Is the Greek budget deficit sustainable after all? Empirical evidence accounting for regime shifts

Abstract

This article re-examines the sustainability of the Greek budget deficit by using a formal framework based on the government’s intertemporal budget constraint. The empirical analysis uses annual data from 1960 to 2011 and employs traditional as well as more recent unit root and cointegration techniques that account for linear and nonlinear effects in fiscal policy actions. Unlike previous studies, the evidence suggests that, allowing for structural breaks, the Greek budget deficit is unsustainable. The parameter after the second detected break reflects the structural deficiencies of the Greek economy.