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This paper discusses the effectiveness of EU economic measures towards the pandemic crisis in the case of Greece. As the pandemic crisis was an exogenous and symmetric crisis, EU member states decided to take supply and demand side measures to tackle economic recession. Not only the Recovery plan for Europe (NGEU), but also the Escape Clause, as well as non-standard monetary measures, were implemented in order to achieve growth. Furthermore, fiscal expansion, as well as common debt extraction, using green and social bonds led to higher government spending and sovereign debt. The paper's research question is "Could fiscal expansion mitigate the economic consequences of pandemic crisis?" In other worlds, the research gap which this paper tries to fill is that for the contemporary EU response to two different crises, the economic and the pandemic. Our analysis, by using a comparative approach, shows that government spending and fiscal expansion is effective in the short-run, as the temporary measures led to higher GDP growth rates and lower unemployment rates, but in the long-run demand side measures led to higher inflation and higher sovereign debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many economists argue that fiscal balance (i.e. preventing fiscal deficits and establishing rules for government lending) positively affects the growth rate. Several studies document a strong correlation between these two variables based on the Ricardian equivalence theorem and the crowding-out effect. It may be argued that high growth rates lead to a positive fiscal balance, while lower/negative growth rates lead to deficits (but not vice versa). This study examines this cause-and-effect relationship via a sample of four EU countries that have been affected by the economic crisis. Specifically, a Granger causality analysis captures the linear interdependencies among multiple time series to determine the causal relation between the budget deficit and the GDP growth rates for Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The results show that no clear rule governs the cause-and-effect relationship between the GDP growth rates and net government lending rates (as a percentage of GDP). Moreover, the literature supports the idea that fiscal improvement may lead to economic growth, while improving net government lending leads to an increase in the GDP growth rate. This study suggests some useful fiscal policies to apply during a crisis. Also, investigating government lending can be useful in a post-COVID-19 economic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors that influence the effectiveness of fiscal governance in the EU through a panel of 19 Eurozone countries for the period 1999–2019 using an OLS method. The results show the positive effects of economic growth, inflation and the change in the general government balance on the fiscal forecast error. Furthermore, the fiscal forecast error is negatively affected by the level of public debt and by elections. Fiscal transparency is integrated into the analysis through independent financial institutions, which positively influence the general government balance forecast error. Finally, Economic Adjustment Programs have a positive effect on the fiscal forecast error, thus improving the efficiency of fiscal governance. This paper suggests that independent budgetary institutions, such as fiscal councils, and the delegation of further responsibilities to them increase countries' sustainability of public finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the Greek crisis was the result of chronic and sustainable fiscal and external imbalances. High fiscal deficits, high ratio of government debt to GDP, high current account deficits and low competitiveness characterized economy. The triggering mechanism of the crisis was the arrival of the global economic recession in October 2008. Political instability, two national parliamentary elections during the crisis, revelations about real level of debt and downgrading of Greece's creditworthiness, led to two bailout loans, followed by strict fiscal adjustment, structural reforms and austerity measures. In the future, reducing uncertainty is a key factor to economic stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]