Ekonomická svoboda a konkurenceschopnost zemí Evropské unie

Abstract

This thesis deals with economic freedom and its impact on the competitiveness of the EU-28 countries. The thesis is divided into four main parts. The concept of economic freedom and competitiveness by different authors are defined in the first chapter. There are also outlined theoretical approaches from the view of various schools. The individual indices of economic freedom and competitiveness and their development are described in the second and the third chapter. The interaction between these two concepts is investigated in the final chapter. The associated regression (i.e. “pool”) is the basic method which is used for research. This method monitors the impact of economic freedom and economic growth on the competitiveness of the EU-28 coutries. The econometric model for testing is used in two variants. In the first model there are used data for economic freedom from the Fraser Institutefrom 2004 to 2012, in the second model from the Heritage Foundation from 2004 to 2014. Data for competitiveness are taken from the World Economic Forum and economic growth from Eurostat. Estimation of regression models result in confirmation of the fact, that there exists a positive correlation between variables.