The Nature and Importance of Economic Competence

In this paper we define economic competence as the ability toidentify, expand and exploit business opportunities. Economiccompetence constitutes the means through which technologicalpossibilities are converted into economic activity. It consistsof four types of capabilities: (i) selective or strategic; (ii)organizational or coordinating; (iii) technical; and (iv) learningability. The purpose of the paper is (i) to survey the studyof economic competence as it appears in economic literature;(ii) to give a meaningful and operational definition of economiccompetence as one of the factors contributing to macroeconomicgrowth; and (iii) to suggest a methodology to generalize andlink economic competence, as defined at the micro (firm, individual)level, to macroeconomic growth, through simulation on the micro-basedmacroeconomic Model of the Swedish Economic System (MOSES).