Georgia Kaplanoglou

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens | uoa · Department of Political Economy

The paper assesses evolutions in consumption inequality and poverty in Greece from the onset of the economic crisis in 2009 until the completion of the last structural adjustment program in 2019, being the first to analyse distributional developments under the SYRIZA-led government as contrasted to the period that led to its electoral rise. Using m...

The slippery slope framework of tax compliance emphasizes the importance of trust in authorities as a substantial determinant of tax compliance alongside traditional enforcement tools like audits and fines. Using data from an experimental scenario study in 44 nations from five continents (N = 14,509), we find that trust in authorities and power of...

Total factor productivity (TFP) and fiscal consolidation: how harmful is austerity?

This paper presents the results of a novel survey of 550 small and micro enterprises in Greece regarding their tax compliance behaviour and drawing some useful policy implications for a country facing one of the largest tax gaps in the developed world. We explore the determinants of such behaviour, by integrating economic and psychological perspect...

Greece is the country hit hardest by the crisis and subsequent fiscal consolidation strategies, suffering a cumulative output loss of about 30 percent since 2008. The present paper presents evidence that along with declining average living standards, consumption inequality has seriously grown, fueled primarily by a disproportionate drop in the cons...

Greece and Cyprus are two countries that have been affected gravely by the international economic crisis. As a result both countries were cut off from the international financial markets, and resorted to rescue packages financed by the IMF, the European Commission and the ECB (known as troika). Because of the austerity programs both countries have...

The article applies microsimulation modeling techniques exploiting five waves of Household Expenditure Survey (HES) data in order to study how the distributional impact of indirect taxes in Greece has changed over the last twenty-five years (1988-2011). It turns out that the radical simplification of the tax system, primarily induced by European Un...

Does it matter for fiscal consolidation programs to be fair in order to be successful? This question has never been empirically addressed despite its profound importance especially since many developed countries have embarked on fiscal consolidation programs, which in many cases have led to sizeable increases in unemployment and poverty, and are me...

The paper aims at highlighting a number of shortcomings in the design and enforcement of the tax system in Greece, which have played a key role in the exacerbation of fiscal deficits that led to the current sovereign debt crisis. More precisely, we argue that these shortcomings that result in low tax revenue, relate to the structure of the Greek ec...

In view of the growing attention paid to the role of fiscal governance in budgetary outcomes, this paper tries to shed light on the link between the recent Greek fiscal crisis and aspects of fiscal governance. It reviews fiscal developments in Greece over the last decade and challenges the widely held view that optimistic macroeconomic forecasts ad...

At the backdrop of severe fiscal problems now facing many EU countries, including Greece, this paper tries to shed light on the link between budgetary outcomes and aspects of fiscal governance (such as the existence of numerical fiscal rules, medium term budgetary frameworks, budgetary procedures and independent fiscal authorities). It reviews fisc...

There is a growing interest in the role of independent fiscal councils in strengthening the incentives for fiscal discipline and improving fiscal performance. This paper discusses the motivation for the establishment of such councils and draws on the existing literature and the range of fiscal councils in OECD countries to discuss their key functio...

Non-uniform indirect taxes treat equals and those unequal differently (horizontal inequity and vertical redistribution). Horizontal inequity is caused by taste differences among similar households, but some excises are designed to reflect social, not revealed, preferences. We apply two methodologies for decomposing the overall redistributive effect...

This paper assesses the distributional impact of indirect taxes among Greek households between 1988 and 2002, a period that coincides with the introduction of significant reforms in the tax system due to EU membership. The highly differentiated indirect tax structure prevailing at the beginning of the period had distributional benefits over the mor...

The paper compares the indirect tax structures and consumption patterns of three European countries (the UK, Greece and Hungary) and studies the likely distributional impact of a potential convergence of their indirect tax systems by exploiting the rich source of Family Expenditure Survey microdata of these countries. The results reveal a southern/...

Georgia Kaplanoglou and David Michael Newbery examine the distributional effects of indirect taxation in Greece using microsimulation modelling techniques. They compare the distribution of the indirect tax burden among households in 1988 and 2002 focusing on three main aspects: the distribution of the overall indirect tax payments, the pattern of t...

The paper assesses the distributional and efficiency/disincentive aspects of the Greek indirect tax system, which provides 60% of total tax revenue. The marginal welfare costs of broad commodity groups were computed to identify welfare-improving directions of reform. The disincentive effects were estimated from marginal indirect tax rates using Hou...

The paper assesses the distributional and efficiency/disincentive aspects of the Greek indirect tax system, which provides 60% of total tax revenue. The marginal welfare costs of broad commodity groups were computed to identify welfare-improving directions of reform. The disincentive effects were estimated from marginal indirect tax rates using Hou...