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Thinking About Corruption in Greece

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  • Costas Azariadis
  • Yannis M. Ioannides

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of corruption, which appears to be endemic in Greece. It reviews the facts about corruption as multi-faceted phenomenon and its close relationship to tax evasion, by comparing Greece to its EU partners, as well internationally. It addresses corruption as an instance of anti-social behavior by means of a number of simple metaphors that allow reliance on powerful tools of modern social interactions and property rights literatures. It emphasizes that whereas tepid enforcement might reduce somewhat corruption and other instances of anti-social behavior, drastic enforcement is required to move an economy and society to qualitatively different levels of such practices. The paper reviews different EU proposals regarding enforcement mechanisms and pro- poses three key constitutional amendments that are required to allow long-delayed reforms to take hold in Greece.

Suggested Citation

  • Costas Azariadis & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2014. "Thinking About Corruption in Greece," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0783, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    • Handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0783
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    File URL: http://ase.tufts.edu/econ/research/documents/2014/AzariadisIoannidesCorruption.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nikolaos Artavanis & Adair Morse & Margarita Tsoutsoura, 2015. "Tax Evasion across Industries: Soft Credit Evidence from Greece," NBER Working Papers 21552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bribery; compliance; constitutional amendments; corruption; corruption perception index; economic growth; fiscal deficits; games; multiple equilibria; public goods; tax evasion; trust; whistleblowing;
    All these keywords.

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