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Industrial growth in Greece between the wars: A new perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2001

OLGA CHRISTODOULAKI
Affiliation:
Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
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Abstract

This article challenges the established orthodoxy concerning industrial growth in Greece during the interwar period. A Paasche quantity index weighted by value-added shares for 1938 is constructed and then compared to earlier estimates. The new index indicates rapid growth though not free of interruptions in the 1920s, an early and robust recovery from the Great Depression and high rates of growth in the 1930s. By contrast with earlier estimates which imply that Greece escaped the Great Depression unscathed, the new index shows that industrial output plummeted after 1929. These findings, backed up by alternative tests, suggest that the new index gives the best possible assessment of industrial production in Greece in the interwar period. The article also explores mechanisms that stimulated industrial activity and provoked cyclical collapses of industrial output in Greece in the interwar period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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