Business Environment and Economic Growth in the European Union Countries: What Can Be Explained for the Convergence?
Business Environment and Economic Growth in the European Union Countries: What Can Be Explained for the Convergence?

Summary/Abstract: Objective: The objective of this paper is to present the results of research on the economic growth and business environment of the European Union countries in the context of convergence processes. Additionally, the paper presents the results of investigation on the impact of business environment on economic growth in the European Union countries.Research Design & Methods: Methods applied in the study are analysis and synthesis of the literature on the subject a well as quantitative tools: descriptive statistics, multivariate regression and backward stepwise regression. The analysis contains 28 countries of the European Union in years 2000 – 2016 for economic growth and 2010 – 2018 for business environment. .Findings: Changes in the business environment across the European Union, as well as upward trends indicate a gradual approach of member economies in these areas. A quantitative analysis of dependence of growth from the business environment has also been confirmed.Implications & Recommendations: The results obtained in the study can be important for policy makers. Demonstrating a positive link between business environment and economic growth should be viewed as a guideline and orientation for reforms, changes and regulatory improvements. This elaboration can be treated as preliminary study on interrelation between business environment and economic growth in the context of economic convergence of the EU countries. Further research on the influence of business environment not only on economic growth but also economic convergence within the European Union countries are highly recommended.Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in connection of two different research problems: economic growth and business environment as well as study of links between these two areas.

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