Salary cuts and competitiveness

Michael Haliassos

No 1, SAFE Policy Letters from Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Abstract: There is a prevalent view outside Greece that promotion of competitiveness is tantamount with price reductions for Greek goods and services. Massive horizontal salary cuts appear, at first, to promote competitiveness by reducing unit labor costs and to reduce fiscal deficits by reducing the wage bill of the public sector. Upon closer look, however, horizontal salary cuts have been much greater than needed for Greek competitiveness, providing an alibi vis a vis the Troika for reforms that are still to be implemented, but at the same time undermining both competitiveness and the potential to reduce public debt through sustainable development.

Keywords: Greek economic crisis; productivity; structural reforms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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