Does European Union Membership result in Quality-of-Life Convergence?

This paper employs European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) responses from 2003, 2008, 2012, and 2016 in order to examine whether European Union (EU) enlargement helps meet the objective of improving living standards and the overall quality of life across the continent. The data set includes responses to forty questions across nine dimensions for all twenty-eight EU member states, along with eight non-member states. Insights are captured through the systematic comparison of self-reported perceptions pooled at the country level before and after accession, as well as between member states and non-member states. Special attention is paid to the eight post-Communist countries that joined the EU on May 1, 2004, representing the admission of eighty million citizens. These include the three ex-Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, satellites Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as Slovenia, which was the first republic to declare independence from Yugoslavia. Based upon these findings, the paper concludes with speculation upon popular support for further enlargement in the wake of the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis and the 2016-2020 Brexit process.