Without purpose and strategy?: a spatio-functional analysis of the regional allocation of public investment in Greece

Vassilis Monastiriotis () and Yiannis Psycharis

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: public investment; regional allocations; spatial data analysis; Greece (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 H54 N24 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2011-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Without purpose and strategy? A spatio-functional analysis of the regional allocation of public investment in Greece (2011)
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