System Estimates of Cyclical Unemployment and Cyclical Output in the 15 European Union Member-States, 1961-1999

The purpose of this paper was to estimate cyclical unemployment and cyclical output in the 15 European Union member-states using a system of Phillips curve and Okun’s law equations. Treating both the NAIRU and the potential output growth rate as time varying unobserved stochastic processes, a state-space maximum likelihood estimation method - using Kalman filter where the state variables were random walks - was followed in order to estimate the 15 systems of equations. Overall, the estimated with the new approach systems of conditional equations suggested that the extent and direction of changes of cyclical unemployment and cyclical output over the period 1961-1999 is mixed across the 15 EU member states. The paper concludes that the application of “common” policies across the 15 EU member states may be questionable because of the different expected effects of these policies on the various economies.Phillips curve, Okun’s law, Kalman filter, Cyclical unemployment, Potential output growth rate, NAIRU, Europe

ANALYSIS OF THE BENEFITS OF INTRA-PORT COMPETITION

Intra-port competition is widely regarded as beneficial, for the competitiveness of ports, for local and national economies and for consumers and exporting industries. The aim of the paper is to analyse the benefits resulting from the presence of intra-port competition. Even though this issue has been addressed before, a thorough and complete overview of the effects of intra-port competition, enabling conditions for intra-port competition and policies in case of lacking intra-port competition are absent. The paper presents first a short overview of previous studies dealing with intra-port competition. Second, it discusses the two main arguments underlying the benefits of intra-port competition. In this context, attention is given to the relation between intra-port and inter-port competition. Third, the paper examines the conditions under which these arguments are valid and intra-port competition can be introduced. Possible policy responses to limited or absent intra-port competition are discussed in this section as well. Fourth, the need to introduce effects of intra-port competition in port modelling is briefly. Finally, the paper presents empirical evidence of the effects of intra-port competition.ports, intra-port competition, regulation, port policies

PORT REORGANISATION AND THE WORLDS OF PRODUCTION THEORY

Taking into consideration the new dimensions of port production that have become evident during the resent past, this paper tackles the issue of port reorganisation. In the light of the changes in the world economy and the new competitive environment, the paper focuses on the new structures of the port industry and the characteristics of the contemporary port product within a more general analytical framework of ‘Worlds of Production’. This conceptualisation suggests that neither the industrial model of mass production, nor any other model alone, can determine a single effective pattern of organisation of port production. Within the new reality, modern ports must provide a greater variety of services to port users than in the past. The diversity and complexity of the contemporary port product demand the application of multiple organisational transformations incorporating elements from different possible action frameworks. In this vein, the introduction of intra-port competition, the development of strategic or regional networks, and the reconsideration of the role of port authority turn to critical parameters of the necessary restructuring.Port Industry, reorganisation, worlds of production theory

The EU port policy in a historical perspective

This paper examines the evolution of the European Union (EU) Port Policy within a historical perspective. Analysing the changing aspects of the sectoral socio-economic context and the alterations of the institutional setting, the paper explains the slow start towards a European Port Policy (EPP), that lasted more than three decades, and then assesses why, and how, policy actors involved in the EU policy making have succeeded in carving out elements of a policy framework. The study chronicles the stages by which the EU has moved into the port policy field. Grounding on the analysis of the changing sectoral environment, the paper analyses the complex sequence of events, which have led either to legislative and political decisions or to output failures. As demonstrated by the historical analysis (1957-2004), policy integration is a dynamic, seemingly irreversible, process, which marked by the searching for a balance between liberalisation and harmonisation.peer-reviewe

Maritime interests and the EU port services directive

A key theme of the EU Port Policy has been the establishment of free market access to the provision of port services in EU ports. However, two successive European Commission proposals for a relevant EU port services directive (PSD) failed to produce a new policy regime. This paper examines the mobilisation of maritime interests, aiming to identify stakeholders’ preferences and their contribution to the rejection of this port policy proposal. The analysis suggests that, although they did not share the same perspective, the views of organised maritime interests shared a common denominator: they were against the proposed EU rule due to its structural deficiencies. Assisted by the industrial heterogeneity, the difficulties to implement a ‘one size fits all ports’ policy, and the observed institutional tensions a variety of vested interests frequently with monopolistic positions contributed to the produced policy output failure

Environmental policies and practices in Cruise Ports: Waste reception facilities in the Med

With cruise activities continuing to grow, the cruise world and related decision makers take initiatives aiming to handle the produced externalities. Among the key environmental issues is the handling of the various wastes produced on cruise ships. In recent times, cruise lines and ports have put efforts into reducing, selecting and managing generated wastes implementing the requirements of the international regulatory framework (MARPOL 73/78), as well as those imposed by the European legislation. This study focuses on the state port reception facilities (PRF) in the case of the second biggest cruise region of the world, the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas. In particular, it sheds light on the extent that the current practices of cruise ports have achieved a satisfactory level of compliance to the emerging environmental related international regulatory framework. The paper does so via a survey that maps the existing conditions and port based practices followed by 40 port entities that manage 52 cruise ports in the region. The findings record the available facilities, technologies and services suggesting a widespread effective correspondence to required adjustment. It also details a variation as regards the charging practices, that might affect the level playing field. The analysis generates knowledge on the emphasis given by cruise ports in addressing environment challenges. Given that the European Directive governing PRF is currently (2016) under review, the study provides practical recommendations to decision makers and practitioners on what can be done so as to further secure a sustainable cruise future

Tracking Quintessence and Cold Dark Matter Candidates

We study the generation of a kination-dominated phase in the context of a quintessential model with an inverse-power-law potential and a Hubble-induced mass term for the quintessence field. The presence of kination is associated with an oscillating evolution of the quintessence field and the barotropic index. We find that, in sizeable regions of the parameter space, a tracker scaling solution can be reached sufficiently early to alleviate the coincidence problem. Other observational constraints originating from nucleosynthesis, the inflationary scale, the present acceleration of the universe and the dark-energy-density parameter can be also met. The impact of this modified kination-dominated phase on the thermal abundance of cold dark matter candidates is investigated too. We find that: (i) the enhancement of the relic abundance of the WIMPs with respect to the standard paradigm, crucially depends on the hierarchy between the freeze-out temperature and the temperature at which the extrema in the evolution of the quintessence field are encountered, and (ii) the relic abundance of e-WIMPs takes its present value close to the temperature at which the earliest extremum of the evolution of the quintessence field occurs and, as a consequence, both gravitinos and axinos arise as natural cold dark matter candidates. In the case of unstable gravitinos, the gravitino constraint can be satisfied for values of the initial temperature well above those required in the standard cosmology.Comment: Final versio

Quintessential Kination and Cold Dark Matter Abundance

The generation of a kination-dominated phase by a quintessential exponential model is investigated and the parameters of the model are restricted so that a number of observational constraints (originating from nucleosynthesis, the present acceleration of the universe and the dark-energy-density parameter) are satisfied. The decoupling of a thermal cold dark matter particle during the period of kination is analyzed, the relic density is calculated both numerically and semi-analytically and the results are compared with each other. It is argued that the enhancement, with respect to the standard paradigm, of the cold dark matter abundance can be expressed as a function of the quintessential density parameter at the onset of nucleosynthesis. We find that values of the latter quantity close to its upper bound require the thermal-averaged cross section times the velocity of the cold relic to be almost three orders of magnitude larger than this needed in the standard scenario so as compatibility with the cold dark matter constraint is achieved.Comment: Published versio

K\"ahler-driven Tribrid Inflation

We discuss a new class of tribrid inflation models in supergravity, where the shape of the inflaton potential is dominated by effects from the K\"ahler potential. Tribrid inflation is a variant of hybrid inflation which is particularly suited for connecting inflation with particle physics, since the inflaton can be a D-flat combination of charged fields from the matter sector. In models of tribrid inflation studied so far, the inflaton potential was dominated by either loop corrections or by mixing effects with the waterfall field (as in "pseudosmooth" tribrid inflation). Here we investigate the third possibility, namely that tribrid inflation is dominantly driven by effects from higher-dimensional operators of the K\"ahler potential. We specify for which superpotential parameters the new regime is realized and show how it can be experimentally distinguished from the other two (loop-driven and "pseudosmooth") regimes.Comment: 28 pages, v2: added some references, this version matches the publication in JCA