| Popis: |
This chapter intends to determine whether the Mediterranean countries—Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain—have a common “growth model” and the features of which, if there is. A growth model can be identified by examining the components of aggregate demand—household consumption, investment, government expenditure, and exports—that account for the greatest contribution to growth in a particular country over the business cycle. The chapter differentiates the debt- and consumption-led growth model, export-led growth model, “balanced” growth model, and the fourth model which is characterized by stagnation due to the absence of a sufficiently powerful driver of growth. By examining data on growth contribution of aggregate demand components, wages, productivity, household debt, and housing prices, the chapter concludes that the Mediterranean growth model is of the consumption-led variety and that at best, the Mediterranean economies can turn themselves into peripheral export-led models. |
