Productivity Effect of Accessing the EU: Case of Bulgaria and Romania

Abstract

The article deals with the impact that the EU enlargement had on productivity of firms in accessing countries, particularly Romania and Bulgaria that accessed EU in 2007. Microeconomic data suggest that the impact of accession itself can be negative in a short run in case of countries that received promised benefits in disintegrated manner and also experienced problems with obliging requirements of EU accession that resulted in negative measures taken. The negative short run effect can hinder the benefits in the euphoria following the accession and therefore could be considered as part of accession process in certain situations.