Competitive phenomenon and the effect of competitive power on economic growth: An econometric analysis of OECD countries

The relationship between competition power and economic growth, preserving its importance in every period of history has increased its signifiance in the era of globalisation and information age by continuously being in a renewal process. The concept of competition power was especially important in weapon technology before the Industrial Revoluation. As the concepts surplus value and foreign trade became more apparent with the Industrial Revoluation, the concept of competition power was reshaped together with above mantioned concepts to its present form. Therefore, as a result of rapid changes on information and communication technologies, economic, social and political influences and competition power of countries have begun to change dramatically. This rapid change leads to an increase in the level of welfare of those societies which increase their competition power, while a welfare loss may occur for those societies who lose their competition power. The lack of competition power is the most crucial underlying reason for developing countries terms of inequality in income distribution, social and political disturbances, development issues and low level of welfare. In this respect, in the present study, this condition has been examined for the 34 OECD (the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development ) member countries including Turkey. In this thesis, the relationship between economic growth and competition power has been examined by using panel data analysis method. To do so, we have taken into account several variables such as the competitive power figures of the selected countries for the period of 2001 to 2014, gross domestic product, labor force prticipation and capital stock. The analysis results reveal that increases on competition power have an effect on economic growth. . It has been suggested that in order to increase the competitive power in the countries constituting the panel, particularly developing countries, it should be intensively worked on economic performance and infrastructure alongside with long-term public arrangements and efficiency in the business world. In developing countries, it was reached a conclusion that ensuring progress in above mentioned areas has positively affected the competitive power and thereby economic growth.