CALL FOR PAPERS

Key Competitiveness Issues in Cyprus
May 26 – August 1, 2010

The Economic Growth and Development for Enterprises Project in Cyprus (EDGE), implemented by Deloitte Consulting LLP and funded by USAID, is launching a call for papers to encourage debate on competitiveness issues in Cyprus. Researchers from any field can work collaboratively or individually to explore any aspect of competitiveness with an emphasis on future economic development

For the past thirty years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has facilitated the global economic policy debate by providing detailed assessments of the productive potential of economies worldwide. As part of this effort, every year the WEF compiles a Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) that compares competitiveness conditions based on twelve pillars of competitiveness over 130 economies around the world. Put briefly, the aim of the Global Competitiveness Report, which includes the GCI analyses, is to enhance the understanding of the key factors that determine economic growth and to explain why some economies are more successful than others in raising income levels and opportunities for their populations.

Since 2003, the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report has included a country economic profile for Cyprus, based on data that captures the economic situation south of Cyprus' dividing Green Line (http://www.weforum.org/documents/GCR0809/index.htm). Furthermore, the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce (TCCC) has for the past 2 years published an annual competitiveness report for the Turkish Cypriot economy , following the same methodology used by the WEF (http://www.ktto.net/english/report.html) . In the Greek Cypriot community (GCC), the Cyprus College Research Center and the Cyprus Development Bank collaborate with the WEF to undertake the Executive Opinion Survey, findings of which constitute a major component of the WEF’s study. Examining the results of both reports, it is striking—if not surprising—that the results are similar. Both sides face many of the same challenges to increasing competitiveness. Both need to improve in the following problematic areas:

 Access to financing
 Public sector productivity
 Bureaucracy
 Tax regulation
 Infrastructure limitation
 Education and Training (mismatch between educational curricula and market demand)
 Labor market inefficiencies

Abstract submission: Interested researchers should prepare an abstract between 250 and 350 words, in accordance with the Journal of International Management’s Style Guide for Authors (available at http://fox.temple.edu/jim/authors.html.). All proposals should include an abstract and the researchers’ curriculum vitae in the English Language. Proposals should be submitted electronically by August 1, 2010 to CallForPapers@edge-dcllp.com. Abstracts should be submitted with the understanding that they are original, unpublished works and are not being submitted elsewhere. Please direct any questions regarding the research forum to the same e-mail by July 15, 2010.

An evaluation committee will evaluate the abstracts and select between five and ten abstracts. The authors of selected abstracts will be informed, by e-mail no later than August 31, 2010. The researchers will have until September 7, 2010 to submit funding requests for research that is essential to the paper. Their research results and papers have to be submitted by January 1, 2011. The papers must be between 7000 and 8000 words and must include original data collection and empirical studies that are analyzed using accepted statistical methods. It is expected that the papers will be presented in a conference in February 2011; the exact date and place of the conference will be decided accordingly.