An Institutional Analysis of the Europe 2020 Strategy

The inherent complexity of the Europe 2020 Strategy, focused on areas where the European Commission has not full jurisdictional competence, increases the relevance of a timely and precise monitoring system and of effective and efficient institutional settings. This paper performs a quantitative evaluation of countries’ performances, using the Europe 2020 Index (Pasimeni in Soc Indic Res 110(2): 613–635, 2011. doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9948-9 ). We observe differences among countries and across time, and investigate their determinants by means of a model including potential explanatory variables, such as level of wealth, growth, sustainability of public finances and institutions. We refer to institutions in the sense of North (J Econ Perspect 5(1):97–112, 1991), and apply the distinction between formal and informal ones. The analysis confirms the importance of formal and informal institutions, both in absolute and in relative terms, compared with the other factors considered. Institutional variables, such as good governance and social capital, are the most significant ones and have the strongest estimated effects on countries’ performances.