ABSTRACT
The nature of competitive advantages in an economy and whether they are anchored in low costs of labour or alternatively on the sophistication of production processes, materialized in high-value products is an important predictor of the competitiveness of nations. The empirical evidence suggests there to be a strong correlation between the nature of competitive advantages of firms in an economy and the economic competitiveness of nations. The competitiveness of a nation is therefore a barometer of its wealth creation potential and a strong predictor of indicators of human and social development, and crucially the sustainability of welfare systems, including health, education and social security. It is worth mentioning that the nations that systematically show up at the top of the WEF global competitiveness ranking tables are in many cases but not in their totality those that show better performances in what concerns the sustainability of those competitive advantages.
