Business as Usual? Analyzing the Effects of Enlargement on EU Legislative Output

This paper analyzes the effects of enlargement on European Union (EU) legislative output. Building on veto player theory we use computer simulations to derive hypotheses about group size, heterogeneity and law production. We test this theory by estimating negative binomial regression models on a dataset covering the legislative process for all binding secondary EU legislation from 1976 to 2007. Our analysis does not corroborate all of veto player theory’s expectations. No significant reduction of legislation goes along with an increase in the number of member states. In the outlook we discuss these findings and generate a set of possible explanations for our unexpected results