Ten Lessons from the EU Accession of Ex-Communist Countries

Călin Vâlsan (), Amos M. Rahat and Elena Druică
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Călin Vâlsan: William School of Business, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 1Z7, Canada
Amos M. Rahat: Doctoral School of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Elena Druică: Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Analysis, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, Romania

Economies, 2025, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: We investigate the broad economic impact of accession in the case of 13 countries who joined the European Union starting with 2004, by comparing them with both EU and non-EU countries. Using 25 years of data, we document significant post-accession improvements in productivity and/or GDP per capita. Overall, these countries outperformed in terms of growth and productivity the European countries that never joined the EU. The newly admitted countries also out-borrowed non-EU countries in order to finance their transition and their subsequent economic growth. We also document a significant short-term, inverse relationship between the quality of governance and total factor productivity, on the one hand, and the ratio of debt-to-GDP on the other hand. This suggests that increases in the level of indebtedness could be driven by poor political governance and weak productivity. Borrowing appears to represent a compensatory, stop-gap measure rather than the result of sound economic strategy.

Keywords: EU enlargement; ex-communist countries; growth; productivity; governance; cultural heritage; panel data analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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