Observatoire de la compétitivité durable : méthologie générale
July 28, 2026
The Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory (SCO) is an analytical platform developed by FERDI. It provides a comprehensive macroeconomic database together with a wide range of indicators designed to assess both the drivers and the outcomes of competitiveness in emerging and developing economies.
The Observatory is organised around three complementary dimensions.
Price Competitiveness
This dimension measures the external competitiveness of economies through indicators such as nominal and real exchange rates, relative production costs and other measures of price competitiveness.
Macroeconomic Fundamentals
This dimension captures the structural factors that underpin long-term competitiveness, including infrastructure, human capital, demographic and geographical characteristics, institutional quality and the broader business environment.
Revealed Competitiveness
This dimension assesses countries' trade performance through indicators such as export market shares, export diversification and sectoral specialisation, providing evidence of competitiveness as revealed by international markets.
👉 Explore the Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory (SCO):
https://competitivite.ferdi.fr/
The Observatory's database underpins FERDI's research on international competitiveness, exchange-rate policies, global value chains and the productive transformation of African economies.
Exchange Rates and Global Value Chains
Research conducted by Patrick Plane (Cerdi, Université Clermont Auvergne, FERDI) examines the role of the real exchange rate in shaping the external competitiveness of developing countries.
A first article, published in the Review of World Economics — "Unravelling the Nexus Between Exchange Rate Undervaluation and Global Value Chains Participation" (with M. Abdou, C. Zaki and I. Elbadawi) — draws on EORA data covering 143 countries between 1995 and 2018. The findings show that exchange-rate undervaluation encourages participation in both the upstream and downstream segments of global value chains. This effect is reinforced by digitalisation and is particularly pronounced in countries with weaker institutional environments.
A second article, published in The World Economy in 2025 — "Exchange Rate Undervaluation and African Surges" (with C. Da Piedade and L. Jacolin) — identifies 96 episodes of export acceleration across 41 African countries between 1995 and 2017. The authors show that product-specific exchange-rate undervaluation significantly increases the likelihood of an export surge.
Together, these studies provide new insights into the interactions between exchange-rate policies, competitiveness, global value chains, institutional quality and digitalisation, and improve our understanding of the conditions required to strengthen competitiveness and support productive transformation in African economies.
By providing a multidimensional assessment of competitiveness, the Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory (SCO) supports researchers, policymakers and international organisations in analysing the factors that drive sustainable economic performance.
Through its original database, analytical tools and research outputs, the Observatory contributes to a better understanding of the conditions required to strengthen competitiveness, resilience and structural transformation in emerging and developing economies.
