Economic Factors And Individual Investor Behavior: The Case Of The Greek Stock Exchange

This study undertook an empirical survey of the factors, which mostly influence individual investor behavior in the Greek stock exchange. The results revealed by our sample of 150 respondents confirm that there seems to be a certain degree of correlation between the factors that behavioral finance theory and previous empirical evidence identify as the influencing factors for the average equity investor, and the individual behavior of active investors in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) influenced by the overall trends prevailing at the time of the survey in the ASE

The Greek bank-insurance model : a look at a not-so-new corporate structure

One of the notable characteristics of modern financial markets is the convergence among financial institutions, which until recently preformed different tasks. To this end, the present study explores the bank-insurance phenomenon in the Greek market. It focuses on the development of financial conglomerates in the region, while arguing that the phenomenon is not as new as one would expect. A variant of the bank-insurance approach to financial services seems to have dominated the Greek market for over a century. An analysis of recent developments is also presented, with the evidence indicating a trend towards multi-venture partnerships as well as active involvement of multinational enterprises.peer-reviewe

Mergers And Acquisitions In The Shipping Industry

The purpose of our research is to analyze Acquired and Acquiring companies in the Maritime Transport sector in order to determine whether the two groups can be distinguished from each other based on their different financial characteristics. Although this area of research is considered as very fruitful by many academics, it was given less attention due to the rare sequence of such events and the difficulty to gain access to valuable data. The authors are not aware of any other papers that have examined the maritime transport sector in such a way in the past.However, since many shipping companies have taken the opportunity to access stock markets around the world, in order to gain equity finance to upgrade or expand their merchant fleets, their financial statements became public. Moreover, the fact that over the last decades Mergers and Acquisitions are considered by many managers as very efficient method of company expansion, the view of the past that considered Mergers & Acquisitions in the maritime sector as a difficult area of research is starting to change. The study will be based upon a sample of 60 companies, consisting of 37 targets (either through merger or acquisition), occurring during the calendar years from 1994 to 2009 and 23 acquirers (some of them multiple acquirers). In the analysis, ratios measuring different aspects of business activity will be investigated; such as profitability, liquidity, efficiency and leverage, with the utilization of multiple Logit Regression Analysis

House price comovements in the Eurozone economies

The house price boom in major industrialized countries since the early 1990s has been unprecedented. Co-movement is a key feature of it and it has been attributed by scholars to synchronization of monetary policy, financial liberalization, integration of international financial markets, as well as global business cycle linkages. In this paper we focus on seven European countries, all members of the EMU, and ask the question if, the apparent co movement of the housing prices in the seven major euro zone economies implies convergence of their housing markets. Using monthly data from DSI Statistical Bases for 1990(1)-2009(4), we concentrate on the impact of the adoption of the common currency on real house prices movements. We conduct the analysis using country-specific macroeconomic variables and then extend it by adding foreign-specific macro variables to each country’s model. The empirical analysis includes cointegration analysis and VAR specifications. Our findings suggest that the movement of the housing prices of the euro zone countries apart from the well known fundamentals of GDP, interest rates and stock returns is also based on a number of idiosyncratic and structural factors like demographics, the tax system and government intervention which determine the duration and the strength of the housing cycles in each country. Furthermore, it seems that the degree of convergence underlying housing prices co movement is limited given the diversities in living standards, regulation of property markets, government intervention and attitudes to residential housing.peer-reviewe

European economic integration in the context of globalization

This paper examines the impact of European Integration in the context of globalization on correlations between stock market returns. Furthermore, it looks at the impact of globalization in periods of crisis on stock market correlations of developed nations of Europe, US and Japan. The methodology used is a simple calculation framework based on the correlation coefficient. The results show that stock market integration in Europe has increased substantially in recent years though it is not yet complete. Moreover, stock markets correlation between Europe,Japan and the US is stronger than ever and is likely to continue to grow. This is more noticeable for the NIKKEI index which recently is very clearly affected by the movement in other major markets. Equity portfolios on developed countries cannot be constructed on the basis of a country allocation strategy anymore.peer-reviewe