Sotiris Papaioannou

I explore if the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union affected productivity performance of its member countries. Synthetic control and difference in differences econometric estimates show that following the introduction of the euro TFP improved and productivity gaps against the U.S. narrowed.

The aim of this chapter is to quantify the role of fiscal policy on the growth of the Greek economy, as well as on private investments and employment, through the estimation of fiscal multipliers. Special emphasis is given to the growth influence of the fiscal adjustment program of the period 2010–2013. At the first stage, a Structural Vector Autoregressive model is set up in order to estimate multipliers for various time horizons for both public spending and net taxes. Then we identify shocks for both taxes and public spending during 2010–2013, whose growth contribution is then estimated. The simulation results involve significant losses in output, private investment and employment, reinforcing our belief that fiscal contraction over this period has been highly detrimental to the growth of the Greek economy.

We explore whether education plays a key role in determining economic liberty. Baseline estimates suggest that the educational level of a country, as measured by the average years of total schooling, is a significant contributor to economic freedom. To isolate exogenous variation, we use historical information on primary school enrollment rates and also rely on genetic information. We show that the exogenous component of education is strongly correlated with economic liberty after controlling for the influence of a number of other relevant factors. We identify access to information and media freedom as two channels through which higher education is translated into less interventional government policy. We offer non parametric evidence and demonstrate that the impact of schooling is non linear. At low levels of education its influence is negative implying that economic policies in favor of government intervention are more likely to prevail when the educational level of a country is l...

This paper investigates for possible innovation effects stemming from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on productivity growth. An augmented production function was estimated using a sample of developing and developed countries in 1993-2001. A uniform positive and significant innovation effect from FDI was established for all countries, while divergent results between developing and developed countries were obtained for ICT and the interaction effects of FDI. These results are robust to possible endogeneity and omitted variable problems. They also suggest that the level of development matters in estimating such impacts.

This paper investigates for possible innovation effects stemming from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on productivity growth. An augmented production function was estimated using a sample of developing and developed countries in 1993-2001. A uniform positive and significant innovation effect from FDI was established for all countries, while divergent results between developing and developed countries were obtained for ICT and the interaction effects of FDI. These results are robust to possible endogeneity and omitted variable problems. They also suggest that the level of development matters in estimating such impacts.

Technological progress is considered as the most important factor that fosters long run economic growth. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is considered as the latest major technological breakthrough which has broad applicability across many sectors of the economy, has many and varied uses and allows for a wide range of technological complementarities. Now, it is almost certain that ICT had a significant impact on labor productivity growth in the USA and EU and accounts for a part of the faster productivity growth witnessed in USA during the late 90s. There is less consensus, however, among the economists on its impact on technical progress and total factor productivity growth. We wish to contribute towards this direction by examining the impact of ICT capital on the technical efficiency (which constitutes a part of total factor productivity) of OECD countries. The existing literature has concentrated more on the ICT effects on growth or productivity and, although an es...

Technological progress is considered as the most important factor that fosters long run economic growth. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is considered as the latest major technological breakthrough which has broad applicability across many sectors of the economy, has many and varied uses and allows for a wide range of technological complementarities. Although it seems that ICT requires costly adjustment at initial stages of development, it is expected that the long run growth impact of ICT will be highly important. The most recent literature has verified that ICT had a significant impact on growth in the USA and the EU during the late 90s. There is not consensus, however, among the economists on its impact on total factor productivity growth. This study wishes to contribute to this debate by examining the role of ICT in reducing technical inefficiencies across OECD service industries. The existing literature has concentrated more on the ICT effects on growth or produc...