Comparative Analysis of three Accession Countries on Impact of Changes in Competitiveness on Labour Market Development

Abstract

The paper constitutes a comparison of research outcomes carried out by the Czech, Hungarian and Polish teams on the dependency between domestic and external competitiveness one the one side and employment in manufacturing industry branches on the other. We try to verify the hypothesis of a positive effect of the rising competitiveness on labour market developments.
Generally we can conclude that the hypothesis mentioned has been confirmed only partially. These were mostly the industries of deteriorating competitiveness, which reduced employment. The industries, where positive changes in the level of competitiveness occurred, showed no clear pattern with regard to employment changes. We believe that among the possible factors of this situation are the restructuring and modernisation processes, which have been experienced in the industrial branches of the transition economies with differentiated intensity and range.
The complexity of the problem researched is confirmed also by the econometric analyses performed by all three national teams. Despite of numerous attempts, the results are not fully satisfactory, especially as far as the influence of external competitiveness on employment is concerned.