Participation and unemployment consequences of the economic crisis

In a previous note, we discussed how the economic crisis of 2010-15 may have influenced long-term population and demographic developments in Greece. The arguments were guided by new data - updated projections through 2080 for population and the working-age population in Greece submitted by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) to its European Union counterpart, Eurostat. The bottom line of the analysis was that the population and working-age population are now projected to decline faster and for longer than was anticipated in a projection obtained in 2011. The consequence of these downward revisions include that the Greek economy is likely to be smaller in the future than we thought before, and that the underlying, or potential, growth rate of the Greek economy may have been reduced over the projection period. This is a challenge for a country with high debt.

In this...