LIVING STANDARD, QUALITY OF LIFE, GLOBALIZATION AND COMPETITIVENESS IN THE EU AND THE NEIGHBOUR COUNTRIES – AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

This paper deals with the theoretical and empirical relations between living standard, quality of life, globalization and international competitiveness of countries. While economists are not convinced that competitiveness of countries is a useful concept, because firms and industries compete economically and not countries, the general public, journalists and politicians seem to feel that competitiveness is important. E.g., one of the goals of the European Union is to become the most competitive economy in the world. Furthermore, economists argue, that economic globalization has the potential of increasing economic welfare for all. In this case, the general public is more sceptical. Finally, the general public but even other scientists than economists, seem to believe that living standard and the quality of life are only weakly related to each other. The following results can be mentioned. We found strong positive correlations between our main variables. Our hypotheses are with other words supported.