22. European crisis 2008-2012 and the need of better economic policies for recovery: Debate of EU Parliament and voices of economists

    Note: Elaborated by Guisan(2013) from OECD Statistics. Data of Spain (Es), France (Fr), Germany (De), Greece (Gr), Italy (It), Portugal (Pt), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (USA).

Update of 22-10-2025

In the reports IDER (International Development Economic Reports) published by the Euro-American Association of Economic Development (see Entries of this Blog for years 2021-2025), we include an analysis of the European economic problems for 2012-2025.

Original Entry of year 2013

    We may notice economic development in the period 1992-2007 in almost all the countries of the table and stagnation or declain in the period 2007-2012. The EU countries show a worse evolution than the USA.

   EU economic policies are not showing success because they are misguided towards excessive austerity and lack of incentives to development.

 There are many solutions to overcome the crisis of the period 2007-2012 and European citizens want more positive measures to improve economic development in the European Union.

  The EU authorities should listen to the voices of prestigious economists who propose better solutions.

Interesting articles in this regard, written by  prestigious economists are included and/or cited, at the section Europe in our journals:
Applied Econometrics and International Development (AEID)
Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies (RSES)

  The European Parliament is demanding more democracy and more quality of EU economic policies in order to represent the voice of European citizens and improve economic development.

  Some interesting links to the activities of the European Parliament in this regard are the following ones:

  Debate of 23-10-2013:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20131023+ITEM-008+DOC+XML+V0//ES&language=es&query=INTERV&detail=3-075-000

Video of 24-9-2013: Interventions of Mario Draghi and the parlamentarians Elisa Ferreira and Werner Langen:
http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/es/player?pid=5b00651c-6591-4526-b119-a243013309d9

Video of Profesora Maria-Carmen Guisan, asking to the European Union leaders who are the advisors of the economic policies in the European Union, which are leading to industrial stagnation or diminution. She ask for a change and to foster support to industrial development after 7 years of scarce development, for 2005-2008.

17 Crisis, Development, Voice of Good Economists in Greece, Portugal and Spain, and comparison with other OECD countries. Euro-American Association Development Report 2011.

Source: Guisan(2011) based on OECD National Accounts Statistics

Greece: beautiful Egina

The graph shows real value-added per capital in industrial sectors. One of the main causes of economic crisis in Greece, Portugal and Spain is their low level of industrial development in comparison with more advanced OECD countries. Countries with low levels of industrial production per head very often experience twin deficits: 1) unbalanced foreign trade, with more imports than exports, and 2) government deficit because, as a result of the low level of industrialization, income from taxes and other sources is below the amount needed to provide satisfactory levels of public services. The attemps to foster production in building and services without a proper development of industry per capita, like it has happened in Spain and other countries for the period 1995-2007, is usually unsustainable and lead to economic crisis as it has happened in Spain for the period 2008-2010.

There are good economists in those countries but unfortuantely policy makers usually do not listen to their good advice. People do not expend too much, but instead most people in those countries work hard and expend little. It is not fair to throw blame on citizens for the causes of the crisis when the main cause is the lack of good economic policies, at national and European Union level, in order to foster industrial development.

Here we will include references to interesting articles and Websites where good economists give useful advice to improve development and avoid economic crises in those countries.

LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF GOOD ECONOMISTS AND GET OUT OF THE CRISIS

Recommended readings about crisis and development in Greece:

"Development is the only solution. Seventeen Proposals for a New Development Stategy", Azariadis, C.(Washington Universitry, MO, USA), Ioannides, Y. (Tufts University,MD,USA), Pissarides, A. (LSE, London UK) (2010).
"Is there a strategy that can free Greece from the grip of today´s unprecedental economic and social crisis and place her on a path of sustainable development and solid prosperity? The signers of this article believe that the answer is yes if the country is willing to go beyond the measures of fiscal austerity and market reform advised by the EU-ECB.IMF "troika". We predict that market reforms will not succeed unles they are supplemented by powerful pro-growth policies. The real choice of Greece is not between solvency and default or between reform and stagnation; it is between prosperity and underdevelopment". See full article

Website on Greek Development: http://greekeconomistsforreform.com/

Recommended readings about the positive impact of manufacturing on development, through intersectoral relationships in Europe, America and other areas:

Guisan, M.C.(2006).”Industry, Foreign Trade and Development: Econometric Models of Europe and North America, 1965-2003” International Journal of Applied Econometrics and International Development, Vol.3-1. Article free on line: click on "Download"" at: http://ideas.repec.org/a/eaa/ijaeqs/v3y2006i1_1.html

Guisan, M.C.(2007).”Industry, Foreign Trade and Development: Econometric Models of Africa, Asia and Latin America, 1965-2003” International Journal of Applied Econometrics and International Development, Vol.4-1. Article free on line: click on the Abstrac page and then on "Download"" at the Web site of Journal IJAEQS.http://ideas.repec.org/s/eaa/ijaeqs.html

GUISAN, M.C. and AGUAYO, E. (2007). "Production by Sector in The European Union: Analysis of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland nnd The United Kingdom, 2000-2005". Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Volume 7-1. On line at: http://ideas.repec.org/a/eaa/eerese/v7y2007i7_3.html

Other interesting articles at our journals AEID and RSES

2. Regional development in Europe: Euro-American Association of Economic Development Studies EAAEDS/AEEADE

Regional Economics: Some interesting articles and documents on regional development in the European Union, America and other areas are free downloadable at the Regional web site

Entry 2, by Maria-Carmen Guisan, Professor of Econometrics, Spain

Journal RSES: Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies has been accepted for inclusion in the prestigious index SCOPUS of Elsevier since year 2008. The journal is also indexed in other prestigious international lists: Econ-Lit of the American Economic Association, RSAI of Regional Science Association International, Webec and selected Catalogue of Latindex, among other ones.

Some selected articles, in English, on the development of European Union regions, free downloadable at our journals RSES and AEID are the following ones:

Employment, Population and Regional Development in Western and Central Europe. Econometric Models and Challenges of EU Enlargement, by Guisan, M.C. and Aguayo, E. (2004)

Education, Research and Manufacturing in EU25: An Inter-Sectoral Econometric Model of 151 European Regions, 1995-2000, by Guisan, M.C. (2004)

Decomposition of global and European socio-economic inequalities with attention to their regional dimensions, by Novotny, J. (2004)

Regional Systems of Innovation and Regional Policy in Europe, Korres, G. M. ; Chionis, D. P.and Staikouras, C. (2004)
Employment and Regional Tourism in Europe, 1990-2000, por Guisan, M.Carmen y Aguayo, Eva (2002)

The Innovation Factor: An Econometric Model of Productivity inEuropean Regions, Vieira, E., Vazquez-Rozas, E. And Neira, I. (2007)

Inter-regional Wage Dispersion in Portugal, Vieira, J.A.C., Couto, J.P.A., Tiago, M.T.B. (2006)

Regions and Low-Wage Mobility in Portugal, 1996-2000, (2004) by Vieira, J.A.C. and Madruga, P. (2004) 

Employment and Regional Development in Italy by Guisan, M. C. and Aguayo, E. (2002)

Employment and Regional Development in France by Guisan, M.C. and Aguayo, E. (2001)

Employment and Regional Development in Germany by Guisan, M.C. and Aguayo, E.(2001)

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