Effects Of Devaluation Research Articles

Потенциал конкурентоспособности фунта стерлингов в посткризисном мире

The author discusses the factors and trends that determine the British pound’s competitive position in various segments of the international monetary system. Despite the devaluation effect caused by Brexit, the pound is still the most expensive of the key international currencies. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the ratio of the British pound monetary aggregate M1 to GDP is significantly lower than that of other major economies – issuers of reserve currencies. Thus, the pound has the lowest monetary risk of depreciation compared to other currencies. On the other hand, the international significance of the pound sterling is explained by the ability of British economy to service the huge external debt, which in relative size is the largest among the leading economies of the world. This state of affairs is achieved due to the fact that London is home to the largest number of foreign companies in the world that carry out operations in various Eurocurrencies, acting simultaneously as the main issuers of external debt obligations. The attractiveness of the pound sterling as the currency for the nomination of international debt instruments is due to the less risky currency profile of the pound sterling, as well as the relatively higher profitability of debt instruments. After the global financial crisis, the share of the pound in the official reserves of other countries and in the implementation of international payments is gradually increasing. The author comes to the conclusion about the possible strengthening of the future role of the pound as a stabilizer of international economic relations against the backdrop of an increase in unpredictable events taking place on both sides of the Atlantic such as fiscal crisis of the euro area, Brexit, the growing political tension in the USA, COVID 19. These events are increasingly threatening leading positions of the US dollar and the euro as the key international currencies.

Financial Fragility, Regime Switching and Monetary Policy - With Application to Emerging Markets

The experience of the Asian currency and financial crisis in the years 1997-8 encouraged economists to develop some open economy nonlinear macro models. Such models allow for nonlinearities – studying the effects of contractionary currency devaluation in contrast to the standard model of expansionary currency devaluation. One in particular can distinguish here between slow and fast moving risk premia and exchange rates. As shown currency depreciation and slow moving exchange rates and risk premia may render the economy expansionary whereas fast moving exchange rates (fast depreciation) and fast increase in risk premia may generate macroeconomic instability and contractions. This is of course impacted by monetary policy that recently has moved from conventional (interest setting) to unconventional (asset purchasing) policies. The latter was in particular aiming at asset prices and risk premia, namely to bring risk premia of private assets (stocks and bonds) down and reduce credit spread for private and public bond yields. By doing this central banks are de-risking assets to stimulate aggregate demand (Caballero et al. 2020). But the latter policy has produced also international tensions due to spillover and volatility effects to other countries. In a generic nonlinear dynamic model of the finance-macro link we include the dynamics of the inflation rates, output gap and financial variable such as credit flows, risk premia and exchange rates. In the empirical part of the paper we examine then the interaction between the real and financial sectors of emerging market economies in particular post the financial crisis 2008-9. Though the dynamic model is operating with both the output gap and credit gap in our empirical analysis we work with the output gap only, since credit flows are hard to obtain for the large number of EM countries we study. Looking at a two-regime output gap and some financial indicators – such as risk premia, banking beta, and exchange rates – we then adopt the non-linear logistic vector smooth transition autoregressive (LVSTAR) approach of Schleer and Semmler (2015) with a logistic type transition function governing the LVSTAR system. Our study reveals that financial indicators of emerging economies show different responses to external shocks. With a positive shock in risk premia, the exchange rate depreciations occur in most emerging economies, and more so if the country faces a negative output gap.

Affect-driven impulsivity impairs human action control and selection, as measured through Pavlovian instrumental transfer and outcome devaluation.

Two experiments were designed to study the role of emotional impulsiveness in action control and selection, involving healthy young women participants. In Experiment 1, the effects of both outcome devaluation and Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) were assessed on instrumental responding. In Experiment 2, we further explored the effect of outcome devaluation on outcome-specific PIT. The role of emotional impulsivity, specifically negative urgency (NU), was also evaluated in both experiments using a self-reported measure (UPPS-P scale, Spanish short version). Experiment 1 showed both outcome devaluation and outcome-specific PIT effects, which were positively inter-correlated and negatively correlated with scores in NU. Experiment 2 found an effect of outcome devaluation on outcome-specific PIT, which was negatively correlated with scores on NU. These results highlight the relevance of considering individual differences in affect-driven impulsivity, specifically NU, when addressing failures in action control and selection (proneness to habit). Moreover, these findings suggest that, at least with the procedure used in these experiments, outcome-specific PIT may be based on a goal-directed process that is under the participant's control.

Reward Devaluation Attenuates Cue-Evoked Sucrose Seeking and Is Associated with the Elimination of Excitability Differences between Ensemble and Non-ensemble Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens.

Animals must learn relationships between foods and the environmental cues that predict their availability for survival. Such cue-food associations are encoded in sparse sets of neurons or "neuronal ensembles" in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). For these ensemble-encoded, cue-controlled appetitive responses to remain adaptive, they must allow for their dynamic updating depending on acute changes in internal states such as physiological hunger or the perceived desirability of food. However, how these neuronal ensembles are recruited and physiologically modified following the update of such learned associations is unclear. To investigate this, we examined the effects of devaluation on ensemble plasticity at the levels of recruitment, intrinsic excitability, and synaptic physiology in sucrose-conditioned Fos-GFP mice that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) in recently activated neurons. Neuronal ensemble activation patterns and their physiology were examined using immunohistochemistry and slice electrophysiology, respectively. Reward-specific devaluation following 4 d of ad libitum sucrose consumption, but not general caloric devaluation, attenuated cue-evoked sucrose seeking. This suggests that changes in the hedonic and/or incentive value of sucrose, and not caloric need, drove this behavior. Moreover, devaluation attenuated the size of the neuronal ensemble recruited by the cue in the NAc shell. Finally, it eliminated the relative enhanced excitability of ensemble (GFP+) neurons against non-ensemble (GFP-) neurons observed under non-devalued conditions, and did not induce any ensemble-specific changes in excitatory synaptic physiology. Our findings provide new insights into neuronal ensemble mechanisms that underlie the changes in the incentive and/or hedonic impact of cues that support adaptive food seeking.

Pre-training inactivation of basolateral amygdala and mediodorsal thalamus, but not orbitofrontal cortex or prelimbic cortex, impairs devaluation in a multiple-response/multiple-reinforcer cued operant task

Reinforcer devaluation is a task often used to model flexible goal-directed behavior. Here, we inactivated basolateral amygdala (BLA), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), mediodorsal thalamus (MD) (Exp. 1) and prelimbic cortex (PL) (Exp. 3) in rats during multiple-response/multiple-reinforcer operant training with levers available to earn reinforcers during cued trials. After two training days with each lever-food relationship, a reinforcer was devalued through selective satiety and devaluation was assessed in a choice test with the brain areas non-inactivated. The control and OFC and PL inactivation groups exhibited a devaluation effect, but the BLA or MD groups did not. Since the OFC is proposed to be required in devaluation tasks when a discrete cue signals an outcome and PL is proposed to be required when responses based on lever spatial-location guide behavior, we ran new rats through a cue-switching experiment (Exp. 2) to determine the strategy rats use to complete our task (attending to the discrete light cue or spatial lever location). Both groups (cue switched and cue normal) showed a devaluation effect based on the lever spatial location, suggesting that rats rely on the spatial lever location to guide behavior. Future studies will determine whether OFC and PL can compensate for each other to show intact devaluation when the functioning of one of them is impaired.

Asymmetric Effects of Real Exchange Rate on the Trade between Iran and China

The Exchange rate and policies related to that have long been a subject of interest in Iran and one of the main challenges of the country's economy. The exchange rate determinant, effects of currency depreciation or devaluation on a country's trade balance and economic variables are usually critical issue in Iran. So, this paper examines the effect of the real exchange rate on the trade balance between Iran and China which is one of its largest current trade partners. For this purpose, a nonlinear symmetric method is used over the period of 1993-2016. The results show that the most appropriate method in such studies is the use of asymmetric and nonlinear models, and it provides more efficient short-run and long-run coefficient estimates. On the other hand, the increase of the exchange rate, which is the depreciation of the Rial against the Yuan, improves in the long-run and short-run trade, although its long-term effect has been more than its short-term effects. But the depreciation of the Yuan makes the balance in favor of China, as well as the effect of the depreciation of the exchange rate more than its effect on the trade balance between the two countries. Therefore, it is suggested that the realization of the value of the Rial against the yuan and allowing the depreciation of the national currency in line with inflation and other indicators would increase the competitiveness and expand foreign trade.

Does Exchange Rate Matters for Foreign Direct Investment Inflow to Ethiopia?

This study examines the effect of exchange rate on foreign direct investment inflows in Ethiopia. The aim of the study is to investigate how foreign investors through FDI respond to change in exchange rate level in Ethiopia. In line with the explanatory variable exchange rate; economic growth, inflation, trade openness, and external debt are added as a control variable in the study. The study uses explanatory research design and quantitative research approach with secondary time series data utilized over the study period 1992-2017(26 years). More specifically, the study adopts an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Furthermore, the long run relationships of variables are quizzes through bound tests and confirm the existence of a long-run relationship among variables. So, in order to investigate the short run relationship among variables, the error correction model is employed in the study. The finding of the study reveals that; exchange rate level and foreign direct investment have a positive relationship in the short run as well as in the long run and statically significant at 1 percent significance level. So, devaluation of Ethiopian Birr against US dollar affects foreign direct investment positively in both cases. But, the last year effect (one period lag) of devaluation on current year foreign direct investment was found negative. On the other hand, variables like economic growth and inflation have a negative relationship with foreign direct investment in the long run as well as in the short run. But, except economic growth, inflation found insignificant in the long run. External debt found positive and insignificant in the long run. However, the relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment were found positive and statically significant. This study suggests that the government shall ensure the stability of the exchange rate once devaluation is made. Keywords: exchange rate, foreign direct investment, Autoregressive distributed lag model DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-28-05 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Examining effects of preconscious mere exposure: An inattentional blindness approach.

An increase in affective preference for stimuli, which a person has been repeatedly exposed to, is known as mere exposure effect. This effect has been shown for stimuli that are processed subliminally, that is, below the threshold of awareness. This study fills a current research gap by investigating mere exposure effects under processing that is preconscious, which follows from a high stimulus strength but absence of top-down amplification. In three experiments (N = 240 in total) preconscious processing was evoked using an inattentional blindness paradigm, which allowed the processing of stimuli (nonwords or Chinese symbols) under complete inattention. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find a mere exposure effect in our experiments. We expand the current state of knowledge by discussing the distractor devaluation effect and the attentional set of participants as possible reasons for the absence of the mere exposure effect. Directions for future investigations are outlined.

Inflation and devaluation effects on financial statements: The case of Turkey in 2018

Turkey has had another year of high inflation and high devaluation in its economic history. This has had negative consequences on growth and the future prospects of the country. This paper analyses the consequences of high inflation and the devaluation rates on financial statements. Inflation and devaluation create difficulties for both local companies and foreign subsidiaries in terms of financial reporting. A model company's transactions have been used to show the effects of inflation and devaluation on financial statements. The application of different IAS based reporting methods will create discrepancies for companies and especially foreign subsidiaries will be the ones most affected. Those who apply IAS 29 will have less loss and pay local taxes compared to companies who apply IAS 21 based reporting where no taxes are paid due to the considerable amount of losses. On the other hand, local companies not applying any of these rules will pay the highest amount of taxes, since the government did not request the restatement of financials based on IAS 29. The unclear rules create discrepancies on financial reporting and unbalanced competition. This paper purports that IAS 29 application will lead the financial statements to be presented fairly both for local and foreign subsidiaries in Turkey for the year of 2018.

The role of attention in explaining the no-go devaluation effect: Effects on appetitive food items.

Evaluations of stimuli can be changed by simple motor responses such that stimuli to which responses are consistently withheld tend to be evaluated less positively than other stimuli. The exact mechanism that underlies this no-go devaluation effect is still unknown. Here we examine whether attention to the stimuli during training contributes to the devaluation effect. Participants received a go/no-go training in which 2 go items or 2 no-go items were simultaneously presented, and attention to 1 of the items was cued before participants executed or withheld a simple motor response (press a key on a keyboard). Next, explicit evaluations of these stimuli and untrained stimuli were assessed. Across 2 experiments we observed a predicted no-go devaluation effect, that is, a decrease in evaluations for items that have not been responded to. Furthermore, as predicted, selectively cueing attention toward stimuli during go/no-go training amplified differences in subsequent evaluations between go and no-go stimuli. Confirmatory analyses showed that the devaluation effect for cued no-go stimuli was not statistically significantly stronger than that for uncued no-go stimuli within each experiment. However, combining the data of both experiments showed moderate evidence (p = .023, BF+0 = 5.88) for stronger devaluation of cued no-go stimuli compared with uncued no-go stimuli. We conclude that attention to stimuli during go/no-go training contributes to revaluation processes of stimuli via motor actions, and that this knowledge is relevant for a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the training and to optimize go/no-go training for practical use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

When free gifts hurt the promoted product

Purpose The present study aims to demonstrate that providing a free gift upon purchase may induce consumers to devaluate the main product promoted with the offer. The mediating role of persuasion knowledge and the moderating role of consumer shopping orientation are also examined. Design/methodology/approach Three studies with between-subject designs are conducted to test the influence of product–gift fit on evaluations of the promoted product. Findings When a low-fit gift (vs a high-fit gift) is provided as a promotional offer, consumers’ evaluations of the promoted product are undermined. These negative effects are driven by consumers’ activation of persuasion knowledge on the company’s ulterior motive to entice consumers to make a purchase. Such devaluation effects occur especially for consumers with a task-focused shopping orientation, whereas they are mitigated for consumers with an experiential shopping orientation. Research limitations/implications This research extends the conceptualization of product–gift fit and challenges the common claim that free gift promotions maintain the value of the promoted product. By instigating a mechanism underlying consumers’ objections toward low-fit gifts, this research implies that consumers may think of an implicit cost to a free offer based on their knowledge of companies’ tactics. Practical implications Marketers should be aware of the fact that a certain gift may come at a cost for companies and bring about negative inferences regarding the main product. They need not only to select a gift that drives sales but also to be cautious about the gift’s influence on perceptions of the main product. Marketers should ensure that the gift has a good fit with the product while trying to discover a unique gift for consumers. Marketers should also provide an offer that matches shopping orientation of the target consumers. Originality/value This research reveals counterevidence to prior research claiming that free gift promotion does not hurt the perceived value of the promoted product. It enhances a theoretical understanding of devaluation effects and provides useful implications for designing and targeting free gift promotion.

Giving pork the chop: Response inhibition training to reduce meat intake

Meat consumption is damaging to the environment, health and animal welfare. Despite a growing interest in reducing meat intake, many people eat too much. This is partly due to the pleasure associated with eating meat. Research has used go/no-go response inhibition training (RIT) to reduce the intake and reward value (liking) of snack foods. However, RIT has not yet been applied to meat. We investigated whether an internet-delivered RIT with meat pictures would reduce meat intake and liking relative to a non-food control RIT condition. Participants (N = 81) were meat eaters with a desire to reduce their intake. They completed four 10-min training sessions in one week. Active participants inhibited responses to meat, and responded to fruits and vegetables. Meat intake was measured using food frequency questionnaires at pre- and one month post-training, and a daily meat diary for one week during training. Liking of meat and other foods was measured at pre- and one month post-training. There was a reduction in meat intake over one month in both groups, with active participants showing a significantly larger decrease than controls. Conditions did not differ in meat intake during the training week. Both groups showed a devaluation of meat, with active participants showing a significantly larger devaluation of food overall, suggesting some generalisation of devaluation effects. The reduced frequency of meat intake was associated with greater devaluation of meat in active but not control participants. These findings suggest that meat RIT helps to reduce meat intake and food liking. Future research should conduct larger randomised controlled trials with longer-term outcomes.

Does Exchange Rate Matters for Foreign Direct Investment Inflow to Ethiopia?

This study examines the effect of exchange rate on foreign direct investment inflows in Ethiopia. The aim of the study is to investigate how foreign investors through FDI respond to change in exchange rate level in Ethiopia. In line with the explanatory variable exchange rate; economic growth, inflation, trade openness, and external debt are added as a control variable in the study. The study uses explanatory research design and quantitative research approach with secondary time series data utilized over the study period 1992-2017(26 years). More specifically, the study adopts an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Furthermore, the long run relationships of variables are quizzes through bound tests and confirm the existence of a long-run relationship among variables. So, in order to investigate the short run relationship among variables, the error correction model is employed in the study. The finding of the study reveals that; exchange rate level and foreign direct investment have a positive relationship in the short run as well as in the long run and statically significant at 1 percent significance level. So, devaluation of Ethiopian Birr against US dollar affects foreign direct investment positively in both cases. But, the last year effect (one period lag) of devaluation on current year foreign direct investment was found negative. On the other hand, variables like economic growth and inflation have a negative relationship with foreign direct investment in the long run as well as in the short run. But, except economic growth, inflation found insignificant in the long run. External debt found positive and insignificant in the long run. However, the relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment were found positive and statically significant. This study suggests that the government shall ensure the stability of the exchange rate once devaluation is made. Keywords: exchange rate, foreign direct investment, Autoregressive distributed lag model DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-11-02 Publication date :June 30 th 2019

Mesolimbic dopamine projections mediate cue-motivated reward seeking but not reward retrieval in rats.

Efficient foraging requires an ability to coordinate discrete reward-seeking and reward-retrieval behaviors. We used pathway-specific chemogenetic inhibition to investigate how rats' mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine circuits contribute to the expression and modulation of reward seeking and retrieval. Inhibiting ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons disrupted the tendency for reward-paired cues to motivate reward seeking, but spared their ability to increase attempts to retrieve reward. Similar effects were produced by inhibiting dopamine inputs to nucleus accumbens, but not medial prefrontal cortex. Inhibiting dopamine neurons spared the suppressive effect of reward devaluation on reward seeking, an assay of goal-directed behavior. Attempts to retrieve reward persisted after devaluation, indicating they were habitually performed as part of a fixed action sequence. Our findings show that complete bouts of reward seeking and retrieval are behaviorally and neurally dissociable from bouts of reward seeking without retrieval. This dichotomy may prove useful for uncovering mechanisms of maladaptive behavior.

Evaluative Influences of CS-US Pairings Are Non-Reciprocal

Three experiments examined the reciprocity of evaluative effects following CS-US pairing. In all three experiments, CS evaluations were assimilated to the valence of the US they were paired with (i.e., an evaluative conditioning effect), whereas US evaluations became less extreme (i.e., a US devaluation effect). Of importance, however, US devaluation proved to be independent of CS-US pairing. Experiment 1 replicated previous evidence for US devaluation: USs were less intensely evaluated after a conditioning procedure as compared to their normative ratings. Experiment 2 controlled for the effect of CS-US pairing: A US devaluation effect of similar magnitude was observed for USs paired with the CSs or presented alone during the conditioning procedure. Experiment 3 indicated that US habituation drives US devaluation: USs presented and evaluated only once were less devalued than USs paired with CSs or USs presented alone during the conditioning procedure, with the latter two US types not differing from each other. Together, these findings suggest that US devaluation is driven by US habituation rather than by a CS-to-US influence in an associative learning procedure. The theoretical implications of these findings for associative and propositional accounts of evaluative learning are discussed.

A fuzzy decision system for money investment in stock markets based on fuzzy candlesticks pattern recognition

This article proposes a novel fuzzy recommendation system for stock market investors. This intelligent decision tool uses fuzzy Japanese candlesticks and includes the effect of currency devaluation on the forecasting. To do so, first the next market session is obtained by a new designed fuzzy forecasting trading system. Then, it is compared to the one obtained by a non-parametric system based on the k-nearest neighbor technique. Finally, an amount of money to be invested is considered using a new capital management fuzzy strategy. The results have been compared to an analogous fuzzy trading system that has the same all-or-nothing investment strategy with risk control, but where this capitalization is not included. Both intelligent decision systems have been applied to two very different stock markets, the American Nasdaq100 and the Spanish Ibex35 markets, using the Buy and Hold investment strategy as benchmark. Results prove that the proposed fuzzy system with capitalization is profitable and presents high stability, and could be a good support system for investors.

Prediction and control of operant behavior: What you see is not all there is.

Prediction and control of operant behavior are major goals of behavior analysis. We suggest that achieving these goals can benefit from doing more than identifying the three-term contingency between the behavior, its setting stimulus, and its consequences. Basic research now underscores the idea that prediction and control require consideration of the behavior's history. As one example, if an operant is a goal-directed action, it is controlled by the current value of the reinforcer, as illustrated by the so-called reinforcer devaluation effect. In contrast, if the behavior is a habit, it occurs automatically, without regard to the reinforcer's value, as illustrated by its insensitivity to the reinforcer devaluation effect. History variables that distinguish actions and habits include the extent of their prior practice and their schedule of reinforcement. Other operants can appear to have very low or zero strength. However, if the behavior has reached that level through extinction or punishment, it may precipitously increase in strength by changing the context, allowing time to pass, presenting the reinforcer contingently or noncontingently, or extinguishing an alternative behavior. Behaviors that are not suppressed by extinction or punishment are not affected the same way. When predicting the strength of an operant behavior, what you see is not all there is. The behavior's history counts.

Exchange rate impact on output and inflation: A historical perspective from Zimbabwe

This research looks at the inflationary effect of currency devaluation and its contractionary effect on real output growth in Zimbabwe. The study uses quarterly data from 1990 to 2006 and utilizes the Johansen co-integration regression test and vector error correction method (VECM); and examines the short run and long run relationship between exchange rate, inflation and real output. The study finds that firstly, in both the short run and long run, fluctuations in the real exchange rate are significant on real output growth and expansionary in both periods. Secondly, the findings of the study suggest that exchange rate fluctuations are neither inflationary nor deflationary in Zimbabwe in the short run. Lastly, the result of the long run supports our hypothesis that devaluation of real exchange rate is inflationary. It implies that the weakening of domestic currency as part of the exchange rate liberalization policy is an incentive to Zimbabwean exporters and has potential economic growth gains though, in the long run, it has inflationary effects.

ОЦІНЮВАННЯ ВПЛИВУ «ОЧИЩЕННЯ» БАНКІВСЬКОЇ СИСТЕМИ НА ПОКАЗНИКИ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ БАНКІВ УКРАЇНИ

Досліджено процес ліквідації банків, який набув значного масштабу в банківській системі України, розглянуто позитивні і негативні сторони цього процесу, здійснено аналіз чинного законодавства щодо повернення коштів фізичних осіб Фондом гарантування вкладів фізичних осіб і зосереджено увагу на найбільш проблемних питаннях процедури нарахування i виплати коштів, гарантованих законодавством.Здійснено оцінку інфляційного і девальваційного впливу на основні показники діяльності банківської системи, що дало змогу уникнути спотворення реальних статистичних даних та зробити більш точний аналіз функціонування банківської системи без впливу сторонніх чинників.На основі статистичних даних НБУ і Фонду гарантування вкладів фізичних осіб здійснено аналіз результатів проведення масштабного «очищення» вітчизняної банківської системи з метою виявлення наслідків такого процесу на показники діяльності банківського сектору України.З’ясовано, що зменшення кількості діючих банків зумовило вагоме зменшення активів банківської системи і ресурсної бази банків, законодавством гарантовано повернення коштів фізичних осіб, а кошти юридичних осіб та банків, які були вкладені в ліквідовані банки, повертаються в порядку черговості задоволення вимог до банку в разі достатності коштів. Розглянуто питання відсутності статистичної інформації про обсяги повернутих коштів юридичних осіб і банки, які були вкладені в ліквідовані банки, що унеможливлює зробити більш повний аналіз впливу ліквідації банків на показники діяльності банківської системи України.Загалом, процес «очищення» банківської системи оцінено як негативний вплив на розвиток вітчизняного банківського сектору, що призвело до падіння його платоспроможності, зокрема, й шляхом «заморожування» коштів інших банків у банках, які перебувають у стані ліквідації, що породжувало «ефект доміно» у банківській системі.

Wage versus currency devaluation, price pass-through and income distribution: a comparative input\u2013output analysis of the Greek and Italian economies

Using input–output data from Symmetric Input–Output Tables for the year 2010 and relevant price models, this paper provides empirical estimations of medium- and long-run effects of wage and currency devaluations on international price competitiveness and income distribution for two ‘PIIGS economies’, i.e. Greece and Italy. The findings reveal certain differentiated socio-technical production conditions in the economies under consideration casting doubt on the effectiveness of demand-switching policy measures implemented in the post-2010 Eurozone economy. At the same time, however, wage devaluation is found to be a comparatively slow and inefficient process to improve international price competitiveness in the medium-run.