The Political Economy of Car Sales in Athens, Greece

Greece is widely hailed to be among the most prominent victims of the recent global recession since the downfall of its economic activity, caused by local and international factors, has reached levels that are directly comparable to the Great Recession. In this context, we attempt to shed light on a prominent victim of this situation, i.e. the car sales industry in Athens, Greece over the time period 2000-2012 using monthly data. To this end, an appropriate econometric model, that incorporates a large number of potential determinants which account for the relevant factors, is used and several econometric techniques are employed such as stationarity testing; filtering; white noise testing; periodicity analysis; correlation analysis and causality testing. Our empirical investigation determines the macroeconomic and other variables that act either as pro- or countercyclical factors in business cycles fluctuations of the car sales industry in Athens