Suchergebnisse

This paper aims at examining interpersonal income and consumption inequality within the Attica Metropolitan Region, which includes Athens, the largest metropolis of Greece. It also aims to make comparisons between Attica and the rest of the country. The analysis is based on income and consumption microdata from Greek Household Budget Surveys (HBS) over the period 2008-2019, encapsulating the period from the commencement of the economic crisis until the year before the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that income inequalities are systematically higher than consumption inequalities. From a spatial comparative perspective, the results show that the Attica Metropolitan Region exhibits a higher degree of income and consumption inequality relative to the rest of the country. Furthermore, the economic crisis increased income inequality in Athens and in the rest of the country, while consumption expenditure inequality increased in the Athens metropolitan area only. Finally, the distance between socio-economic groups, which stands as a measure of the degree of social polarization, increased during the economic crisis. However, this does not hold true for consumption inequality. Overall, the analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of inequality outcomes to the selection of the welfare indicator (income or consumption), as well as a number of noticeable differences in inequality outcomes between the Metropolitan region of Attica and the rest of the country. The paper unveils facets of inequality which necessitate the implementation of more people and place-targeted policies aimed at more inclusive and balanced welfare conditions in metropolitan regions and across the country.

Economic crisis and fiscal consolidation policy in Greece had a tremendous impact on local government finances and the provision of services and local public goods to citizens and localities. The implementation of these policies resulted in deterioration of service delivery and caused serious discontent towards the local representatives. As a result, the local political system and the representatives were unable to sustain the political discontent of the local people who voted against them. The chapter presents the implemented policy, the political discontent and the voting outcomes for the case of the Municipality of Volos and examines the resilience of the local political system under the pressures for reforms and the implementation of restrictive policies during the period 2010-2014.

Despite the widespread international trend toward decentralization, local municipalities in Greece still rely heavily on fiscally centralized revenue sources, thereby achieving a limited extent of tax or other forms of fiscal autonomy. This paper seeks to explain the determinants of local government fiscal autonomy in Greece over the 1999–2009 year period. By constructing a dataset with disaggregated revenue and expenditure subcategories for the first tier of local government and by applying panel data analysis techniques, it offers unique evidence that socioeconomic and demographic criteria along with political factors affect the level of fiscal autonomy of local government in the country. Our evidence also highlights the distinctive nature of Greece in geographical terms, reporting significant differences across diverse geographical regions (such as islands or mountainous areas). The paper aims at filling in part the gap in the existing research for Greece and at offering some insights from a fiscally centralized country to the current international debate on intracountry fiscal decentralization.

AbstractTaking stock from the research on regional resilience and by constructing a composite regional resilience indicator this paper sets out to detect the resistance/vulnerability of Greek regions and prefectures to economic crisis. Analysis is based on a newly elaborated dataset with socio‐demographic, economic and welfare variables for Greek regions enabling to pre and after‐crisis comparisons. Results highlight the multiplicity of ways in which crisis impacts on regions. Metropolitan areas and regions that are based on manufacturing activities seem to have been more vulnerable to crisis while places that are based on tourism such as islands are usually more resistant. Regional policy seems to be pro‐cyclical to economic downturn.