International competitiveness: overview
This paper considers Scotland’s competitiveness, with a particular focus on Scotland’s attractiveness for inward investment. It sets out measures and international comparisons of competitiveness and considers key drivers. It includes a focus on Scotland’s financial services sector.
Footnotes
1 World Competitiveness Ranking - IMD business school for management and leadership courses
2 What exactly is economic competitiveness? | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
3 WEF - The Global Competitiveness Report 2020
4 Competitiveness Overview: Development news, research, data | World Bank
5 To take one example: “Important features of corporation tax have changed almost every year since 2010. … This is a bad way to make policy. For any level of allowances, investment would be higher if the system were stable.” from Green Budget 2023 | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk).
6 Estonia, Latvia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Türkiye, Israel, Lithuania, and Australia. 2023 International Tax Competitiveness Index | Tax Foundation
7 See, for example: Will increasing income tax rates harm Scottish economic growth? | FAI (fraserofallander.org)
8 Programme for Government - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
9 EY UK Attractiveness Survey – Scotland 2024
10 Figure 49, Evaluation of the Scottish Government’s inward investment support - final ERC report (www.gov.scot)
11 EY Attractiveness Survey - Europe 2024
12 A minimum tax rate of 15% on the profits of multinationals. | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
14 How Ireland’s attractiveness is bolstering FDI performance | EY Ireland
15 National Productivity and Competitiveness Council - Ireland. A growing number of countries, particularly in the EU, have such councils.
16 EY Europe Attractiveness Survey | EY UK
17 FDI and Taxation: A Meta-Study - Feld - 2011 - Journal of Economic Surveys - Wiley Online Library
19 See, for example, Supporting documents - Team Scotland's inward investment support: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
21 Redistribution and Public Debt as Ways to Boost the Economy - Royal Economic Society (res.org.uk)
22 Economic impact of spending on social security - Technical note - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
24 Supporting documents - BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 117 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
26 How do other countries raise more in tax than the UK? | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk)
27 For example, the Scottish Fiscal Commission estimated that Scottish Income Tax policy changes are expected to raise almost £1.5 billion more in 2024-25 than under UK Government policy.
28 According to the latest Scottish Income Tax Outturn Statistics, rUK raised 34.8% of its non-savings non-dividends Income Tax from the Top Rate compared to 18.1% in Scotland.
30 Marginal-Tax-Rates-and-Economic-Opportunity.pdf (taxfoundation.org)
31 Scottish Income Tax: 2018-19 policy evaluation (www.gov.scot)
33 National Performance Framework | National Performance Framework
34 Second Annual Progress Report (www.gov.scot)
35 Scotland’s Productivity Challenge - The Productivity Institute 2021
Contact
Email: karl.johnston@gov.scot
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