02029cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF011830 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781475503289 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL International Monetary Fund. Assessing Competitiveness Using Industry Unit Labor Costs : An Application to Slovakia. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2012. 1 online resource (26 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Conceptual ambiguities and statistical weaknesses hamper the assessment of external competitiveness. The term competitiveness, while applied extensively, is often imprecisely defined, which can result in analytical errors and mistaken policy advice. Furthermore, aggregate statistical measures of competitiveness in terms of exchange rate misalignment can be biased. To address these issues, this paper makes two contributions. First, it clarifies the external competitiveness concept, highlighting the dichotomy between productivity-driven long-run growth and short-run deviations from the underlying growth trajectory, which can be related to exchange rate misalignment. Second, it develops a disaggregated statistical approach for examining competitiveness based on unit labor costs at the three digit industry level in a group of comparable countries. The case of Slovakia is used to illustrate these concepts, but the analytical insights have general application. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2012/107 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2012/107/001.2012.issue-107-en.xml IMF e-Library