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Strong Growth and Weak Institutions
The Greek economy of the 90's poses a unique international paradox. It combines strong economic performance that is rapid GDP growth and strong productivity growth, with a very weak performance on many other fronts that range from poor labor/product market institutions and low competitiveness, to poor environmental protection and high levels of corruption. A detailed presentation of a wide range of available evidence helps to explain initially this paradox. It also helps to describe and reveal the nature of the powerful redistributive, numerous rent-seeking groups that keep markets closed and distorted, resisting reforms in Greece today. This process allows us to obtain also an overview of the problems that reform-minded politicians face in Greece today. It also allows us to attempt the proposal of realistic reform strategies.
Economic and Social Turbulence in Greece
Since the 1990s the Greek economy has posed a unique international paradox, combining relatively strong growth rates with a very weak performance on many other fronts ranging from poor labour and product market institutions and low competitiveness to poor environmental protection and high levels of corruption. The recent economic and social turbulence in Greece is a result of this paradox. What is the explanation for this situation? What reforms are necessary to change it?
Why Did the Forceful Internal Devaluation Fail to Kick-Start an Export Led Growth in Greece?
Much has been said about the results of the austerity program dictated in Greece by the 'Troika'. The official creditors initially sanctioned an implementation of the agreed conditionality program (included in the Memorandum of Understanding that also provisioned the official loans to the Greek government) that principally focused on increasing taxes and labor market reforms that facilitated the sharp fall of private sector wages. During the third year of the implementation of the program they did complement this tax spree with horizontal cuts in pensions, medical benefits and public sector wages, failing to touch the key distortions of both the pension system and the public sector wage stru...
Vikings in Greece
Last December, downtown Athens experienced three nights of street battles, arson, and looting that became headlines in the international press. We argue that the reasons for this extreme social turbulence are related to the regulatory and institutional rigidities that still prevail in Greece's economy, despite the strong growth that it enjoyed until recently. Furthermore, we describe the pattern of state intervention, institutional sclerosis, and high administrative costs that secure and allocate "rents" to interest groups that obstruct all efforts to reduce these rents and to open up the economy.In particular, we argue that these numerous rent-seeking groups curtail competition in the produ...
Greek Export and Labor Market Performance
The Greek paradox of falling wages that do not lead to increased exports can be reconciled with standard economic theory, once a number of facts are taken into account. Actually, exports of goods that have not been facing the additional adverse effect of highly increased after tax energy prices for industrial users have been increasing steadily during the crisis. In addition, once the collapse of the economy was well under way, labour market reforms in Greece introduced flexibility that stabilized employment, especially among SME's. At the same time in spite of modest product market reforms the increasing distortions of a tax system that overtaxes honest productive individuals and businesses, which are by definition more likely to be engaged in businesses that offer higher value tradable goods, further undermined growth and export prospects. Finally, real interest rates on corporate loans, wages and the efficiency of product markets are found to have an important impact on manufacturing employment. Product market reforms and reducing uncertainty thus emerge as key policy priorities if the increase in employment, export performance and wages are a desired policy priority.
Unlocking Growth. Innovation as a Driver of Competitiveness and Prosperity
Chapter 3 of the book Greece From exit to recovery?, Brookings Institution Press 2014, investigates the relationship between key aspects of the institutional environment, infrastructure, and qualitative aspects of the education system. A literature review is paired with the examination of key relevant topics and a citation of related facts for the case of Greece.
Corruption, Policy Inadequacy and the Greek Constitution
In this Chapter is to give an overview of the relevant literature that also provides the necessary starting point to investigate the relationship mentioned above between policy decisions and corruption. Then in section 3.3 we examine briefly what motivates agents to engage in activities that we have defined as corruption. In section 3.4 we revisit seminal work that allows us to describe the challenge that democracies face when they have to balance, on the one hand, the need to provide society with a government that is able to govern, and, on the other hand, take into account the preferences and rights of minorities. We then examine in section 3.5 the role of these minorities in a democracy. ...
A Closer and More Democratic Union to Heal Economic Asymmetries and Help Southern European Countries Such as Greece
This chapter addresses the issue of institutional reforms for the euro area itself, elaborating on the notion and a project for a closer and more democratic union to heal economic asymmetries. This is critical for the southern euro area member-states and especially for the weakest economy among them, Greece, if it is to get its economy back on track and recover.
The Case for Abolishing the Higher Education State Monopoly in Greece
In Greece, the provision of tertiary education is permitted, by the constitution, only to 'public' institutions where faculty and administrators are civil servants and public officials respectively. We present a model that describes the situation observed in Greece, where the community of tertiary education providers decides in the name of the whole society on the extent to which the provision of these services is a (state) monopoly. We see that in the context of our model the society has to override the decision of the educational community regarding the provision of these services if it desires to see the community of educational services providers to allocate more time towards their profe...
State Monopoly in Higher Education as a Rent Seeking Industry in Greece
In Greece, the provision of tertiary education is permitted, by the constitution, only to 'public' institutions where faculty and administrators are civil servants and public officials respectively. We construct an argument and present statistical data that describe the situation observed in Greece, where the community of higher education providers decides in the name of the whole society on the extent to which the provision of these services is a (state) monopoly. We see that in the context of our argument the society has to override the decision of the educational community regarding the provision of these services if it desires to see the community of educational services providers to allocate more time towards their profession and less time towards rent protection and/or extraction We argue that once reform, that is the removal of the state monopoly, is introduced the educational community will allocate more effort towards educational related activities and less effort towards serving their interest while at the same time it will accept a new 'equilibrium' in which education related activities are rewarded more generously.
