A 43 per cent increase in infant mortality was registered in Greece as a consequence of austerity, concludes a peer-reiewed study published in the August 2026 issue of Health Economics, a scientific journal.
See the whole study here: Effect of Austerity Measures on Infant Mortality: Evidence From Greece – Kolesar – 2026 – Health Economics – Wiley Online Library
The research examined the long-term effects of Greece’s economic adjustment programs, which began in 2010 under agreements with the European Union, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund. The study concludes that the Greek austerity episode as a whole was associated with a substantial and persistent increase in infant mortality compared with the trajectory the researchers estimate Greece would otherwise have followed.
The study finds that “while the adjustment program formally ended in 2017 and infant mortality rates declined somewhat thereafter, the trajectory remained substantially above its counterfactual benchmark and did not fully revert to pre-crisis trends by the end of the sample period”.
