IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imk/fmmpap/40-2018.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Peripheral Europe beyond the Troika. Assessing the 'success' of structural reforms in driving the Spanish recovery

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Cárdenas
  • Paloma Villanueva
  • Ignacio Álvarez
  • Jorge Uxó

Abstract

Since 2014 the Spanish economy has recovered positive GDP growth, and the country has been growing well above the Eurozone average. This recovery has sparked an academic and political debate concerning the role that structural reforms, prescribed by the 'Troika', have played in peripheral Europe. For certain scholars and institutions, these structural reforms have allowed the market, through greater wage flexibility, to make the necessary adjustments to restore economic growth, resulting in a 'healthy' economic recovery. But, to what extent is this mainstream narrative solidly backed up by the empirical evidence? Can Spain be held up as an international example of the success of these reforms? The aim of this paper is to shed light on this debate. We consider that labor market reforms and wage devaluation policy are not the drivers of economic recovery. Instead, we offer an alternative explanation for recovery based on the theory of demand-led growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Cárdenas & Paloma Villanueva & Ignacio Álvarez & Jorge Uxó, 2018. "Peripheral Europe beyond the Troika. Assessing the 'success' of structural reforms in driving the Spanish recovery," FMM Working Paper 40-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:40-2018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_fmm_imk_wp_40_2018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Goda & Özlem Onaran & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2017. "Income Inequality and Wealth Concentration in the Recent Crisis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(1), pages 3-27, January.
    2. Ozlem Onaran & Thomas Obst, 2016. "Wage-led growth in the EU15 member-states: the effects of income distribution on growth, investment, trade balance and inflation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 40(6), pages 1517-1551.
    3. Jorge Uxó & Ignacio Álvarez & Eladio Febrero, 2018. "Fiscal space on the eurozone periphery and the use of the (partially) balanced-budget multiplier: The case of Spain," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 99-125, January.
    4. Mark Setterfield (ed.), 2002. "The Economics of Demand-Led Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1864.
    5. Marta Martínez Matute & Alberto Urtasun, 2017. "The recovery of private consumption in Spain by product type and household," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue JUN.
    6. Servaas Storm & C.W.M. Naastepad, 2016. "Myths, Mix-ups, and Mishandlings: Understanding the Eurozone Crisis," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 46-71, January.
    7. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    8. Steindl, Josef, 1979. "Stagnation Theory and Stagnation Policy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14, March.
    9. Bhaduri, Amit & Marglin, Stephen, 1990. "Unemployment and the Real Wage: The Economic Basis for Contesting Political Ideologies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 14(4), pages 375-393, December.
    10. C. W.M. Naastepad & Servaas Storm, 2007. "OECD demand regimes (1960-2000)," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., vol. 29(2), pages 211-246, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert A. Blecker, 2016. "Wage-led versus profit-led demand regimes: the long and the short of it," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 4(4), pages 373-390, October.
    2. Villanueva, Paloma & Cárdenas, Luis & Uxó, Jorge & Álvarez, Ignacio, 2020. "The role of internal devaluation in correcting external deficits: The case of Spain," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 282-296.
    3. Eckhard Hein, 2017. "Post-Keynesian macroeconomics since the mid 1990s: main developments," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 131-172, September.
    4. Eckhard Hein & Marc Lavoie & Till van Treeck, 2011. "Some instability puzzles in Kaleckian models of growth and distribution: a critical survey," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 35(3), pages 587-612.
    5. Hein, Eckhard, 2011. "Distribution, ‘Financialisation’ and the Financial and Economic Crisis – Implications for Post-crisis Economic Policies," MPRA Paper 31180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Eckhard Hein & Artur Tarassow, 2010. "Distribution, aggregate demand and productivity growth: theory and empirical results for six OECD countries based on a post-Kaleckian model," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(4), pages 727-754.
    7. Mario Cassetti, 2006. "A note on the long-run behaviour of Kaleckian models," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 497-508.
    8. Armon Rezai, 2015. "Demand and distribution in integrated economies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 39(5), pages 1399-1414.
    9. Nishi, Hiroshi, 2020. "A two-sector Kaleckian model of growth and distribution with endogenous productivity dynamics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 223-243.
    10. Robert A Blecker & Michael Cauvel & Y K Kim, 2022. "Systems estimation of a structural model of distribution and demand in the US economy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 46(2), pages 391-420.
    11. Olivier Allain, 2011. "The impact of income distribution on consumption: a reassessment," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00712657, HAL.
    12. Olivier Allain & Nicolas Canry, 2008. "Growth, Capital Scrapping, and the Rate of Capacity Utilisation," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00355932, HAL.
    13. Jochen Hartwig, 2014. "Testing the Bhaduri-Marglin model with OECD panel data," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 419-435, July.
    14. Eckhard Hein, 2006. "Interest, Debt and Capital Accumulation—A Kaleckian Approach," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 337-352.
    15. Eckhard Hein, 2012. "The Macroeconomics of Finance-Dominated Capitalism – and its Crisis," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14931.
    16. Hiroshi Nishi, 2014. "Income Distribution and Economic Growth in a Multi-Sectoral Kaleckian Model," Discussion papers e-14-011, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.
    17. Robert Jump & Ivan Mendieta-Muñoz, 2017. "Wage led aggregate demand in the United Kingdom," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 565-584, September.
    18. Zita Tamasauskiene & Janina Seputiene & Rasa Balvociute & Daiva Berzinskiene-Juozainiene, 2017. "The impact of wage share on domestic demand in the European Union," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 7(1), pages 115-132, April.
    19. Eckhard Hein & Eckhard Achim Truger, 2017. "Opportunities and limits of rebalancing the Eurozone via wage policies," FMM Working Paper 06-2017, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    20. Parui, Pintu, 2021. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Financialization and the Wage Gap between Blue and White Collar Workers," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 416-443.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spain; demand-led growth; structural reforms; wage devaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:40-2018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sabine Nemitz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmbocde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.