•  
  •  
 
Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Abstract

This paper investigates the GDP growth in member states of the European Union from 1978 until 2007. As most people are well aware of, GDP is calculated by the sum of consumption, government expenditure, investment, and net exports. The research conducted for this paper intends to discover what other variables have affected GDP growth in the past 30 years. The variables used in this paper include the public expenditure on education, total population, inflation, percentage of population who are adolescents (0-14), adults (15-64), or elderly (65+). Today there are twenty-seven member states in the Union from which I have compiled data on these variables for the past thirty years. (List of member states Exhibit A). After careful observation of these key variables, it can be said that countries in the European Union (E.U.) have their GDP growth affected by other variables which are not in the original equation.

COinS