How bureaucracy and corruption affect economic growth and convergence in the European Union: The case of Greece

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of corruption and bureaucracy on economic growth in Greece as measured by the growth rate of per capita GDP. Also, using the mean per capita GDP of the EU as a benchmark, it seeks to investigate the convergence timing of Greece with the EU. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical approach taken is based on beta convergence theory. Findings – The results confirm the negative impact of bureaucracy and corruption on economic growth. However, the corruption exerts a more significant influence on growth than bureaucracy. Also, the timing of convergence of Greece with the EU is found to be 37 years. Originality/value – The robustness of these results is based on the use of a relatively new econometric method which is the Markov conditional bootstrap.