Turning crises into opportunities: Greece's digital transformation before and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Julia Brouillard, Peter Sanfey and Dimitris Sourvanos

Chapter 10 in Forecasting, Planning and Strategy in a Turbulent Era, 2025, pp 293-306 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter focuses on digitalization reforms and progress during crises, using as an example the case of Greece, a country that experienced two deep crises – an economic one, which culminated in the introduction of temporary capital controls in 2015, and the COVID-19 pandemic. After reviewing digital reforms initiated by Greek administrations over the past two and a half decades, the authors show how these two major shocks accelerated the advancement of the digital agenda in recent years. The analysis is based on several methodologies and data sources to benchmark Greece against comparable southern European Union members. The main tool for the comparisons made in the chapter is an index of digitalization, first unveiled in the EBRD Transition Report 2021–22. The index looks at both ‘digital enablers’, meaning the preconditions for the use of digital technology, and ‘digital outcomes’, which capture the extent of usage of digital technologies by firms and individuals. It is shown that Greece has made major progress in the last decade in selected areas of the digital agenda. The ‘quick wins’ approach used by the authorities during the pandemic led to a significant increase in trust between citizens and the state, which can be the basis for longer-term progress in digitalization. However, at the same time, the chapter's findings highlight Greece's skill deficit as a major obstacle in the next stages of the digital reform agenda, suggesting that this should be an area of focus in the coming years.

Keywords: Digitalization; Capital controls; Greece; Digital enablers; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317233
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