The analysis of the Greek Crisis is presented through the insights of a former Greek Minister of Finance, offering a firsthand perspective on its historical context, current implications, and potential future developments. The author delves into the economic, political, and social factors that contributed to the crisis, providing a comprehensive understanding of its complexities and the lessons learned.
This book explores how successful the various tenets of economic thought have been in prognosticating or remedying economic crises. Examining key episodes in economic history, from famines in antiquity to present-day financial collapse, the author finds that several theories failed to cope with a crisis and lost their academic impact. The author also presents cases in which major theoretical innovations were achieved after the experience of a crisis as well as cases where a completely new theory was needed to explain and face the events. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in understanding how theoretical developments in economics are affected by real-world economic crises.
With an Application to the Greek Civil War 1946-1949
This book provides a quantitative framework for the analysis of conflict dynamics and for estimating the economic costs associated with civil wars. The author develops modified Lotka-Volterra equations to model conflict dynamics, to yield realistic representations of battle processes, and to allow us to assess prolonged conflict traps. The economic costs of civil wars are evaluated with the help of two alternative methods: Firstly, the author employs a production function to determine how the destruction of human and physical capital stocks undermines economic growth in the medium term. Secondly, he develops a synthetic control approach, where the cost is obtained as the divergence of actual economic activity from a hypothetical path in the absence of civil war. The difference between the two approaches gives an indication of the adverse externalities impinging upon the economy in the form of institutional destruction. By using detailed time-series regarding battle casualties, localsocio-economic indicators, and capital stock destruction during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), a full-scale application of the above framework is presented and discussed.
Focusing on the historical context, the narrative details the Occupation Loan forcibly taken by the Third Reich from Greece during 1942-1944. It argues the legitimacy of Greece's ongoing claim for repayment, despite the lack of a formal debt agreement. The book provides various assessments to illustrate the current value of the loan, highlighting the complexities of historical debts and their implications for modern relations between Greece and Germany.