ECONOMIC GROWTH ADJUSTMENT BASED ON COSTS - BENEFITS ANALYSIS. THE IMPACT OF EU INTEGRATION

The main reason why economic growth is considered as being so important in the economic literature is that it helps accomplishing certain major goals for any economy, like diminishing poverty in developing countries and the raise of the standard of living in developed countries. Thus, the economic growth is perceived through the benefits it generates: raise in welfare, raise in the life expectancy, positive effects in investments, raise of employment rate etc. But this process has its costs especially on the social side generated by the need of adjustments but also on the environment side. The social costs are usually paid by those who can not adapt in real time to the new economic requirements. The environmental costs come from pollution and the intense use of non-regenerating resources. Thus, a process of result adjustment due to the costs and benefits generated by economic growth is necessary in order to determine its real effects. The EU integration amplifies some of the benefits of economic growth by real convergence process but also some of the costs like structural unemployment and income inequality in some regions.