On Essence and Masurement of Changes in Competitiveness of the Accession Countries. Critical Review of Literature

Although competitiveness is a world very often used in literature it is seldom to be found in economic textbook which prefer the term comparative advantage much narrowly defining formula describing international specialization. As Porter underlines comparative advantage and competitiveness (competitive advantage) do not overlap because competitiveness is much wider concept. Competitiveness is an ambiguous notion. In literature there are many approaches to competitiveness and many ways of defining and measuring it. Partly it is a result of the lack of general theory of competitiveness and the fact that this category is of business rather than theoretical origins. Paper systematizes and presents results of analysis on competitiveness of the accession countries which are based on three approaches to competitiveness: macro, micro and trade approach.