ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the decoupling of gross domestic product from resource use and the ensuing resource productivity across a number of countries and analyses the relationship between resource productivity and competitiveness. The issue is timely because prices on raw material markets had been sky scraping since 2000 and are back on lower levels, mainly because of the financial crisis. The chapter seeks to test the hypothesis that resource productivity leads to an enhancement of competitiveness through lowering material purchasing costs and through developing new products and services that lower the overall resource intensity. It demonstrates that in general there is a positive relation between competitiveness of economies and their resource productivity. This is likely to be due to a number of factors: the importance of material purchasing costs for manufacturing industry, the ability to innovate, the macroeconomic environment and technological progress.
