The impact of the European Union and Eurozone membership on economic growth : A quantitative analysis of how the economic growth of the member countries has been affected

The creation of the European Union and later the European economic and monetary union started as a peace project and later on to make the European countries stronger and unified through economic integration The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect that EU(EZ) membership has on the economic growth of its member states. This is done by using an augmented Solow model including the GDP per capita growth rate which represents the economic growth while the EU(EZ) membership is represented by dummy variables. Other variables in the model have been included as control variables but also that are relevant for economic growth. The existing literature regarding the growth impact of the European integration is divided and is still inconclusive as seen from the different results from different studies and that could be due to the heterogeneity of the member countries, the time period studied but as well due to the methodological difficulties. Some economists have found a positive impact on economic growth, while others have not been able to find any impact at all. Thus, it could be said the growth effect from the EU(EZ) membership is a controversial subject. By using data for the OECD countries, including both EU and non-EU countries, eurozone and non-eurozone members over the time period 1990 to 2018, the results have suggested the following; EU and eurozone memberships have not contributed to economic growth of their members, while EU membership has affected negatively the growth rate of the EU countries compared to the non-EU OECD countries when the financial crisis was controlled for