REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: A KEY FACTOR FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN ALBANIA

This study describes the effects of regional competition in the Albanian economy during the period 2005-2020. The Albanian economy is faced with numerous problems mainly related to unemployment, lack of competition in the market, the low level of foreign direct investments (FDI), the increase in consumer prices, the immoderate level of productivity and other elements with impact on the country's economy. The purpose of this paper is to identify the comparative advantages of different regions in terms of the efficient use of production resources available to them, facing the pressure of domestic production competition from imported products. To test or even measure the effects of influencing factors on regional competitiveness, econometric modelling was used in this study. The regression model in this analysis has the following form: Yt = beta 0 + Sigma beta iXit, where: with Yt the real GDP rate (used as a proxy for regional competitiveness) is identified as appropriate, and with Xt the set of variables that explain regional competitiveness. The data used were provided by: INSTAT, statistical yearbooks in years; publications of the Bank of Albania in years, for period 2005-2021. From the final results, we note that all macroeconomic variables taken into consideration have been statistically significant in their impact on GDP and automatically on Regional Competitiveness. Also, their impact seems to have followed the same sign as the raised expectations.