Ruhr Economic Papers

University of Duisburg-Essen, 08/2009, 31 S./p., 8 Euro, ISBN 978-3-86788-147-0

Zusammenfassung

This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and NATO clearly matter for institutional development. In addition, path-dependency determined by cultural norms may be overcome by economic liberalization while foreign aid seems to hamper institutional development.