The need for an industrial policy for long-term growth

We document and analyse key deficiencies of the Greek economy, with the view to providing new insights and articulate policy proposals. We consider issues which are the purview of both horizontal policies, raising productivity across sectors, and vertical policies, which allow for realignment of activity. With respect to the first dimension, we focus on two specific problem-areas of Greek industry, with high importance: skills and management practices. We also use information from a novel survey on entrepreneurship, technological developments, and regulatory change and examine structural characteristics of innovation and technology adoption of Greek firms, with a focus on the role of size, ownership structure, and global value chain participation. With respect to the second dimension, we provide an overview of Greece’s export performance and analyse its sectoral comparative advantage. In an empirical study we also focus on the determinants of export sophistication. Overall, the collection of our empirical findings provides ample fodder for concrete policy proposals to increase productivity in Greek manufacturing.