Types of public investment and the regions: a spatial economic analysis of government spending on Greek prefectures over the period 1976-2005 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2011
We utilise a large database on public investment at the prefecture (NUTS-3) level in Greece for the period 1976-2008 to examine the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in the country. We investigate the extent to which expenditures in different types of public investment are complementary across space and over time and examine their redistributive character. We also analyse regional specialisations and the geographical concentration of public investments and complementarily use an exploratory spatial data analysis to examine the extent of clustering of public investment and identify possible patterns in the geography of clusters and hotspots. Although our analysis uses predominantly descriptive tools, our results have confirmatory power, as they reveal a surprisingly random pattern for the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in Greece, thus raising important questions about the rationale for these allocations and, by implication, about the geographical, political and economic dynamics that underlie them. These questions obtain an additional salience in light of the administrative and fiscal reforms pursued currently by the Greek government under the pressure of the country's sovereign debt crisis.
Public Spending Patterns: The Regional Allocation of Public Investment in Greece by Political Period
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
The spatial dispersion of public investment constitutes one of the principal elements and also one of the key issues concerning a country's strategic regional development. Public investment expenditure represents in part the 'social wage' citizens receive, while at the same time it generates external economies for the productive sectors of the economy. Using a dataset that includes total outlays by all central, regional and local authorities, this paper traces the distribution of public investment in Greek prefectures (NUTS 3) over the period 1976-2005. It seeks to highlight the spending pattern governments of that period had followed, to compare the changes (if any) between different periods, and to explain whether redistribution of national wealth or other factors, including political ones, could be contributing to explaining the pattern and its temporal changes.
Regional Prosperity and Public Investment Distribution in Greece
The government aiming at reducing inequalities uses different types of public investment, while regional prosperity is associated with inequalities. Therefore an affective allocation of a Public Investment Program is of great importance and has aroused the interest within the years. Public spending on investment derives from the Public Investment Program (PIP) presented in the annual Budget of the Greek government. Throughout the past years the Greek government spent large amounts of money on investment projects in the Greek prefectures using political criteria. The question to be solved is whether there is a mathematical way of solving this regional allocation problem. In this context, the paper investigates the allocation of public investment using the corresponding rate of distribution found in literature. One of the various applications of regional multipliers is in regional policy depicting the regional inequalities. The rate of distribution that is examined is first described. Then a study is performed using this rate of distribution and data from Greece and the results are compared to the investment allocation in Greece. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed and the derived conclusions are cited.
European Urban and Regional Studies, 2012
As the debt crisis in Europe continues to unfold, renewed attention is placed increasingly on public (and private) investment as a vehicle for re-igniting growth and counter-balancing the austerity effects of fiscal consolidation policies. Nowhere is this more urgent, or salient, than in Greece. Yet, there is remarkably little research, at least in that country, examining the criteria under which public investment is allocated across functional categories and across space. This paper offers an extensive analysis of the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in Greece over a 33-year period and for various political-economic subperiods. It examines the prevalence of criteria relating to redistribution, efficiency and equity; the temporal stability and functional complementarity of the observed allocations; and the extent of specialisation, concentration and clustering. Our results offer little evidence of regional or functional targeting, the exploitation of synergies and scale effects (efficiency), or the pursuit of objectives related to equity or redistribution. This raises serious questions about the efficacy of past public investment allocations in Greece and, with the expected increase in funding emanating from the EU, highlights the need for (re-)defining the priorities and criteria for the spatial and functional allocation of public investments in the future.
Politics and Investment: Examining the Territorial Allocation of Public Investment in Greece
Regional Studies, 2015
This paper discusses how electoral politics shapes the regional allocation of public investment expenditures per capita in Greece. Using regional public investment data for 10 political periods (1975-2009), combined with electoral data by constituency, a model is proposed which captures the influence of politics on the regional distribution of public investment expenditures. The results of the analysis point to a strong relationship between electoral results and regional public investment spending. Greek governing parties have tended to reward those constituencies returning them to office. Moreover, an increase in both the absolute and relative electoral returns of the governing party in a region has traditionally been followed by greater public investment per capita in that region. Regions where the governing party (whether Liberal or Socialist) has held a monopoly of seats have been the greatest beneficiaries of this type of pork-barrel politics.
Public Investments Allocation and Regional Prosperity
The government aiming at reducing inequalities uses different types of public investment, while regional prosperity is associated with inequalities. Therefore an affective allocation of a Public Investment Program is of great importance and has aroused the interest within the years. Public spending on investment derives from the Public Investment Program (PIP) presented in the annual Budget of the Greek government. Throughout the past years the Greek government spent large amounts of money on investment projects in the Greek prefectures using political criteria. The question to be solved is whether there is a mathematical way of solving this regional allocation problem. In this context, the paper investigates the allocation of public investment using the corresponding multiplier found in literature. One of the various applications of regional multipliers is in regional policy depicting the regional inequalities. The regional multiplier that is examined is first described. Then a study is performed using this multiplier and data from Greece and the results are compared to the investment allocation in Greece. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed and the derived conclusions are cited.
Greece is still caught in a prolonged recession, which started in 2008. As a result, the economy continues to shrink, which has direct repercussions on the level of private and public consumption as well as on the level government's functions. The present paper attempts to record and depict spatially the evolution of the per capita public spending of the central government on regional services. The specific category of public spending represents a measure of relative welfare as well as a measure of regional development. For the purposes of the research we applied analytical methods such as descriptive statistics and we used specialized mapping analysis programs and geographical information systems (GIS). The evolution over time is observed on the basis of the annual percentage changes of per capita spending. The period of analysis is 2008-2013 and it includes years before the manifestation of the economic crisis as well as the years of the crisis' peak. The thematic maps that were constructed on the basis of the data clearly demonstrate that government spending on the regions was dramatically reduced during the crisis while the period during which the tightening of fiscal policy had a direct impact on the regions stands out. The crisis does not allow any opportunity for development on the majority of the Greek prefectures.
Public investments and regional development
International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 2006
In this article, the method of estimation of regional multipliers is analyzed by using a multiregional input-output analysis and the regional multipliers for the 51 prefectures of Greece are also estimated. The regional multipliers are used for the estimation of the impacts, which public investments produce on the economy of regions. Also, the distribution of the investments in the prefectures of Greece is investigated, so that the same level of economic impact and long-term economic convergence are achieved in every region. Finally, the per inhabitant increase of the output for each prefecture resulting from the expenditures for the materialization of public and private investments in the years 1991-95 is estimated. This article refers to the economic changes that are caused in the phase of materialization of public investments, that is, the short-term and the middle-term impacts.
International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 2020
The era of the crisis in Greece induced serious economic repercussions in public administration and governance. Public expenditure, like all budget figures, has undergone adjustments in compliance with a strict and narrow austerity framework. Taking into account that public expenditures represent an indirect measure of relative welfare as well as regional development, their spatial distribution in the Greek territory highlights regional inequalities. In the present paper, both an intertemporal and spatial analysis is applied to detect and depict the existence and intensity of regional inequalities in Greece, with the ultimate purpose to examine the hypothesis that in times of recession the forces of convergence are stronger. The analysis period concerns the years 2004-2016 and incorporates a range of profound economic, political and social changes within the country. For the purposes of the research, we applied analytical methods such as descriptive statistics, measures of statistical dispersion and specialized mapping analysis programs and geographical information systems (GIS).