The Greek parliamentary elections in January .2015 led to a foreseeable change in government. The coalition government between the conservative Nea Dimokratia and of the socialist PASOK, become replaced. by a coalition government between the left wing coalition party SYRIZA and the extreme...

In this study we perform an analysis of the volatility of the budget deficit for EU countries. We address this issue starting from the new requirements of fiscal discipline imposed by the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance adopted by 25 European Union member states and taking into...

We aim to shed light on the debate among policy-makers trying to find prescriptions that will take troubled economies out of their debt trap. We do this with a highly stylized two-compartment dynamic model consisting of the stocks of money in Government and Society. The dynamics of the system...

Excessive debt accumulation is an important policy concern in both developing and advanced economies because it is associated with various issues, particularly low growth and high inflation. This is apparent from the deleveraging vs. deficit spending debate; in this, the focus has tended to be on...

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the methodological approach used by the Commission services (DG ECFIN/C2) to carry out, in a systematic and harmonised way, public debt sustainability analysis (DSA) for EU Member States. Analysing recent and prospective public debt developments and risks...

This paper investigates the relationship between public capital expenditure and public debt in the European Union (EU) on a panel of fifteen countries over the sample period 1980-2013. We find robust evidence of a negative cointegrating relation, according to which increases in the capital...

We assess the issue of fiscal sustainability in the selected EU countries. Our sample includes those showing the highest government debts, which are nowadays known under the somewhat degrading acronym – PIIGGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Great Britain and Spain). Assuming the so-called...

There is a widespread view that reducing national debts and deficits, or “consolidating” them, causes austerity or would hinder the recovery. The reality is that reducing structural debts and deficits and “stimulus debts” is easily done without any significant deflationary effects. In...

Abstract: Fiscal sustainability has been a hot topic recently. Both the experiences in the past and the Stability and Growth Pact in the European Union have been playing a great role in the revival of the interest in the issue. The European Pact has triggered the academician to pay more...

Our objective in this paper is threefold. First, to identify the major common shocks that hit these countries upon entry into the EMU. Second, taking Greece as our case study, to construct a simple macroeconomic model of the policies Greek governments pursued in the presence of these shocks, and...