Qualifying and Quantifying the Greek Structural Reform Efforts

Abstract

From a growth standpoint, both the first and the second Greek macroeconomic adjustment programme have not delivered anywhere close to a satisfactory outcome. There are differences of opinion, however, over the causes of this failure. This chapter presents a novel quantitative analysis of the structural reform envelope of the Greek programmes. The data corroborates past survey-based evidence suggesting that implementation was broadly on track in the early stages of the first Greek programme. However, the latter was not focussed enough on short- and medium-term growth-enhancing reforms. This initial design failure was corrected in the second Greek programme at which time, however, implementation slipped amid a biting recession and political instability. Concluding that the Greek programmes failed only or mostly because reforms were not implemented would be unfair to the Greek authorities.