According to the recently released World Competitive
Report from the World Economic Forum Sweden is still several spots ahead of the
US when it comes to global competitiveness. The news wasn’t all good for
Sweden, as they slipped a spot, from 3rd to 4th, giving
up a place on the top podium to Finland, they still maintain a solid lead
against the US.
In fact two Nordic social welfare states
lead the US in global competitiveness, in first place there is in third place
is Finland and fourth is Sweden. Number two is Singapore. First place goes to
Switzerland
The Competitiveness reports a huge variety
of different elements to calculate the overall competitiveness of countries.
They look at health care, institutions, higher education, goods and labor
market efficiency, innovation and many many other combinations of factors.
On a closer look at the report, Sweden
dominates the US in basic requirements, which isn’t surprising given this
involves basic health care and access to services. But Sweden also outshines
the US in innovation and sophistication factors. Where Sweden falls behind is
efficiency enhancers, which includes Goods and labor market efficiency as well
as market size.
The report pointed out that Sweden is top
in its technological readiness, taking first place and is also highly
sophisticated in business. It also has a strong and stable macroeconomic environment.
The cause for Sweden’s drop? An ongoing deterioration of the institutional
framework – a result of the current government’s politics.
This should serve as a bit of evidence that
governments with a strong social welfare system can also be innovative and competitive,
but with all of the negative attention Europe has been getting lately, this
type of info gets swept under the rug.
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Interesting. Such reports are always fun to take part of but I also think that you must always have that in mind that it's difficult, if not impossible, to present such a complex system as a whole society in some few "factors". However, it gives a hint and an overview of how different countries deal with different issues and also what factors that people seem to value more (i.e what is important to people?) since these factors are the ones that are brought up in such studies.
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Good point, I agree - it provides interesting data, but how important the actual numbers are in the longterm is really unclear. Denmark continues to win Happiest Country in the world, but what does that really mean?
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