Rodríguez-Pose, Α., Psycharis, Υ. & Tselios, V. (2015) “Politics and investment: Examining the territorial allocation of public investment in Greece“, VoxEU Organisation, 03 Μαρτίου.
Electoral results and the geographical allocation of public investment in Greece have been intimately related. This column describes how incumbent Greek governments between 1975 and 2009 tended to reward those constituencies returning them to office. Increases in both the absolute and relative electoral returns for the party in government in a given Greek region were traditionally repaid with a greater level of per capita investment in that region. Single-member constituencies were the greatest beneficiaries of this type of pork-barrel politics.
Public finance theory has argued that public sector intervention in the economy is primarily motivated by the principles of efficient allocation of resources, equal distribution of wealth, and stabilisation of economic activity over the business cycle (Musgrave 1959). However, research conducted over the last three decades has frequently demonstrated how political considerations have seriously influenced the allocation of public expenditures to different jurisdictions, leading to pork-barrel and undermining the capacity of public resources to generate greater social welfare (e.g. Besley and Coate 1998, Johnston 1977, Margolis 1968).
Our research tests empirically the relationship between electoral results and regional public investment spending in Greece for the period between the restoration of democracy (17 November 1974) until the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2009.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- De Grauwe, P. (2014) “Stop Structural Reforms and Start Public Investment in Europe“, Social Europe Journal, 17 Σεπτεμβρίου.
- Hahn, J. (2014) “Public investment under the new EU Cohesion Policy is helping Europe out of the crisis and into growth“, LSE EUROPP, 27 Μαΐου.
- Barbiero, Fr., Darvas, Zs., “In sickness and in health: protecting and supporting public investment in Europe”, Bruegel Policy Contribution, Issue 2014/02.