Globalization, Comparative Advantage, and Europe's Double Competitive Squeeze

The past decade has witnessed an increasingly rapid tendency toward globalization in the world economy, and this has significantly affected the comparative advantage and international competitiveness of nations. This paper examines the effect of globalization on the comparative advantage and international competitiveness of Europe in manufactured goods as a whole, in high technology goods, and in office equipment and telecommunications during the past two decades. In particular, the paper evaluates the view that Europe is facing a serious double competitiveness squeeze – in high-technology goods from the United States and Japan and from the bottom in simpler manufactured goods from emerging developing countries, especially the Dynamic Asian Economies. This view is based on the over-regulation and rigid labor markets prevailing in most European countries. The paper shows, however, that this view is not generally correct.