Georgios Alogoskoufis

Georgios Alogoskoufis
Γιώργος Αλογοσκούφης
Minister of the Economy and Finance
In office
10 March 2004 – 8 January 2009
Prime MinisterKostas Karamanlis
Preceded byNikos Christodoulakis
Succeeded byYannis Papathanasiou
Personal details
Born (1955-10-17) 17 October 1955 (age 69)
Athens, Greece
Political partyNew Democracy
SpouseDika Agapitidou
Alma materUniversity of Athens
London School of Economics
WebsiteOfficial website

Georgios Alogoskoufis (Greek: Γιώργος Αλογοσκούφης) (born 17 October 1955[1]) is a professor of economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business since 1990. He was a member of the Hellenic Parliament from September 1996 till October 2009 and served as Greece's Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.

Background, academic and political career

[edit]

George Alogoskoufis was born in Athens on 17 October 1955.[1]

The economic policy mix applied under the leadership of Alogoskoufis

[edit]

In the period in which Alogoskoufis served as the minister for Economy and Finance, he actuated a series of economic structural reforms and fiscal adjustment to contain budget deficits, which, although unpopular, have failed to slash Greece's high 2004 budget deficit (from 5.7% in 2003 to 9.8% in 2008). In the same period of time, Greece's gross domestic product has grown by one of the highest growth rates in the Eurozone. Unemployment also fell significantly.[2][3][4]

During 2004–2007, marginal corporate and personal income taxes were reduced.[5] He worked extensively with the private sector [6] and sold over euro 6 billion of government holdings.[7] However, these reforms did not prove sufficient to avert Greece external debt crisis in 2010.

Criticism

[edit]

George Alogoskoufis has been accused of forgering Greece's economical data during his tenure, an excersise referred to as "Greek Statistics", which led to the county's bankruptcy in 2010.

George Alogoskoufis was pelted with eggs by Greek left wing activists at a meeting held at the London School of Economics on 14 November 2008. The activists threw the eggs as a protest against the Greek government.[1]

Publications

[edit]

Alogoskoufis is the author of seven books and has published widely in macroeconomics, international monetary economics and public economics.

Over 40 papers have been published in some of the most prestigious international academic journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the European Economic Review, Economica, the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Economic Journal and the Economic Policy. His research focuses on unemployment, inflation, exchange rates, economic growth and monetary and fiscal policy.

He has given invited lectures in some of the most prestigious universities in Europe, the US and Japan and has presented papers in a number of academic conferences worldwide.

Books

[edit]

“External Constraints on Macroeconomic Policy: The European Experience” (with Lucas Papademos and Richard Portes), Centre for Economic Policy Research, 1991.

“The crisis of economic policy”, Kritiki, Athens, 1994 (in Greek).

“Unemployment: Choices for Europe, Monitoring European Integration 5” (with Charles Bean, Giuseppe Bertola, Daniel Cohen, Juan Dolado, Gilles Saint-Paul), Centre for Economic Policy Research, 1995.

“The Drachma: From the Phoenix to the Euro” (with Sophia Lazaretou), Livanis, Athens, 2002 (in Greek).

“Greece after the crisis”, Kastaniotis, Athens, 2009 (in Greek).

"International Economics and the World Economy", Gutenberg, Athens 2013 (in Greek)

"Dynamic Macroeconomics", MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. 2019

Publications in academic journals

[edit]

The following is a selected list of journal articles by Alogoskoufis.[8]

Awards and honorary distinctions

[edit]

His PhD thesis was awarded the R. S. Sayers Prize of the London University for 1981. His book, "The Drachma: From the Phoenix to the Euro", was awarded the prize of the Academy of Athens in 2002.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Curriculum Vitae Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine at Hellenic Parliament website.
  2. ^ "The Minister of Sound" Article about G. Alogoskoufis in the Belgian newspaper European Voice, published by the Economist Group.
  3. ^ "Rising prosperity brings feel-good factor"[permanent dead link] Article in the Financial Times on the Greek economy.
  4. ^ "With little fanfare, Greece has become one of Europe's best-performing economies and stock markets" Article in Forbes on the Greek economy.
  5. ^ "Ministry of Economy and Finance -". Archived from the original on 2008-03-28. Retrieved 2008-03-26. Corporate and personal income taxes reduction
  6. ^ "Special PPP Secretariat - Approved Projects". Archived from the original on 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2008-03-26. List of PuPlic Private Partnership projects
  7. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2008-03-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Table of Privatization revenues
  8. ^ "Profile: George Alogoskoufis, publications". alogoskoufis.gr. George Alogoskoufis. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012.
[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of the Economy and Finance
2004–2009
Succeeded by