When it comes to Greece, what everybody talks about is "structural reform" - a concept revolving largely around textbook ideas. In the 2015 Kapuscinski Development Lecture in Athens (Structural Reform: Lessons from Other Lands, October 2, 2015) prominent Harvard Professor Dani Rodrik drew on lessons from countries in Asia, Latin America and other developing countries, offering an alternative view of Greece’s economic crisis and the kind of reform it needs to move forward.

Professor Rodrik referred to key points related to desirable reforms, prioritization and the possibility of reform-backfire, noting that in Latin America "reforms did not have a significant direct impact on the growth rate, because the different individual components of the reform package have offsetting effects".

His prognosis for the current loan-agreement programme in Greece is negative, but believes opportunities may exist for the Greek government to apply targeted reforms adapted to local realities, to provide incentives to its export industry and enhance some internationally tradable goods. 

Professor Rodrik is well known for his impossibility trilemma for the global economy, and has written extensively on the euro-crisis and Greek developments, mainly in Project Syndicate. The Lecture was organized by the Athens Development and Governance Institute (ADGI-INERPOST), in cooperation with the European Commission, the UN Development Programme and the Athens University Department of Economics.

More: Watch the Video; The Lecture’s Notes; Dani Rodrik's weblog