Ioannides, Yannis, (2013), “Privatizations and Long Run Growth: Doing it Right?”, greekeconomistsforreform.com, 7 Απριλίου.
Yannis Ioannides, in a presentation at McGill University, Montreal, on April 4, 2013, discussed the issue of privatizations in Greece, as part of the stabilization program and Greece’s agreements with the Troika. Massive privatizations were put on the agenda of negotiations with the lenders, perhaps as a way to make assistance to Greece more palatable to voters in other eurozone countries, and were estimated originally as capable of generating 50 billion euros. The figure has been continuously revised downwards to less than 20 billion euros since first proposed. At the same time, political arguments over major privatizations reduce their projects’ values in the assessment of potential investors. This in turns feeds a vicious circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy, that has the Greek public being worried that Greece’s public wealth is being sold at “fire-sale” prices.