5.5 Location and TOK

It’s the start of the new academic year for many centres, and here’s a starter for teaching Unit 5.5 Location. The USA has, for the 3rd year running, slipped in the annual ‘Global Competitiveness’ league table compiled by the World Economic Forum. Which country is number 1? Is Britain in the top 10? Whilst there is no real surprise about Greece, which position has Hong Kong soared to? Read more to find out…

The top 5 in this year’s WEF Global Competitiveness Report are:

1. Switzerland
2. Singapore
3. Sweden
4. Finland
5. USA

Bottom of the table is Chad, ranked in 142nd place. You can download the full report here.

The latest results show that international competitiveness in emerging markets has improved, signifying the shift in business activity and economic power to such economies. An interesting point is made on page 6 of the Report that shows the G7 nations have an average debt as a percentage of GDP of 101.3%!

The positions in the Global Competitiveness Report are determined by ‘pillars’ (determinants) of competitiveness. These include: infrastructure, innovation, the macro economy, education, health care, market efficiency, business sophistication and financial markets.

Questions:

Examine how global competitiveness might be measured.

Discuss the extent to which global competitiveness affects business location decisions.

TOK

What knowledge claims are made in the compilation of the annual WEF Global Competitiveness Report? How can we ‘know’ that the results are reliable and represent ‘knowledge’?