IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedrwp/15-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Comparison of Greece and Germany: Lessons for the Eurozone?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert L. Hetzel

Abstract

During the Great Recession and its aftermath, the economic performance of Greece and Germany diverged sharply with persistent high unemployment in Greece and low unemployment in Germany. A common explanation for this divergence is the assumption of an unsustainable level of debt in Greece in the years after the formation of the Eurozone while Germany maintained fiscal discipline. This paper reviews the experience of Greece and Germany since the creation of the Eurozone. The review points to the importance of monetary factors, especially the intensification of the recession in Greece starting in 2011 derived from the price-specie flow mechanism described by David Hume.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert L. Hetzel, 2015. "A Comparison of Greece and Germany: Lessons for the Eurozone?," Working Paper 15-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedrwp:15-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/working_papers/2015/pdf/wp15-04.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/working_papers/2015/pdf/wp15-04.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean Pisani-Ferry & André Sapir & Guntram B. Wolff, . "EU-IMF assistance to euro area countries- an early assessment," Blueprints, Bruegel, number 779, March.
    2. Bitros, George C., 2012. "From Riches to Rags or What Went Wrong in Greece," MPRA Paper 43504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Fumiko Hayashi & Ms. Grace B Li & Zhu Wang, 2015. "Innovation, Deregulation, and the Life Cycle of a Financial Service Industry," IMF Working Papers 2015/192, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Fumiko Hayashi & Bin Grace Li & Zhu Wang, 2017. "Innovation, Deregulation, and the Life Cycle of a Financial Service Industry," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 180-203, October.
    5. Mr. Serkan Arslanalp & Mr. Takahiro Tsuda, 2012. "Tracking Global Demand for Advanced Economy Sovereign Debt," IMF Working Papers 2012/284, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hetzel, Robert, 2015. "A Comparison of Greece and Germany: Lessons for the Eurozone?," Studies in Applied Economics 33, The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.
    2. Robert L. Hetzel, 2014. "Should Greece Remain in the Eurozone?," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue 3Q, pages 241-278.
    3. Ester Faia & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2017. "Global banking: risk taking and competition," CEP Discussion Papers dp1471, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Faia, Ester & Laffitte, Sébastien & Mayer, Maximilian & Ottaviano, Gianmarco, 2021. "Global banking: Endogenous competition and risk taking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Cornand, Camille & Gandré, Pauline & Gimet, Céline, 2016. "Increase in home bias in the Eurozone debt crisis: The role of domestic shocks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 445-469.
    6. Konopczak, Michal, 2015. "Government debt holdings of non-residents – an analysis of the impact on selected emerging economies’ sovereign risk," MPRA Paper 68597, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Giancarlo Corsetti & Aitor Erce & Timothy Uy, 2017. "Official Sector Lending Strategies During the Euro Area Crisis," Discussion Papers 1720, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    8. Zhu, Chen & Xia, Yuqing & Liu, Qing & Hou, Bojun, 2023. "Deregulation and green innovation: Does cultural reform pilot project matter," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 84-105.
    9. Sarah Drought & Roger Perry & Adam Richardson, 2018. "Aspects of implementing unconventional monetary policy in New Zealand," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 81, pages 1-22, May.
    10. Daskalopoulou & I., 2017. "Democracy and social capital in Greece," Business & Entrepreneurship Journal, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 6(1), pages 1-2.
    11. Philip R. Lane, 2013. "Growth And Adjustment Challenges For The Euro Area," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 44(2), pages 273-295.
    12. Eleonora Cutrini & Giorgio Galeazzi, 2017. "External Public Debt, Trade Linkages and Contagion During the Eurozone Crisis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(9), pages 1718-1749, September.
    13. Burcu Eyigungor, 2017. "Government Debt in Domestic Hands During a Crisis," Economic Insights, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, vol. 2(3), pages 1-8, July.
    14. Michele Manna & Stefano Nobili, 2023. "Banks' holdings of and trading in government bonds," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 257-283, January.
    15. Eichengreen, Barry & Jung, Naeun & Moch, Stephen & Mody, Ashoka, 2014. "The Eurozone Crisis: Phoenix Miracle or Lost Decade?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 39(PB), pages 288-308.
    16. Manuela Moschella, 2016. "Negotiating Greece. Layering, insulation, and the design of adjustment programs in the Eurozone," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 799-824, September.
    17. Jean-Marc Fournier & Jakob Lehr, 2018. "Issuing GDP-linked bonds: Supply and demand can match," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1500, OECD Publishing.
    18. Gianluca Cafiso, 2014. "Debt Sustainability in the Case of External Debt. An Analysis Based on Italy's Treasury Auctions," CESifo Working Paper Series 5021, CESifo.
    19. Rho, Caterina & Saenz, Manrique, 2021. "Financial stress and the probability of sovereign default," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    20. Cristina Arellano & Andrew Atkeson & Mark Wright, 2016. "External and Public Debt Crises," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 191-244.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedrwp:15-04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Pascasio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbrius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.