Costa Rica’s competitiveness performance –understood as the quality and availability of
traits and institutions that are outside the control of specific firms, yet affect total factor
productivity— is quite varied. Look, for instance, at the results in the Global
Competitiveness Index compiled by the World Economic Forum. Costa Rica’s rank in what
the index considers to be simple, basic tasks is dismal, especially in all categories related to
infrastructure.
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Meanwhile its performance in the indicators of those more complex things
that one would associate with development—especially all that relates to human capital
and technological readiness—is very high.