The Role of Government in Restoring International Competitiveness: the Case of Crisis Management in the Baltic States Economies versus Poland Economies

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between the government actions, global economic crisis, and competitiveness on a national and regional dimension. The Baltic States (i.e., Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) have experienced one of the biggest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contractions during the Global Crisis so far. Meanwhile, Poland was the only country with a positive GDP growth in the European Union during the Global Crisis. Hence, identifying and assessing changes in the relative competitiveness, as a consequence of the economic downturn in both Baltic States and Poland, has sparked many interests.The main channel through which the crisis undermined competitiveness has been the macroeconomic situation. That is why employing single macroeconomic variables as proxies of competitiveness suggests a much stronger influence of the crisis on competitiveness in comparison to overall measures (e.g. Global Competitiveness Index). It may be generally concluded that a short-term crisis, even if severe, does not have a negative influence on international competitiveness as long as a proper anti-crisis policy is implemented and the country is small enough to react fast and adapt to new conditions in the global environment.

Post-Cricis Management in the Hungarian Automobile Dealership Sector

“…It seems that a rational and achievable goal for them is increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the dealerships. Increasing efficiency requires improvement in hard (technology-based) and soft (human resourcebased) factors, as was similarly highlighted by Fortwengel (2011) andMatysek-Jędrych (2014). In addition to finding proper expert workers, the increase of the number of employees is also an important step for further development.…”

“…Due to these warning signs, the governments of many countries started to take different measures in order to promote purchasing and to maintain competitiveness in different sectors (Matysek-Jędrych, 2014). One of these measures in the automotive industry was the so-called vehicle replacement scheme that provided financial support for those customers who wanted to change their old, polluting, and energy inefficient cars for a new one (OECD, 2010).…”