A Harvard Business School study that Niall Ferguson pointed us to today shows the U.S. has fallen severely behind in terms of international competitiveness.

The study, from January, found that for Harvard alums personally involved in a company relocation decision, 57 percent said the decision "involved the possibility of moving existing activities out of the U.S."

Meanwhile, only 9 percent considered moving existing activities from another country into the U.S.

"A U.S.-based respondent was three times as likely to be considering moving business activity out of the U.S. than a non-U.S. respondent was likely to be considering moving an activity into the U.S," writes Professor Michael Porter, the study's author.

The most interesting table from the study plotted current versus expected American industry sector global success.

No, you're not missing something: The respondents expect a decline in competitiveness for all sectors.

Harvard Business School

Here's another chart which confirms that virtually nobody sees things getting better from a competitiveness standpoint.

HBS

And for why businesses are so down on US competitiveness, see here >