Greek Sovereign Defaults in Retrospect and Prospect

Lefteris Tsoulfidis () and Michel Zouboulakis

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This article presents and critically evaluates the four Greek sovereign defaults (1827, 1843, 1893 and 1932) and puts them into a historical perspective. The argument is that each and every of the defaults was not an isolated episode in the turbulent economic history of capitalism, but rather a manifestation of the internal weaknesses of the Greek economy which were magnified during the downturn phases of the long waves of 1815-1845, 1873-1896, and 1921–1940. Crucial for the precipitation of these defaults were the short-sighted and often opportunistic policies followed by the Greek governments which were eager to increase public spending based on borrowed money which lead to mounting public debt. As a consequence, the past Greek sovereign defaults are worth studying in an effort to derive useful lessons and policy conclusions for the current and also future situations.

Keywords: Sovereign default; depressions; long waves; Greek economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B10 B50 F34 N14 N2 N24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-05-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Greek Sovereign Defaults in Retrospect and Prospect (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:71588

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