In recent years, the countries of southern Europe went through an economic crisis of extraordinary intensity and duration. Now, after a long period of economic malaise and uncertainty, some of them are on the way to recovery, having though many hurdles to overcome yet, while others are still struggling to turn a new leaf. The Eurozone, which these countries joined the previous decade, with much promise for a better economic future, did not protect them from the crisis; indeed, its own faults facilitated the development of the conditions that ultimately led to the crisis, while the way it handled it, probably made it more severe than was necessary. The crisis produced severe economic and social consequences in the countries of southern Europe, which unavoidably upset their politics and in some cases led to a complete reshaping of their political systems. As residents in two of the countries at the epicentre of the crisis, we have experienced its consequences up close and have been personally affected by it. Accordingly, we have been greatly occupied by it, devoting most of our professional lives in recent years in the study of its various aspects. Despite our critique of the way the crisis was handled, we acknowledge the fact that the countries of Southern Europe need to proceed with a range of structural reforms in order to improve the performance of their economy. Indeed, given the size of fiscal consolidation that has been demanded in some of these countries, the absence of structural reforms from their economic adjustment programmes, would render the task of fiscal consolidation, inefficient, unjust and ultimately unsustainable. Having said that, designing and implementing structural reforms is a by itself a challenging task, particularly when this is done in conditions of crisis, under tight fiscal constraints and with the added difficulty that the proposed reforms often bear the “taint” of external intervention. The idea behind this book was to examine the structural reforms that have taken place, or have been attempted in these countries, in order to evaluate their progress and draw policy lessons from their success and/ or failure.
Manasse P., Katsikas D. (2017). Preface and acknowledgements. Washington, D.C., USA : Taylor and Francis [10.4324/9781315272191].
Preface and acknowledgements
Manasse P.
;
2017
Abstract
In recent years, the countries of southern Europe went through an economic crisis of extraordinary intensity and duration. Now, after a long period of economic malaise and uncertainty, some of them are on the way to recovery, having though many hurdles to overcome yet, while others are still struggling to turn a new leaf. The Eurozone, which these countries joined the previous decade, with much promise for a better economic future, did not protect them from the crisis; indeed, its own faults facilitated the development of the conditions that ultimately led to the crisis, while the way it handled it, probably made it more severe than was necessary. The crisis produced severe economic and social consequences in the countries of southern Europe, which unavoidably upset their politics and in some cases led to a complete reshaping of their political systems. As residents in two of the countries at the epicentre of the crisis, we have experienced its consequences up close and have been personally affected by it. Accordingly, we have been greatly occupied by it, devoting most of our professional lives in recent years in the study of its various aspects. Despite our critique of the way the crisis was handled, we acknowledge the fact that the countries of Southern Europe need to proceed with a range of structural reforms in order to improve the performance of their economy. Indeed, given the size of fiscal consolidation that has been demanded in some of these countries, the absence of structural reforms from their economic adjustment programmes, would render the task of fiscal consolidation, inefficient, unjust and ultimately unsustainable. Having said that, designing and implementing structural reforms is a by itself a challenging task, particularly when this is done in conditions of crisis, under tight fiscal constraints and with the added difficulty that the proposed reforms often bear the “taint” of external intervention. The idea behind this book was to examine the structural reforms that have taken place, or have been attempted in these countries, in order to evaluate their progress and draw policy lessons from their success and/ or failure.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
