Germany and Greece: A mapping of their great divide and its EU implications

George Bitros ()

No 201706, Working Papers from Athens University Of Economics and Business, Department of Economics

Abstract: The economic constitutions of Germany and Greece have resulted in the postwar period in two economies that are based on two vastly di- fferent philosophies. Germany has built a highly competitive, outward looking economy based essentially on the principles of the so-called “So- cial Market Economy”, whereas Greece has set up a “state-managed economy” by drawing on the principles of central planning and administrative controls. This divide is equally stark, if assessed on the basis of the performance of the two economies. For, as it is known by now, Germany has become once again the powerhouse of Europe while Greece has gone bankrupt. As to the implica- tions of this great divide for the future of the EU, its identification and mapping helps understand why convergence criteria on the basis of economic performance and living standards should be abandoned in favor of criteria based on the widening and deepening of the four European freedoms. A multi- speed Euroland enmeshed in these freedoms is going to be more democratic, more cohe- sive and a much happier union for the European citizens to call homeland.

Keywords: Social market economy; central planning; economic performance; structural differences; four European freedoms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E02 F02 H1 L5 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2017-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.econ.aueb.gr/uploadfiles/AllDP052017 Released version, 2017 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Working Paper: Germany and Greece: A mapping of their great divide and its EU implications (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aeb:wpaper:201706:y:2017

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Athens University Of Economics and Business, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Katerina Michailidou ().