EU Regulation Evaluation
Evidence-based analysis of EU regulations across 27 member states
In February 2025, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a systematic evaluation of EU regulations, arguing that excessive regulatory burden is holding back European competitiveness. This is the right instinct — but deregulation without evidence is just ideology with extra steps. We are building a rigorous, data-driven research program to evaluate the actual causal effects of major EU regulations: which ones work, which ones impose costs that exceed their benefits, and which ones need reform.
The EU's multi-level governance structure — 27 member states transposing directives at different times — creates uniquely powerful natural experiments. When Germany transposes a directive in 2008 and France in 2010, we can use that staggered timing to estimate causal effects with difference-in-differences designs. We combine transposition data from EUR-Lex with regional economic outcomes from Eurostat (1,400+ NUTS regions), monetary data from the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse, and regulatory indices from the OECD.
Carbon & Climate
coming soonEU Emissions Trading System (ETS), Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Effort Sharing Regulation, Renewable Energy Directive, and Green Deal industrial policy. The ETS phases create sector-level treatment variation ideal for difference-in-differences designs across covered and uncovered industries.
Digital Regulation
coming soonGeneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), AI Act, and ePrivacy rules. GDPR's staggered enforcement across member states and firm-size thresholds (250 employees) provide clean identification for studying compliance costs and innovation effects.
Trade & Single Market
coming soonServices Directive, Goods Package, Mutual Recognition, and free movement provisions. The Services Directive (2006/123/EC) was transposed between 2006 and 2012 across member states — this staggered implementation is one of the cleanest natural experiments in EU policy evaluation.
Labor & Mobility
coming soonPosted Workers Directive, Working Time Directive, Schengen area rules, and EU labor market coordination. Schengen accession dates and posted worker rule changes create border-discontinuity designs across neighboring regions.
Financial Regulation
coming soonMiFID II, Banking Union, Capital Requirements Directive, Solvency II, and Anti-Money Laundering directives. Eurozone membership versus non-Eurozone EU states provides a natural control group for monetary policy transmission studies.
Industrial & Competition Policy
coming soonREACH (chemicals regulation), State Aid rules, EU Merger Control, and standardization policy. REACH's substance-level registration deadlines create a staggered treatment across chemical sectors, enabling event-study designs for industry productivity effects.
Agriculture & Regional Policy
coming soonCommon Agricultural Policy (CAP), Cohesion Policy, Structural Funds, and rural development programs. NUTS2-level variation in Structural Fund allocations and CAP reform phases provide geographic variation for evaluating regional convergence effects.
Other EU Policy
coming soonCross-cutting EU regulations and directives not captured by the categories above, including consumer protection, environmental regulation beyond climate, transport policy, and health and safety standards.