The Austerity Paradox: I See Austerity Everywhere, But Not in the Statistics

[Christopher]

Here is an interesting research paper about the recent austerity measures implemented in Europe.

The Austerity Paradox: I See Austerity Everywhere, But Not in the Statistics by Georg Erber :: SSRN

The core thesis of the paper is that taking a close look at the actual statistics available from Eurostat on the PIIGS-countries plus Cyprus, one finds little empirical evidence that the governments there have de facto reduced their total public expenditures. This is in stark contrast to the current austerity debate, which seemingly implicitly assumes that austerity has occurred over the past couple of years since the global Great Economic Crisis broke out in 2008. Therefore the author calls this empirical finding the austerity paradox. Many critics of the austerity policy of the current EU-member countries turn to this fact a blind eye.
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This contradicts the official interpretation that austerity is the primary source for the current high unemployment and recession in these countries.

Here in the US, I hear many people say that it is these austerity measures that are the major factor for Europe's economic issues and that the US shouldn't use these measures.

What is the truth? How much of Europe's economic issues are actually caused by austerity policy?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

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[Christopher]

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