export and import, employment, social welfare, also from the investment.

In the last section, the final conclusion will be illustrated according to study above.

Section A:

The definition of competitiveness

"Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability and performance of a firm, sub-sector or country to sell and supply goods and/or services in a given market. Although widely used in economics and business management, the usefulness of the concept, particularly in the context of national competitiveness, is vigorously disputed by economists, such as Paul Krugman.

Global Competitiveness Index (2008-2009): competitiveness is an important determinant for the well-being of states in an international trade environment.

"Competitiveness can be defined in a narrow sense or in a broad sense. The narrow definition focuses on trends in pay, productivity and unit costs. The broader definition includes price and non-price factors such as product quality, reliability of supply, back-up marketing services and taxation, and extends to consideration of human resource development, business services, infrastructure and public finance and administration. Ireland's competitiveness authorities are using the broader definition, which is according to international practice. The competitiveness measures the degree to which a nation or a region can, under free market conditions, produce goods and services that meet the test of international markets while expanding the real income of its citizens at the same time."

As the competitiveness is considered in the economics and business management, and also is the ability to achieve sustained high rates of growth in GDP per capita (the competitiveness is defined by the World Economic