Did the Maastricht treaty matter for macroeconomic performance? A difference‐in‐difference investigation
用双重差分法研究《马斯特里赫特条约》对欧盟15国财政和宏观经济的影响，发现其条款要么无关要么有害，尤其在欧洲经济货币联盟第三阶段后负面影响显著。
SUMMARY We explore the impact of the Maastricht treaty on fiscal and macroeconomic outcomes in the EU with the difference‐in‐difference methodology. Our dataset covers 23 OECD countries over the 1975–2006 period. EU 15 countries are classified as the treatment and eight non‐EU OECD countries as the control group. The results indicate that the provisions in the Maastricht treaty have been either irrelevant or even harmful for fiscal and macroeconomic developments in the EU. Evidence for a detrimental impact of the Maastricht criteria is particularly strong for the period after the start of the third stage of EMU.