BOB TRAA

Tax fairness and elegance

Greek second round elections are due, and tax policy and tax fairness have become (purposefully) a campaign issue. Sadly, divide-and-conquer is polarizing the people and setting up parties against each other as though the other side is not worth a vote.

A new shock to the economy – Covid-19

There’s no beating around the bush, we are all stunned by what has happened in a very short time.

14.03.2019 / 18:03

A macroeconomic dashboard to keep Greece aloft

It is difficult to make progress if you cannot measure it. Some things can’t be quantified, such as love, happiness or beauty, but in macroeconomics, measuring things is very important to get an idea of what is going on.

06.03.2019 / 21:16

An idea for incentive-compatible debt relief

Both Greece and the partner countries need to get some benefit from the debt relief for this process to be acceptable to all parties involved.

28.02.2019 / 10:09

Solvency depends on Greece’s willingness to continue with fiscal recovery

The crisis has led several Greek governments since then to take many measures to address the dire state of the public finances. Thus, we can now ask whether all this effort has improved the balance sheet as of year-end data for 2017, now that we are nine years on and the country is emerging from the recession.

19.02.2019 / 16:33

The public sector balance sheet – 2009 version

The government, which carries out its duties on the citizens’ behalf, should publish a public sector balance sheet, even if it is preliminary.

13.02.2019 / 14:06

How costly is the ownership of state assets?

In the second part of an essay on privatization, Bob Traa discusses the lack of transparency in public accounting and disclosure.

07.02.2019 / 11:07

Wading into the sensitive topic of privatization

There is a logical incompatibility in politicians running enterprises and private managers pretending to foster the public interest.

28.01.2019 / 21:48

Update of the National Accounts: Part 5

The aspirational target for productivity growth can be interpolated for quarterly monitoring, says Bob Traa in his latest Note for Discussion.

22.01.2019 / 17:52

Update on the quarterly national accounts – Part 4

The structure of growth has improved with higher contributions from investment and exports, says Bob Traa in his 18th Note for Discussion.

08.01.2019 / 20:40

Quarterly national accounts: Income distribution

The share of indirect taxes accruing to the public sector has increased, as the share of operating surplus has gone down.

02.01.2019 / 22:00

Update on the quarterly national accounts: The components of aggregate demand

In this Note, we are interested in the structure of aggregate demand and how government policy connects to this structure.

27.12.2018 / 13:43

Annual targets can be interpolated for quarterly monitoring

This note will show that quarterly monitoring can be done by using the updates from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) of the quarterly national accounts.

11.12.2018 / 19:30

The Confessions of Saint Augustine

In August 2018, Greece exited the economic programs with the European partner countries, the European Commission, European Stability Mechanism, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (the latter had already opted out).

04.12.2018 / 20:04

Can we assist in bringing Odysseus home?

Greek politicians are responsible for solving the debt problem – nobody else can do this, says Bob Traa in his latest Note for Discussion.