Sicat, Regina Bianca D.Villarosa, Dea Marie Isabel A.2024-10-142024-10-142015-12https://selib.upd.edu.ph/etdir/handle/123456789/734A growing debate in the field of development economics is defining competitiveness and its importance to economic growth. The Philippines has joined this bandwagon and created its own index, the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), which measures how competitive local government units (LGUs) are at the municipal level and then at the provincial level. Our study looks critically into the variables included in the index with the use of exploratory factor analysis to see how the CMCI can better measure competitiveness. Afterwards, we perform a multivariate regression and see how the extracted factors of competitiveness affect the standard of living, as reflected in average household expenditure. The results of the study show that competitiveness at the smaller scale is determined by economic performance of businesses, labor costs, basic government services, ease of doing business, and miscellaneous infrastructure. It is insignificantly related to standard of living. The study recommends a future replication of this methodology but when there is more complete data available. The study also recommends that the National Competitiveness Council review the CMCI variables as well as the construction of the index to see how it can be more relevant to the study of living standards and overall economic development.enEconomic growthThesis