The Significance of EU Integration for Transition Countries

For several countries during a transition process economic and institutional reforms are frequently implemented in an inconsistent way. The prospect of EU membership require and facility reforms and thereby leads to increased government credibility. This contribution derives an estimate of the potential growth effect resulting from improved economic institutions through EU membership. This growth effect consists of a „static“ growth bonus of 12 per cent GDP (not accounting for induced capital accumulation) and an additional “dynamic” growth bonus of 24 percent. This can be regarded as a rule-of-thump approximation of the significance of EU integration for the transition countries