Ever Freer Union? Economic Freedom and the EU
Ever Freer Union? Economic Freedom and the EU
August 2016
By performing an econometric analysis on the Fraser Institute’s “Economic Freedom of the World: Annual Report 2015,” it is found that EU membership is positively associated with economic freedom.
The model used controls for differences across countries as well as pan-European trends in economic freedom. The results are in general statistically significant.
The estimated effect of membership of the EU is positive for all areas of the index. The biggest estimated effect is on the area of Sound Money, given the introduction of the euro in countries which had previously been characterised by high inflation.
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