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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
This paper analyzes the prologue to the Greek tragedy—in particular, the long period of slow growth after Greece joined the European Union and the short period of very strong growth following its adoption of the euro—and deduces reform proposals. Ultimately, a growth strategy should contain three interrelated bundles of measures: First, an improvement of the institutional environment, which currently ...
2015| Renate Neubäumer
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
In 2010, the first economic adjustment program began offering a blueprint for economic recovery and a feasible way for Greece to emerge from the crisis. The authors show that Greece neither overcame its structural weaknesses nor developed export industries as a driver of growth in the course of reforms, and they conclude that Greece’s sectoral structures still mirror a low level of industrial development ...
2015| Klaus Schrader, David Bencek, Claus-Fiedrich Laaser
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
This policy brief reexamines the effects of the Greek austerity experiment on its economy via a counterfactual analysis. We combine the fiscal multipliers from the meta regression analysis in Gechert and Rannenberg (2014) to the fiscal consolidation measures that have been implemented in Greece between 2010 and 2014. We estimate that austerity explains almost the entire collapse of Greek GDP after ...
2015| Sebastian Gechert, Ansgar Rannenberg
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
During the Greek crisis the wealth tax on real estate (WTRE) was increased four-fold as a percentage of GDP in order to boost fiscal revenues. This increase contributed to an essentially complete freeze of the real estate market, a considerable drop in real estate prices, and a substantial deepening of the recession. Using conservative assumptions, we calculate that the WTRE increases unemployment ...
2015| Dimitris Christelis
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
Greece has the largest underground economy in the eurozone and one of the largest in Europe and the OECD countries. On the other hand, Greece is notoriously known for its sizable and widespread tax evasion primarily because of the large number of self employed and its wide geographical distribution. As documented by many studies, the two depend on a corrupted, inefficient and ineffective public administration. ...
2015| Gregory T. Papanikos
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
While Greece’s poor record on investment and exports predates the crisis, the deep economic recession has made addressing long-standing weaknesses a priority. This paper takes a closer look at selected structural reforms that are critical for bolstering investments and exports in Greece. We investigate the areas of licensing, competition, professions, land use, and trade facilitation. In all areas ...
2015| Kaspar Richter, Gabriele Giudice, Angelo Cozzi
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
The historic decision at the Euro Summit on July 12, 2015, to continue supporting Greece as a member of the EU and the euro family, provided Greece the chance to return to growth and sustainability, provided it takes the necessary steps to continue with its reforms. Jointly the Greek government with its partners (European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund), agreed ...
2015| Vasiliki Bozani, Nick Drydakis
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
In 2010 the Greek economy entered a deep economic crisis. This was the result of an accumulation of structural problems in the economy, including overspending and loss of competitiveness during the previous decades, translating into persistently large budget and trade deficits. In 2015, under its third EU and IMF bailout, Greece has entered a spiral of depression that has led to its economy shrinking ...
2015| Xeni Dassiou
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
Greece went into recession in 2009, after a decade of flourishing economic growth fluctuating annually around 4 percent; over the same period the average growth for theEU-27 was just about 2 percent. The economic downturn had a series of adverse effects on the economy and the health sector. More specifically, over the 2008–2015 period, GDP was reduced by 29.5 percent, wages were reduced by 35–45 percent, ...
2015| Platon Yvantopoulos, John Yvantopoulos
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Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 3 / 2015
This paper explores the long-term relationship between public and private investment in the euro area. A stock-flow approach is proposed to control for the integration properties of the variables. Panel econometric techniques including international spillovers are employed. Private and public capital stocks are cointegrated. However, the residuals from the stock equilibrium are not (trend) stationary, ...
2015| Christian Dreger, Hans-Eggert Reimers