The interplay between knowledge-based competitiveness, people’s good health and well-being: new empirical evidence from Central and Eastern European countries

The enhancement of countries’ competitiveness represents an essential credential in current economic interventions, national policy frameworks and strategies, mainly in relation to sustainable economic development. This paper explores the drivers of competitiveness in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in the knowledge economy, and its further impact on economic welfare, with a particular focus on individuals’ perceived good health and well-being (a good predictor of people’s future use of the healthcare system and mortality risk and a benchmark for sustainable development). The dataset grasps 11 CEECs analyzed during the 2000–2018 lapse of time. The methodological endeavor is based on three econometric procedures encompassing macroeconometric models, structural equation modelling (SEM) and network analysis through Gaussian Graphical Models. Main findings entail that CEECs competitiveness is driven by the key coordinates of the knowledge economy, particularly tertiary education, employment in technology and knowledge-intensive sectors, and additional government financial support dedicated for research and development activities. Moreover, in a further complex setting, competitiveness increases under the impact of education, research, development and innovation leads to significant upwards in GDP per capita levels. However, the further linkages with individuals’ good health and well-being, when considered as a consequence of welfare increase following knowledge-driven competitiveness, or as a direct impact of competitiveness increases, entail a downsized outcome in terms of individuals’ perceived health. Our results provide solid grounds for the development of new tailored policies designed to enhance CEECs knowledge-driven competitiveness in a comprehensive framework, with benefit spillovers on sustainable economic development. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11135-020-01015-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.