Manos Matsaganis
Biographic Data
| ID | 3934286 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Manos Matsaganis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Manos |
| FAMILY NAME | Matsaganis |
| SIGNATURE | MATSAGANIS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Politecnico di Milano |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 49 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Has Greece Gone from Basket Case to Poster Child
After a catastrophic debt crisis and an erratic populist government in the 2010s, Greece has seen steadier governance and economic recovery in recent years, but sustainable growth remains elusive
Who's Afraid of the Welfare State Now?
The political economy of inflation management: The case of Greece
This article explores how the impact of the 2022–2023 inflationary episode was managed in Greece, and explains how labour market governance framed public policy responses. Greece resembles other southern European countries in the chronic weakness of its institutional preconditions for managing emerging inflationary pressures in a coordinated manner. Greece is also different, however, in that the previous two economic shocks had left a legacy of d…
Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition
This chapter examines the idea that a distinct Southern European welfare model exists within European social protection systems. It focuses on the core social protection pillars: pensions, labor market policies, social assistance, health care, social care, and family policies. The chapter looks at the reforms in welfare systems in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. In the early 1980s, Portugal and Greece still presented an underdeveloped social …
Greece: The Crisis, Austerity, and the Transformation of Welfare
Manos Matsaganis provides an account of the most severe crisis of the Great Recession: that of Greece. He explains the conditions at the start of the crisis and how the situation developed. Greece was the first Euro area member to request a bailout, which was granted in return for massive fiscal consolidation and structural reforms. Matsaganis explains the bailout programme and its conditions, progress, and consequences, particularly the adverse …
Income support policies and labour market reforms under austerity in Greece
To the Brink and Back in Greece
[O]rdinary Greeks intuitively understood better than many outsiders that the country had little future cut off from Europe
The Redistributive Capacity of Services in the European Union
Welfare states provide social benefits in cash and – increasingly – in kind. This chapter analyses the redistributive capacity of services, more specifically health care, education and childcare. First, the methodological issues associated with the quantification of social service delivery and the construction of a counterfactual are explored. The results show that services reduce inequality more than cash benefits do. To correctly interpret this…
The Catastrophic Greek Crisis
The failure of public institutions to rise to the occasion by preventing the economic crisis from mutating into social disaster has bred disillusionment with parliamentary democracy and brought the far right and extreme left into the political mainstream
Poverty and Inequality during the Great Recession in Greece
The severe economic crisis that has been affecting Greece since 2009 is having an unprecedented impact in terms of job and income losses, and is widely perceived to have a comparably significant effect in terms of greater inequality and increased poverty. This article provides an early assessment of whether (and to what extent) the latter is the case. Specifically, it simulates the impact of the austerity (i.e. fiscal consolidation policies) and …
The Crisis and the Welfare State in Greece: A Complex Relationship
As every European who occasionally switches on their TV set must be aware, Greece is in the throes of a dramatic crisis. This started off in 2009 as a fiscal crisis, soon turned into a sovereign debt crisis, and finally mutated into a full-blown recession, unprecedented in depth and duration. By late 2012, the Greek economy had already been in recession for four consecutive years, and showed few signs of recovery. The latest official figures (Ban…
Towards a European Union Child Basic Income? Within and between country effects
This paper explores the within and between country distributional implications of an illustrative Child Basic Income (CBI) operated at EU level. Using EUROMOD, we establish that a universal payment of €50 per month per child aged under 6 could take 800, 000 children in this age group out of poverty. It could be financed by an EU flat tax of 0.2% on all household income, assuming that it would also be taxed nationally as income. Most member states…
Social policy in hard times: The case of Greece
The current Greek crisis started off in 2009 as a fiscal crisis, soon turned into a sovereign debt crisis, then mutated into a full-blown recession, unprecedented in depth and duration. The article offers an early analysis of the impact of the crisis on the labour market and the distribution of incomes, showing that the need for social protection is now much greater than ever before. It then critically reviews social policy responses in a context…
Union Structures and Pension Outcomes in Greece
Even though Greek pensions are particularly unsustainable and inequitable, recent attempts at significant reform have ended in failure, mostly because of union opposition. The article draws on research into the competing role of narrow versus encompassing interests, in order to analyse union policy on pensions in the light of membership composition. It finds evidence of a severe bias of representation in terms of gender, age/cohort, ethnic origin…
The Limits of Selectivity as a Recipe for Welfare Reform: The Case of Greece
Selectivity emerged as the core of a new social policy paradigm in Greece when a new 'modernising' government took office in 1996. Though it was adopted energetically, its real impact eventually proved negligible, except for an initial flutter of activity. The article argues that its failure as a recipe for welfare reform was inevitable. The nature of social protection arrangements in Greece severely constrained the scope for selectivity, while t…
Existe una "malla de seguridad" en la Europa del sur? La lucha contra la pobreza y la exclusión en España, Grecia, Italia y Portugal
El papel marginal de la asistencia social y la ausencia de programas de rentas mínimas han sido considerados como rasgos definitorios del modelo de bienestar de la Europa del Sur. Sin embargo, a lo largo de la década de los años 90 se han producido innovaciones significativas en este campo. El artículo lleva a cabo un análisis de los últimos desarrollos realizando un examen crítico de las experiencias de políticas contra la pobreza en España, Gre…
Yet Another Piece of Pension Reform in Greece
The recent pension legislation (Law 3029/2002) concluded an entire season, inaugurated six years earlier when a new ‘modernizing’ government took office with pension reform high on the agenda. The legislation, though successful in temporarily defusing the issue, can only be described as timid and ineffective if judged against the magnitude of the problem as originally diagnosed. In order to put this last episode in context, the article describes …
Maternal mobility and infant mortality in Greece: A regional analysis
Is health insurance in Greece in need of reform
This paper aims to assess the relationship between insurance contributions and health benefits in Greece by using information from sickness funds' accounts. The paper argues that the fragmentation of social health insurance, and the particular ways in which sickness funds' financial services are organized, are a major source of inequity and are grossly inefficient. The survival of these systems in the 1990s cannot be explained except on grounds o…
Poverty and Inequality during the Great Recession in Greece
The severe economic crisis that has been affecting Greece since 2009 is having an unprecedented impact in terms of job and income losses, and is widely perceived to have a comparably significant effect in terms of greater inequality and increased poverty. This article provides an early assessment of whether (and to what extent) the latter is the case. Specifically, it simulates the impact of the austerity (i.e. fiscal consolidation policies) and …
Social policy in hard times: The case of Greece
The current Greek crisis started off in 2009 as a fiscal crisis, soon turned into a sovereign debt crisis, then mutated into a full-blown recession, unprecedented in depth and duration. The article offers an early analysis of the impact of the crisis on the labour market and the distribution of incomes, showing that the need for social protection is now much greater than ever before. It then critically reviews social policy responses in a context…
Yet Another Piece of Pension Reform in Greece
The recent pension legislation (Law 3029/2002) concluded an entire season, inaugurated six years earlier when a new ‘modernizing’ government took office with pension reform high on the agenda. The legislation, though successful in temporarily defusing the issue, can only be described as timid and ineffective if judged against the magnitude of the problem as originally diagnosed. In order to put this last episode in context, the article describes …
Existe una "malla de seguridad" en la Europa del sur? La lucha contra la pobreza y la exclusión en España, Grecia, Italia y Portugal
El papel marginal de la asistencia social y la ausencia de programas de rentas mínimas han sido considerados como rasgos definitorios del modelo de bienestar de la Europa del Sur. Sin embargo, a lo largo de la década de los años 90 se han producido innovaciones significativas en este campo. El artículo lleva a cabo un análisis de los últimos desarrollos realizando un examen crítico de las experiencias de políticas contra la pobreza en España, Gre…
The Limits of Selectivity as a Recipe for Welfare Reform: The Case of Greece
Selectivity emerged as the core of a new social policy paradigm in Greece when a new 'modernising' government took office in 1996. Though it was adopted energetically, its real impact eventually proved negligible, except for an initial flutter of activity. The article argues that its failure as a recipe for welfare reform was inevitable. The nature of social protection arrangements in Greece severely constrained the scope for selectivity, while t…
Maternal mobility and infant mortality in Greece: A regional analysis
Is health insurance in Greece in need of reform
This paper aims to assess the relationship between insurance contributions and health benefits in Greece by using information from sickness funds' accounts. The paper argues that the fragmentation of social health insurance, and the particular ways in which sickness funds' financial services are organized, are a major source of inequity and are grossly inefficient. The survival of these systems in the 1990s cannot be explained except on grounds o…
Is health insurance in Greece in need of reform
This paper aims to assess the relationship between insurance contributions and health benefits in Greece by using information from sickness funds' accounts. The paper argues that the fragmentation of social health insurance, and the particular ways in which sickness funds' financial services are organized, are a major source of inequity and are grossly inefficient. The survival of these systems in the 1990s cannot be explained except on grounds o…
Maternal mobility and infant mortality in Greece: A regional analysis
Yet Another Piece of Pension Reform in Greece
The recent pension legislation (Law 3029/2002) concluded an entire season, inaugurated six years earlier when a new ‘modernizing’ government took office with pension reform high on the agenda. The legislation, though successful in temporarily defusing the issue, can only be described as timid and ineffective if judged against the magnitude of the problem as originally diagnosed. In order to put this last episode in context, the article describes …
Existe una "malla de seguridad" en la Europa del sur? La lucha contra la pobreza y la exclusión en España, Grecia, Italia y Portugal
El papel marginal de la asistencia social y la ausencia de programas de rentas mínimas han sido considerados como rasgos definitorios del modelo de bienestar de la Europa del Sur. Sin embargo, a lo largo de la década de los años 90 se han producido innovaciones significativas en este campo. El artículo lleva a cabo un análisis de los últimos desarrollos realizando un examen crítico de las experiencias de políticas contra la pobreza en España, Gre…
The Limits of Selectivity as a Recipe for Welfare Reform: The Case of Greece
Selectivity emerged as the core of a new social policy paradigm in Greece when a new 'modernising' government took office in 1996. Though it was adopted energetically, its real impact eventually proved negligible, except for an initial flutter of activity. The article argues that its failure as a recipe for welfare reform was inevitable. The nature of social protection arrangements in Greece severely constrained the scope for selectivity, while t…
Union Structures and Pension Outcomes in Greece
Even though Greek pensions are particularly unsustainable and inequitable, recent attempts at significant reform have ended in failure, mostly because of union opposition. The article draws on research into the competing role of narrow versus encompassing interests, in order to analyse union policy on pensions in the light of membership composition. It finds evidence of a severe bias of representation in terms of gender, age/cohort, ethnic origin…
Towards a European Union Child Basic Income? Within and between country effects
This paper explores the within and between country distributional implications of an illustrative Child Basic Income (CBI) operated at EU level. Using EUROMOD, we establish that a universal payment of €50 per month per child aged under 6 could take 800, 000 children in this age group out of poverty. It could be financed by an EU flat tax of 0.2% on all household income, assuming that it would also be taxed nationally as income. Most member states…
Social policy in hard times: The case of Greece
The current Greek crisis started off in 2009 as a fiscal crisis, soon turned into a sovereign debt crisis, then mutated into a full-blown recession, unprecedented in depth and duration. The article offers an early analysis of the impact of the crisis on the labour market and the distribution of incomes, showing that the need for social protection is now much greater than ever before. It then critically reviews social policy responses in a context…
The Crisis and the Welfare State in Greece: A Complex Relationship
As every European who occasionally switches on their TV set must be aware, Greece is in the throes of a dramatic crisis. This started off in 2009 as a fiscal crisis, soon turned into a sovereign debt crisis, and finally mutated into a full-blown recession, unprecedented in depth and duration. By late 2012, the Greek economy had already been in recession for four consecutive years, and showed few signs of recovery. The latest official figures (Ban…
The Redistributive Capacity of Services in the European Union
Welfare states provide social benefits in cash and – increasingly – in kind. This chapter analyses the redistributive capacity of services, more specifically health care, education and childcare. First, the methodological issues associated with the quantification of social service delivery and the construction of a counterfactual are explored. The results show that services reduce inequality more than cash benefits do. To correctly interpret this…
The Catastrophic Greek Crisis
The failure of public institutions to rise to the occasion by preventing the economic crisis from mutating into social disaster has bred disillusionment with parliamentary democracy and brought the far right and extreme left into the political mainstream
Poverty and Inequality during the Great Recession in Greece
The severe economic crisis that has been affecting Greece since 2009 is having an unprecedented impact in terms of job and income losses, and is widely perceived to have a comparably significant effect in terms of greater inequality and increased poverty. This article provides an early assessment of whether (and to what extent) the latter is the case. Specifically, it simulates the impact of the austerity (i.e. fiscal consolidation policies) and …
To the Brink and Back in Greece
[O]rdinary Greeks intuitively understood better than many outsiders that the country had little future cut off from Europe
Income support policies and labour market reforms under austerity in Greece
Greece: The Crisis, Austerity, and the Transformation of Welfare
Manos Matsaganis provides an account of the most severe crisis of the Great Recession: that of Greece. He explains the conditions at the start of the crisis and how the situation developed. Greece was the first Euro area member to request a bailout, which was granted in return for massive fiscal consolidation and structural reforms. Matsaganis explains the bailout programme and its conditions, progress, and consequences, particularly the adverse …
Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition
This chapter examines the idea that a distinct Southern European welfare model exists within European social protection systems. It focuses on the core social protection pillars: pensions, labor market policies, social assistance, health care, social care, and family policies. The chapter looks at the reforms in welfare systems in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. In the early 1980s, Portugal and Greece still presented an underdeveloped social …
Who's Afraid of the Welfare State Now?
The political economy of inflation management: The case of Greece
This article explores how the impact of the 2022–2023 inflationary episode was managed in Greece, and explains how labour market governance framed public policy responses. Greece resembles other southern European countries in the chronic weakness of its institutional preconditions for managing emerging inflationary pressures in a coordinated manner. Greece is also different, however, in that the previous two economic shocks had left a legacy of d…
Has Greece Gone from Basket Case to Poster Child
After a catastrophic debt crisis and an erratic populist government in the 2010s, Greece has seen steadier governance and economic recovery in recent years, but sustainable growth remains elusive
Political science (17 works) · Economics (14 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (14 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Market economy (7 works) · Welfare (7 works) · Development economics (6 works)