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Policy Convergence with or without the E uropean U nion: The Interaction of Policy Success, EU Membership and Policy Convergence
Author(s) -
Fink Simon
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12018
Subject(s) - convergence (economics) , european union , economics , test (biology) , set (abstract data type) , economic system , public economics , political science , international economics , macroeconomics , computer science , paleontology , biology , programming language
Abstract The E uropean U nion ( EU ) is often seen as an institutional environment that facilitates the exchange of information about the effects of policies, and thus promotes convergence towards successful policies. However, current qualitative studies analyze only EU members and cannot dismiss the hypothesis that the relation between policy success and policy convergence is universal and not affected by EU membership. The article analyzes a dyadic data set on privatization policies in the electricity sector to test the interaction hypothesis that joint EU membership not only causes policy convergence, but also increases the effect of policy success on policy convergence. The result is that economic success of privatizations in role‐model countries and joint EU membership both increase the probability of policy convergence. However, there is no interaction between policy success and joint EU membership. Thus, contrary to widely held assumptions, joint EU membership does not amplify learning from each other's policy success.