Měření a hodnocení ekonomické integrace členských států Evropské unie.

Abstract

European economic integration, in the form of today's European Union, has evolved since its inception in the second half of the 1950s into a complex economic and political entity comprising 27 Member States. Given the dynamics of the EU, particularly the crises of the last decade and the constant deepening of relations between EU Member States, quantitative measurement and assessment of the level of economic integration is a key tool for analysing its status and development. Current literature offers various approaches to measuring economic integration, ranging from gravitational models of trade integration, through analyses of the impact of economic integration on economic growth, to the use of composite indices that offer a comprehensive view of the level of economic integration. This dissertation responds to a research gap in the form of the absence of a current European economic integration index that measures the economic integration achieved by all EU Member States, and also includes elements of institutional integration. The dissertation fills this gap by constructing a composite European Economic Integration Index (EEII) at the EU-27 level for the reference period 2014–2023. The EEII consists of four dimensions: trade integration, institutional integration, economic convergence, and macroeconomic alignment, which together form the EEII sub-indices. The conclusions of the dissertation, based on the results of the EEII, which was constructed using two-stage factor analysis and a linear aggregation method, point to the fact that in the reference period 2014–2023, the level of economic integration of all EU Member States was significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was also an increase in the heterogeneity of EU Member States in achieving the level of economic integration. Most EU Member States did not reach the pre-crisis level of economic integration even in the following years of the reference period. The validity of the EEII was tested by verifying the relationships with the alternative EEII 2.0 using the equal weights, the KOF Globalisation Index, and the Regional Competitiveness Index 2.0.