Knowledge and industry clusters as drivers of economic development and competitiveness

Abstract

The aim of this paper is the analysis of knowledge and clusters as drivers of economic development and competitiveness. A theoretical overview of the knowledge and clusters development will be provided. The overview of indicators (economic growth, GDP per capita, unemployment, GCI, Innovation Indexes) will be given, and the findings based on the indicators will be discussed for EU candidate countries. Correlation between cluster development and competitiveness will be analysed. Knowledge and clusters are drivers of economic development and competitiveness, but they are not the key factors in those countries. Other factors have more effect on development and competitiveness. Limitation of the paper is a lack of the empirical studies and data of observed countries. Further research will be oriented to a particular sector and one country from EU candidate countries.

Keywords

• knowledge
• clusters
• economic development
• competitiveness