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Mundschenk, Susanne; Stierle, Michael H.; Schütz, Ulrike Stierle-von; Traistaru, Iulia --- "Competitiveness and Growth in Europe: An Overview" [2006] ELECD 113; in Mundschenk, Susanne; Stierle, H. Michael; Stierle-von Schütz, Ulrike; Traistaru-Siedschlag, Iulia (eds), "Competitiveness and Growth in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Competitiveness and Growth in Europe

Editor(s): Mundschenk, Susanne; Stierle, H. Michael; Stierle-von Schütz, Ulrike; Traistaru-Siedschlag, Iulia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426620

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Competitiveness and Growth in Europe: An Overview

Author(s): Mundschenk, Susanne; Stierle, Michael H.; Schütz, Ulrike Stierle-von; Traistaru, Iulia

Number of pages: 10

Extract:

1. Competitiveness and Growth in
Europe: An Overview
Susanne Mundschenk, Michael H. Stierle,*
Ulrike Stierle-von Schütz and Iulia Traistaru

At the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, Europe's heads of state and
government declared their ambition to make the European Union (EU)`the
most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by
2010, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs and
greater social cohesion'. This broad objective includes an increase in the
employment rate from an average of 61% in the EU to 70% by 2010, or 20
million additional jobs, and an EU average annual real growth rate of 3%,
considerably higher than the average of 2.1% over the past ten years. To
achieve this, the European Council adopted the Lisbon Strategy, an agenda
consisting of short-term political initiatives as well as medium and long-term
economic reforms aimed at achieving higher economic growth and
employment, better environmental protection and increasing social cohesion.
These measures aim for an increase in education levels and total spending in
research and development from 2% to 3% of GDP as well as the completion
of the single market with liberalization of telecommunications and electricity
markets, as well as financial services.
Recent growth theories suggest that government policies may play a role
in fostering efficiency and growth. According to endogenous growth models
government intervention can raise the level of efficiency in the economy by
addressing market failures, externalities and spillovers that prevent optimal
allocation of ...