IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/iedlwp/338120.html

AI adoption, structural constraints and inclusive growth: Evidence from Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Bartzokas, Anthony
  • Kostis, Pantelis C.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly characterized as a General Purpose Technology (GPT) capable of reconfiguring work, accelerating digitalization, and raising aggregate productivity. Yet the pace and inclusiveness of AI adoption depend less on technical potential than on complementary sectoral capacity, institutional quality, and human capital. This paper examines Greece as a peripheral EU economy marked by high projected AI gains but significant structural constraints, generating risks of delayed adoption and uneven distributional outcomes. The paper develops a structural conversion framework linking three dimensions: capacity for AI-driven sectoral upgrading; institutional and functional readiness beyond digital infrastructure; and the regeneration and retention of skilled labour. Drawing on micro-level data from the JustReDI survey, the paper constructs composite indices of institutional trust, digital confidence, and digital public service usability, documenting substantial heterogeneity across educational subgroups and regions. The findings reveal a pronounced structural mismatch: service usability rises sharply with educational attainment, yet institutional trust varies only modestly, and digital confidence is performance-driven rather than legitimacy-based. A further tension emerges in Attica, where high institutional trust and technological centrality coexist with comparatively poor user-centric service quality. These results point to a fragmented digital transition marked by persistent social and regional asymmetries, suggesting that inclusive growth through AI adoption in structurally constrained economies requires a policy reorientation - from deployment toward the institutional and functional conversion of technological resources into broad-based development outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartzokas, Anthony & Kostis, Pantelis C., 2026. "AI adoption, structural constraints and inclusive growth: Evidence from Greece," Working Papers 17, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Economics, International Economics and Development Laboratory (IEDL).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:iedlwp:338120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/338120/1/1965184391.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lipsey, Richard G. & Carlaw, Kenneth I. & Bekar, Clifford T., 2005. "Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199290895.
    2. Caramanis, Constantinos & Dedoulis, Emmanouil & Leventis, Stergios, 2015. "Transplanting Anglo-American accounting oversight boards to a diverse institutional context," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 12-31.
    3. Stamopoulos, Dimitrios & Dimas, Petros & Tsakanikas, Aggelos, 2022. "Exploring the structural effects of the ICT sector in the Greek economy: A quantitative approach based on input-output and network analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7).
    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. Grillitsch, Markus & Asheim, Björn & Fünfschilling, Lea & Kelmenson, Sophie & Lowe, Nichola & Lundquist, Karl Johan & Mahmoud, Yahia & Martynovich, Mikhail & Mattson, Pauline & Miörner, Johan & Nilsso, 2023. "Rescaling: An Analytical Lense to Study Economic and Industrial Shifts," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Wipatkrut, Pattharaporn & Su, Hsin-Ning, 2025. "Exploring the impact of technological convergence on General-Purpose Technologies: A multi-level generality perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Kariem Soliman, 2021. "Are Industrial Robots a new GPT? A Panel Study of Nine European Countries with Capital and Quality-adjusted Industrial Robots as Drivers of Labour Productivity Growth," EIIW Discussion paper disbei307, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    4. Brett M. Frischmann & Christiaan Hogendorn, 2015. "Retrospectives: The Marginal Cost Controversy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 193-206, Winter.
    5. Ranfeng Qiu & John Cantwell, 2018. "The international geography of general purpose technologies (GPTs) and internationalisation of corporate technological innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 1-24, January.
    6. Mark Knell & Simone Vannuccini, 2022. "Tools and concepts for understanding disruptive technological change after Schumpeter," Jena Economics Research Papers 2022-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    7. Jeffrey Ding & Allan Dafoe, 2021. "Engines of Power: Electricity, AI, and General-Purpose Military Transformations," Papers 2106.04338, arXiv.org.
    8. Francesco Quatraro, 2010. "Martin Fransman: the new ICT ecosystem. Implications for Europe," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 321-328, April.
    9. Clifford Bekar & Kenneth Carlaw & Richard Lipsey, 2018. "General purpose technologies in theory, application and controversy: a review," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(5), pages 1005-1033, December.
    10. Hernández de Rojas, Félix & Pita, Pilar Rodríguez & Pérez Martínez, Jorge Emiliano, 2024. "Assessing the European association between digitalization and innovation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7).
    11. Henri L.F. de Groot & Jacques Poot & Martijn J. Smit, 2007. "Agglomeration, Innovation and Regional Development: Theoretical Perspectives and Meta-Analysis," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-079/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Elena Castro-Martínez & Fernando Jiménez-Sáez & Francisco Javier Ortega-Colomer, 2009. "Science and technology policies: A tale of political use, misuse and abuse of traditional R&D indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(3), pages 827-844, September.
    13. Rita Strohmaier & Marlies Schuetz & Simone Vannuccini, 2019. "A systemic perspective on socioeconomic transformation in the digital age," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(3), pages 361-378, September.
    14. Broadberry Stephen, 2012. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Very Long Run Growth: A Historical Appraisal," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 53(1), pages 277-306, May.
    15. Emmanuel Bovari & Victor Court, 2019. "Energy, knowledge, and demo-economic development in the long run: a unified growth model," Working Papers hal-01698755, HAL.
    16. Peter Howitt, 2007. "Innovation, Competition and Growth: A Schumpeterian Perspective on Canada’s Economy," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 246, February.
    17. Taalbi, Josef, 2017. "What drives innovation? Evidence from economic history," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1437-1453.
    18. Richard G. Lipsey, 2024. "Technology, R&D, Industrial, and Science Policies: Private and Public Sector Interactions That Encourage Technological Advance," Discussion Papers dp24-01, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    19. Fabio Pieri & Michela Vecchi & Francesco Venturini, 2017. "Modelling the joint impact of R and D and ICT on productivity: A frontier analysis approach," DEM Working Papers 2017/13, Department of Economics and Management.
    20. Bergh, Andreas & Funcke, Alexander & Wernberg, Joakim, 2021. "The Sharing Economy: Definition, Measurement and its Relationship to Capitalism," Working Paper Series 1380, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    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:zbw:iedlwp:338120. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuoagr.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.