Three years into the austerity regimen imposed as a condition of Greece’s bailout by international lenders, the country’s unemployment rate reached an unprecedented 27 percent—the highest in the European Union. Youth unemployment approached 60 percent. More than 1.3 million people were without jobs, and reports suggested that one out of three Greek households was living in poverty. Greece became the epicenter of the worst crisis of capitalism since the interwar depression.
The Levy Institute reflects a belief that sound public policy can lead to full employment and sustained growth. In that regard, we partnered with the Labour Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (INE-GSEE) to design and implement an emergency employment program for the social economy sector in Greece, along the lines of Hyman Minsky’s employer-of-last-resort policy proposal. This pilot program provided transitional jobs supporting skills training, capacity building, and entrepreneurship, offering communities an opportunity to actively transform their own social and economic environment. Our partnership with the INE-GSEE included the development and application of a stock-flow consistent model for simulating the Greek economy, designed along the lines of the US macro model on which the Institute’s Strategic Analysis series is based.