911吃瓜

Angelos Angelou (Panteion University), Stella Ladi (Queen Mary University London and Panteion University) and Dimitris Tsarouhas (World Bank)

This article discusses the drivers that render performance-based budgeting more efficient to conditionality-based lending vis-a-vis reform completion in the public sector. Conditionality has been a feature of EU policy until the 1990s and came at its peak during the Eurozone crisis.  Although a lot has been achieved via this tool, there has also been criticism in relation to the design (ownership of the reforms), the impact and viability of the reforms.  Performance-budgeting was introduced as an alternative for the implementation of the RRF and the design of the NRRPs.  Leveraging the case of Greece ,which has thorough experience of both conditionality-based lending (via the three Economic Adjustment Programmes) and of performance-based budgeting (via its large NRRP), we discuss the drivers that might render performance-based budgeting more effective compared to conditionality-based lending. As such, we conduct a comparison between a reform that was included in both the EaPs and the NRRP but was never implemented (justice system reform) with a reform that was part of the EaPs and of the NRRP but was implemented only during the latter (anti-corruption via digital tools). The article offers insights with respect to the political economy of reforms in states that are long-term reform laggards, while also discussing the conditions that lead to successful public sector reforms under different EU financing instruments.

Meet our speaker and chair

 Angelos Angelou is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE’s European Institute.

He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Global Policy Institute of the Queen Mary University in the project “A global mapping of the use of expertise and evidence-informed policies in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic”. He has obtained his PhD from the LSE’s European Institute in 2020. His thesis examined the European Commission's approach to sovereign debt restructuring during the early phases of the Eurozone crisis. His current research focuses on crisis-management by international and national public administrations, while he has also written on the political economy of reforms.

Professor Vassilis Monastiriotis is Director, Hellenic Observatory Centre; Eleftherios Venizelos Chair of Contemporary Greek Studies, Professor of Political Economy.

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The  () is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.