REGIONAL (UN)COMPETITIVENESS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

National and regional competitiveness are emphasized as the main goals of the economic policy, but considering the fact that the discussions about their defining and measuring are numerous, it is the question how to determine these terms and especially how to measure (regional) competitiveness. After a detailed theoretical analysis of regional competitiveness and a comparison of the Croatian regions’ main macroeconomic indicators, the impact of the selected determinants (trade openness, road infrastructure and human resources) on Croatian regional competitiveness was modeled using multiple linear regression model, and according to that model the regions were also ranked. The results showed that Northwestern Croatia is the most competitive Croatian region, Adriatic Croatia is ranked second and Central and Eastern(Pannonian) Croatia came in third.