6 euro - Prominent Greek Economists - Xenophon Zolotas

Xenophon Zolotas was a Professor of Political Economy, the longest-tenured Governor of the Bank of Greece, Member of the Academy of Athens, one of the “Group of Four” entrusted with designing the future OECD, Minister and Prime Minister. He produced a rich body of work, a large part of which has been widely translated and won worldwide acclaim from his peers. He was influenced by the major neoclassicists of his time in both economic theory and applied economics. With his university textbook Theoretical economics, he introduced modern approaches to the teaching of economics in Greece, based on the use of statistical methods. His classic Greece at the stage of industrialisation was to be his blueprint for policymaking. He was the architect of the Greek economy’s post-war reconstruction model. The Greek “post-war miracle” has been credited to the “Zolotas policy”, which envisaged rapid industrialisation, productive investment funded through domestic saving, a credit policy aimed at ample funding of industry and exports through the banking system, as well as balanced state budgets. This policy ushered Greece into a “golden age” for over two decades.