Too big to run? Analysing the impact of enlargement on the speed of EU decision-making

Robin Hertz and Dirk Leuffen
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Robin Hertz: ETH Zürich, Switzerland, robin.hertz@eup.gess.ethz.ch
Dirk Leuffen: University of Konstanz, Germany

European Union Politics, 2011, vol. 12, issue 2, 193-215

Abstract: The article analyses how enlargements affect the speed of European Union (EU) decision-making. In line with rationalist theories of group choice, we argue that enlargements increase the costs of organizing decisions, i.e. transaction costs. Increasing transaction costs, in turn, slow down EU law-making. We test this theory by estimating Cox regression models that incorporate time-varying covariates on all directives, regulations and decisions submitted by the European Commission between 1976 and 2006. In contrast to previous analyses, we show that an increase in group size indeed slows down EU law-making.

Keywords: decision-making; enlargement; European Union; event history analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:12:y:2011:i:2:p:193-215

DOI: 10.1177/1465116511399162

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