The European Union and Economic Freedom by Robert Lawson, Joshua Hall and Rachael Wogsland

From the Global Economy Journal. This paper integrates two growing strains of literature. The first strain looks at the effect of economic and political unions on outcomes such as bond ratings and economic convergence. The second strain looks at the determinants of economic freedom across countries. Building from these two literatures, the authors investigate the impact of joining the European Union on a country’s economic freedom. Using a panel of countries from 1970 to 2007, they find evidence that joining the European Union increases a country’s economic freedom. Empirically, however, the impact of joining the union on economic freedom is small.