Competitiveness on the Island of Ireland

Abstract

This paper considers Ireland and Northern Ireland’s relative international competitive performance across four policy input domains: education and skills; research, development & innovation; infrastructure and the business environment. The evidence demonstrates that Ireland was relatively more competitive and on a positive trajectory from 2011-16, while Northern Ireland continued to lag Ireland and most of its European neighbours in most domains. Both countries’ competitiveness performances are benchmarked against various EU/OECD countries, some of whose policies may be relevant to policy design for addressing these performance weaknesses on the island of Ireland.ion=