The short-run effects of value-added tax (VAT) on individual commodity prices, the consumer price index, and the allocation patterns of total consumption expenditures among groups of commodities in Greece are evaluated. The methodological approach used is based on the static almost ideal demand system (AIDS), which was estimated and tested for thirteen commodity groups using time-series data . The FIML approach was used for the estimation of the AIDS. The model was simulated for the post-VAT period. The principal results indicate that VAT has changed the structure of prices and demand, altered the pre-VAT allocation of total consumption expenditures among the groups of goods and services and raised the overall consumer price index.
0003-6846 0 1993 Ckuptnan & Hall
lntroductlonOver the last twenty years, the literature on the comparative performance of public and private enterprises, and on the privatization of public enterprises (PEs) in developed and developing economies has been extensive and growing 1. The related literature on this subject in the case of Greece is very limited. To our knowledge there are only two recent studies on this subject by Provopoulos (1982Provopoulos ( , 1985. The purpose of this paper is to help close this gap by investigating the state, performance, and prospects of public firms in Greece. This will enable us to understand their contribution to the economic development of the country. In the course of the analysis, issues relating to the comparative performance of.public and private firms and prospects for privatization of the former will be treated in passing due to space limitations.Unlike in other mixed economies, the PE sector in Greece includes a wide spectrum of economic activities, ranging from the production of goods and services traditionally associated with public utilities (e.g. electricity, transport, telecommunications) to productive activities focusing upon the country's economic development and, quite often, with activities usually undertaken by private firms in other countries (e.g. hotels, manufacturing industries). The great diversity of activities of Greek PEs emphasizes the strong resemblance of the country's PE sector relative to that of developing rather than of develThis is a revised version of a paper presented at the 43rd Congress of IIPF, Paris-France, August 24-28, 1987. The authors would like to thank Stella Pagoni for expert typing. and the literature cited therein. The above list i s by no means exhaustive,
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.