The master's thesis deals with the comparison of the size of the public sector in the member states of the European Union before the covid-19 pandemic and during the pandemic. The theoretical part defined the European Union and its operation. The second part presented the covid-19 pandemic. In the third part the public sector was discussed and presented from a fiscal and institutional point of view, its operation, the size and growth of the public sector. In the empirical part of the master's thesis, three hypotheses were tested using statistical methods. Of the three hypotheses, we could fully confirm only the first, we rejected the second and partially confirmed the third from the point of view of public expenditures in GDP. The key findings of the master's thesis are that the covid-19 pandemic had a strong positive impact on the size of the public sector in the EU member states, that the extent of the covid-19 pandemic is seen through the aspects of the number of deaths and the number of infected had no effect on the size of the public sector in EU member states and that the share of public sector employees in EU countries increased on average more in the old EU member states, while on average, the share of employed public expenditure in GDP increased more in the new member states.
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