Qualitative constraints as a tool of economic analysis

The paper emphasizes the significance of qualitative constraints on the decision formation of rational agents. These constraints influence the domain of an agent's potential actions and help him operate under conditions of relative certainty in an uncertain environment. They also provide multiple linkages between his organization and the rest of the economy.     

Returns to education: the Greek experience, 1988–1999

This article provides estimates of private rates of return to education in Greece derived from Mincerian-type earnings equations. The data come from the latest three household surveys of the country covering the 1988 to 1999 period. The empirical evidence suggests that: rates of return associated with female high school and university graduates exceed the respective rates for male graduates; rates of return pertaining to tertiary education graduates are increasing over time, whereas the corresponding rates for secondary education graduates follow an inverted U-shaped pattern and dropouts from any education degree end up with rates of return lower than the rates associated with the immediately preceding education level.     

Fiscal discipline in the European monetary union

This paper explores the question of how national fiscal policies could be conducted within the European Monetary Union. The discussion touches upon this issue in relation to the theory of optimum currency areas; presents the debt sustainability issue in the context of a monetary union; examines briefly the determinants of debt dynamics; and interprets the restraints imposed on national fiscal policies by the Maastricht Treaty. The tentative conclusion is that the creation of the EMU will be associated with smaller size national government sectors.Invited Address at the Thirty-Seventh International Atlantic Economic Conference, Athens, Greece, March 8–15, 1994. Financial support by the Economic Research Center of the Athens University of Economics and Business is gratefully acknowledged.     

Taxation and political business cycles in EU economies

This paper examines whether incumbent national governments of 11 member states of the European Union manipulated the tax policy instruments at their disposal in order to create national political business cycles, opportunistic or partisan. The empirical evidence, based on data concerning the 1965 to 1997 period, does not support this hypothesis. Rather, it appears that governments have pursued stabilization policies.