Ruhr Economic Papers

Ruhr Economic Papers #131
Prospective NATO or EU Membership and Institutional Change in Transition Countries
von Ansgar Belke, Ingo G. Bordon, Inna Melnykovska und Rainer Schweickert
University of Duisburg-Essen, 08/2009, 31 S./p., 8 Euro, ISBN 978-3-86788-147-0
downloadZusammenfassung
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.
JEL-Classification: F15, F20, F50, P20,
Keywords: EU; NATO; transition economies; institutional change; governance