Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum)
Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum)
Competitiveness is to be understood as “the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of an economy, which in turn sets the level of prosperity that the economy can achieve.” (source: page 11 of the 2017-2018 report). Each yearly Global Competitiveness Report “is based on a methodology integrating the latest statistics from international organizations and a survey of executives.”. “The GCI 4.0 is a "composite indicator"; its computation is based on successive aggregations of scores, from the indicator level (the most disaggregated level) to the overall score (the highest level). At every aggregation level, each measure is computed by taking the average of the scores of its components (see Appendix A for the detailed composition and methodology). The overall GCI 4.0 score is the average of the scores of the 12 pillars. In total, there are 103 indicators distributed across the 12 pillars. Indicators are sourced from international organizations, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations.” (source: page 2 of the 2019 report). All of the information and data was compiled and/or collected by the World Economic Forum. Statistics from international organizations are used to calculate the global competitiveness score and rank, which depend on scores across different pillars.
Until 2016 included, these pillars are:
(1) Institutions
(2) Infrastructure
(3) Macroeconomic environment
(4) Health and primary education
(5) Higher education and training
(6) Goods market efficiency
(7) Labor market efficiency
(8) Financial market development
(9) Technological readiness
(10) Market size
(11) Business dynamics (or business sophistication)
(12) Innovation
Each pillar has a score between 0 and 7. Pillars 1 to 4 form the basic requirements subindex (key for factor-driven economies). Pillars 5 to 10 form the efficiency enhancers subindex (key for efficiency-driven economies). Pillars 11 and 12 form the innovation and sophistication factors subindex (key for innovation-driven economies).
As of 2018, the pillars are:
(1) Institutions
(2) Infrastructure
(3) ICT adoption
(4) Macroeconomic stability
(5) Health
(6) Skills
(7) Product market
(8) Labour market
(9) Financial system
(10) Market size
(11) Business dynamism
(12) Innovation capacity
These pillars have a score between 0 and 100. Besides, notice that only some of the new pillars are identical to the former ones. This means that continuity across years is ensured for only some of the pillars. Hence my decision to make available this data in two different tables, one for each format (prior and up to 2016, and from 2018 onwards).
WEF_competitiveness_2016: 993 observations, based on 152 countries, between 2010 and 2016. This dataset contains 18 variables:
country_name: a character string indicating the full name of the country.
country_code: a character string indicating the code of the country (ISO3).
report: dates appearing on the cover of each report (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
year: integer indicating the year used as a basis for the different scores calculations (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
overall_rank: integer indicating the rank the country has achieved in that year based on its score (1 = best rank).
overall_score: number indicating the score of the country in that year calculated from scores on each of the 12 pillars. In this dataset, the scores range from 0 to 7.
1_institutions: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the first pillar (institutions). This score is based on data on Property rights, Intellectual property protection, Diversion of public funds, Public trust in politicians, Irregular payments and bribes, Judicial independence, Favoritism in decisions of government officials, Efficiency of government spending, Burden of government regulation, Efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes, Efficiency of legal framework in challenging regulations, Transparency of government policymaking, Business costs of terrorism, Business costs of crime and violence, Organized crime, Reliability of police services, Ethical behavior of firms, Strength of auditing and reporting standards, Efficacy of corporate boards, Protection of minority shareholders’ interests, and Strength of investor protection. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
2_infrastructure: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the second pillar (infrastructure). This score is based on data on Quality of overall infrastructure, Quality of roads, Quality of railroad infrastructure, Quality of port infrastructure, Quality of air transport infrastructure, Available airline seat kilometers millions/week, Quality of electricity supply, Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, and Fixed-telephone lines. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
3_macroeconomic_environment: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the third pillar (macroeconomic environment). This score is based on data on Government budget balance % GDP, Gross national savings % GDP, Inflation annual % change, Government debt % GDP, and Country credit rating. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
4_health_primary_education: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the fourth pillar (health and primary education). This score is based on data on Malaria incidence cases, Business impact of malaria, Tuberculosis incidence cases,Business impact of tuberculosis, HIV prevalence in adult population, Business impact of HIV/AIDS, Infant mortality deaths, Life expectancy years, Quality of primary education, and Primary education enrollment rate. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
5_higher_education_training: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the fifth pillar (higher education and training). This score is based on data on Secondary education enrollment rate, Tertiary education enrollment rate, Quality of the education system, Quality of math and science education, Quality of management schools, Internet access in schools, Local availability of specialized training services, and Extent of staff training. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
6_goods_market_efficiency: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the sixth pillar (goods market efficiency). This score is based on data on Intensity of local competition, Extent of market dominance, Effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy, Effect of taxation on incentives to invest, Total tax rate, Number of procedures to start a business, Time to start a business, Agricultural policy costs, Prevalence of non-tariff barriers, Trade tariffs, Prevalence of foreign ownership, Business impact of rules on FDI, Burden of customs procedures, Imports, Degree of customer orientation, and Buyer sophistication. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
7_labor_market_efficiency: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the seventh pillar (labor market efficiency). This score is based on data on Cooperation in labor-employer relations, Flexibility of wage determination, Hiring and firing practices, Redundancy costs weeks of salary, Effect of taxation on incentives to work, Pay and productivity, Reliance on professional management, Country capacity to retain talent, Country capacity to attract talent, and Female participation in the labor force. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
8_financial_market_development: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the eighth pillar (financial market development). This score is based on data on Availability of financial services, Affordability of financial services, Financing through local equity market, Ease of access to loans, Venture capital availability, Soundness of banks, Regulation of securities exchanges, and Legal rights. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
9_technological_readiness: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the ninth pillar (technological readiness). This score is based on data on Availability of latest technologies, Firm-level technology absorption, FDI and technology transfer, Internet users, Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions, Internet bandwidth, and Mobile-broadband subscriptions. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
10_market_size: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the tenth pillar (market size). This score is based on data on Domestic market size, Foreign market size, GDP (PPP), and Exports. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
11_business_dynamism_or_sophistication: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the eleventh pillar (business dynamism or business sophistication, depending on the year). This score is based on data on Local supplier quantity, Local supplier quality, State of cluster development, Nature of competitive advantage, Value chain breadth, Control of international distribution, Production process sophistication, Extent of marketing, and Willingness to delegate authority. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
12_innovation: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the twelfth pillar (innovation). This score is based on data on Capacity for innovation, Quality of scientific research institutions, Company spending on R&D, University-industry collaboration in R&D, Government procurement of advanced technology products, Availability of scientists and engineers, and PCT patents applications/million pop. For more details, please refer to any Global Competitiveness Report (more specifically, the second page of each country profile).
WEF_competitiveness_2018_: 281 observations, based on 143 countries, for 2018 and 2019. This dataset contains 18 variables:
country_name: a character string indicating the full name of the country.
country_code: a character string indicating the code of the country (ISO3).
report: dates appearing on the cover of each report (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
year: integer indicating the year used as a basis for the different scores calculations (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
overall_rank: integer indicating the rank the country has achieved in that year based on its score (1 = best rank).
overall_score: number indicating the score of the country in that year calculated from scores on each of the 12 pillars. In this dataset, the scores range from 0 to 7.
1_institutions: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the first pillar (institutions). This score is based on data on Security (Organized crime, Homicide rate, Terrorism incidence, and Reliability of police services), Social Capital, Checks and Balances (Budget transparency, Judicial independence, Efficiency of legal framework in challenging regulations, and Freedom of the press ), Public Sector Performance (Burden of government regulation, Efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes, and E-Participation), Transparency (Incidence of corruption), Property Rights (Property rights, Intellectual property protection, and Quality of land administration), Corporate Governance (Strength of auditing and accounting standards, Conflict of interest regulation , and Shareholder governance), and Future orientation of government (Government ensuring policy stability, Government’s responsiveness to change, Legal framework’s adaptability to digital business models, Government long-term vision, Energy efficiency regulation 0–100 (best), Renewable energy regulation, and Environment-related treaties in force).
2_infrastructure: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the second pillar (infrastructure). This score is based on data on Transport infrastructure (Road connectivity, Quality of road infrastructure, Railroad density, Efficiency of train services, Airport connectivity score, Efficiency of air transport services, Liner shipping connectivity, and Efficiency of seaport services), Utility infrastructure (Electricity access, Electricity supply quality, Exposure to unsafe drinking water, and Reliability of water supply).
3_ICT_adoption: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the third pillar (ICT adoption). This score is based on data on Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, Mobile-broadband subscriptions, Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions, Fibre internet subscriptions, and Internet users.
4_macroeconomic_stability: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the fourth pillar (macroeconomic stability). This score is based on data on Inflation, and Debt dynamics.
5_health: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the fifth pillar (health). This score is based on data on Healthy life expectancy.
6_skills: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the sixth pillar (skills). This score is based on data on Current workforce (Mean years of schooling), Skills of current workforce (Extent of staff training, Quality of vocational training, Skillset of graduates, Digital skills among active population, and Ease of finding skilled employees), Future workforce (School life expectancy), and Skills of future workforce (Critical thinking in teaching, and Pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary education).
7_product_market: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the seventh pillar (product market). This score is based on data on Domestic competition (Distortive effect of taxes and subsidies on competition, Extent of market dominance, and Competition in services), and Trade openness (Prevalence of non-tariff barriers, Trade tariffs, Complexity of tariffs, and Border clearance efficiency).
8_labour_market: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the eighth pillar (labour market). This score is based on data on Flexibility (Redundancy costs weeks of salary, Hiring and firing practices, Cooperation in labour-employer relations, Flexibility of wage determination, Active labour market policies, Workers’ rights, Ease of hiring foreign labour, and Internal labour mobility), and Meritocracy and incentivization (Reliance on professional management, Pay and productivity, Ratio of wage and salaried female workers to male workers, and Labour tax rate).
9_financial_system: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the ninth pillar (financial system). This score is based on data on Depth (Domestic credit to private sector in % of the GDP, Financing of SMEs, Venture capital availability, Market capitalization, and Insurance premium), and Stability (Soundness of banks, Non-performing loans in % of gross total loans, Credit gap, Banks’ regulatory capital ratio).
10_market_size: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the tenth pillar (market size). This score is based on data on Gross domestic product PPP, and Imports of goods and services.
11_business_dynamism: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the eleventh pillar (business dynamism). This score is based on data on Administrative requirements (Cost of starting a business % of GNI per capita, Time to start a business days, Insolvency recovery rate cents to the dollar, and Insolvency regulatory framework), and Entrepreneurial culture (Attitudes towards entrepreneurial risk, Willingness to delegate authority, Growth of innovative companies, and Companies embracing disruptive ideas).
12_innovation_capacity: number indicating the score of the country in that year on the twelfth pillar (innovation capacity). This score is based on data on Interaction and diversity (Diversity of workforce, State of cluster development, International co-inventions, and Multi-stakeholder collaboration), Research and development (Scientific publications score, Patent applications, R&D expenditures, and Research institutions prominence), and Commercialization (Buyer sophistication, and Trademark applications).
Each year, executives are surveyed to assess the most problematic factors in each country. This data is available until 2016 in the Global Competitiveness Report. “This chart summarizes those factors seen by business executives as the most problematic for doing business in their economy. The information is drawn from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey (the Survey). From a list of 16 factors, respondents were asked to select the five most problematic and rank them from 1 (most problematic) to 5. The results were then tabulated and weighted according to the ranking assigned by respondents.” (on page 39 of the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018)
“the Executive Opinion Survey (the Survey) is the longest-running and most extensive survey of its kind, capturing the opinions of business leaders around the world on a broad range of topics for which statistics are unreliable, outdated, or nonexistent for many countries. Thus the Survey aims to measure critical concepts—such as appetite for entrepreneurship, the extent of the skills gap, and the incidence of corruption—to complement the traditional sources of statistics and provide a more accurate assessment of the business environment and, more broadly, of the many drivers of economic development." (on page 333 of the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018)
Each year, thousands of local business executives are surveyed. For instance, for the 2017-2018 report:”The 2017 edition captured the views of 14,375 business executives in over 148 economies between February and June 2017 (see Figure 1). Following the data editing process described below, a total of 12,775 responses from 133 economies were retained. The 2017 edition of the Survey was made available in 39 languages (see Table 1)." (on page 333 of the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018). The number of business executives surveyed varies greatly: for instance, for the 2017-2018 report, there were 396 respondents for China, and only 32 respondents for New Zealand.
WEF_most_pbic_factors: 851 observations, based on 150 countries, for the years 2011 to 2016. This dataset contains 20 variables:
country_name: a character string indicating the full name of the country.
country_code: a character string indicating the code of the country (ISO3).
report: dates appearing on the cover of each report (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
year: integer indicating the year used as a basis for the different scores calculations (e.g. 2016 data is used for the 2017-2018 report, so in this dataset, the value for “report” is “2017-2018” and the value for “year” is “2016”).
tax_rates: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the level of tax rates as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
corruption: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the level of corruption as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
access_to_financing: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the access to financing as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
(complexity_of_)tax_regulations: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the complexity of tax regulations as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
inefficient_government_bureaucracy: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the inefficience of government bureaucracy as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
inadequately_educated_workforce: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the inadequation of the education of the workforce as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
inflation: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the level of inflation as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
poor_work_ethic_in_national_workforce: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the poor work ethic of the national workforce as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
policy_instability: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the instability of policies as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
inadequate_supply_of_infrastructure: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the inadequation of the supply of infrastructure as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
crime_and_theft: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the level of crime and theft as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
insufficient_capacity_to_innovate: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the insufficiency in the capacity to innovate as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
government_instability_or_coups: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the instability of the government and/or the presence of coups d’état as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
poor_public_health: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the poor level of public health as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
restrictive_labor_regulations: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the restrictions in labor regulations as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
foreign_currency_regulations: number indicating the percentage of respondents who listed the regulations in terms of foreign currency as one of the most problematic factors for doing business in their country in that year.
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2020
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2019
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2018
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2017-2018
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2016-2017
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2015-2016
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2014-2015
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2013-2014
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2012-2013
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2011-2012
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2010-2011
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2009-2010
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2008-2009
SOURCE OF THE DATA - GCR 2006-2007