Duality theory and cost function analysis in a regional context: the impact of public infrastructure capital in the Greek Regions

There has been a significant resurgence of interest in the effects of public capital on the economic fortunes of the private sector of late. This renewed concern was sparked by the research of Aschauer on US infrastructure and the ensuing debate between himself, Munnell and Holtz-Eakin. This debate and much of the subsequent work in the US and elsewhere has been conducted utilising production functions. There is, however, another potentially more rewarding strand in the infrastructure literature that is based on duality theory and cost function analysis. This approach has been thought of as overcoming some of the methodological problems inherent in the use of production functions in this research context. This paper, using cost functions, attempts to estimate the impact of the productive categories of the Public Investment Programme of Greece on regional development, and especially on large scale manufacturing activities. The results demonstrate that public capital has a significant positive impact on the performance of the private sector, and reduces private costs of production. Also considered here are the links between infrastructure provision and private sector input factors of production.

The Regional Dimension of Migration in Greece - Spatial Patterns and Causal Factors

Since the nineties, Greece, like other Southern European countries, has changed from being a country of migratory origin to a destination country for migrants. This, in itself, has been the result of fundamental political and economic reforms across Eastern Europe, as well as of demographic and economic developments within Greece. The first officially available data on migrants in Greece – country of origin, employment, education level or marital status- had been extracted from the 2001 population census. There are interesting points to be made regarding their spatial distribution. Migrants of Albanian origin, the most heavily represented migrant ethnic group, have a more or less even distribution across Greek regions. However, migrants of other ethnic origin seem to cluster in different regions. The first part of this paper offers a panorama of how migrants are dispersed across Greece in respect with their country of origin. This is followed by an attempt to identify the causal economic, social, and demographic factors of the spatial distribution of migration using various econometric tools, including spatial regression.

New technologies and the future of cities

Ο εικοστός πρώτος αιώνας έχει χαρακτηριστεί ως αιώνας της μεγάλης αστικοποίησης, καθώς υπολογίζεται ότι μέχρι το τέλος του αιώνα αυτού ο πληθυσμός των αστικών περιοχών θα φθάσει το 85 τοις εκατό του συνολικού πληθυσμού. Οι πόλεις έχουν μία ιδιαίτερη σχέση με τις νέες τεχνολογίες και ο όρος που κυριαρχεί στην σχέση πόλεων και νέων τεχνολογιών είναι οι «έξυπνες πόλεις». Ο όρος αυτός άρχισε να χρησιμοποιείται από την δεκαετία του ενενήντα και αναφερόταν κυρίως στην σύνδεση διαφόρων κοινοτήτων και περιοχών με τις νέες τεχνολογίες. Πλέον ο όρος μπορεί να αναφέρεται στην χρήση των νέων τεχνολογιών για την βελτίωση των αστικών μεταφορών, της κοινωνικής ζωής, του αστικού περιβάλλοντος, αλλά και στην διασύνδεση και διοίκηση των πόλεων, καθώς και στην ίδια των «εικόνα» των πόλεων. Πολλές πόλεις έχουν εφαρμόσει νέες τεχνολογίες σε πολλούς τομείς της οικονομικής και κοινωνικής ζωής μέσω συγκεκριμένων πολιτικών. Η εφαρμογή τέτοιων νέων τεχνολογιών ήδη έχει βελτιώσει την οικονομική και κοινωνική ζωή, ταυτόχρονα όμως έχει προκύψει και μια σειρά προβλημάτων τα οποία θα πρέπει να αντιμετωπιστούν.The twentieth first century has been labeled as the “metropolitan century, as it is expected that the urban population will reach the eighty five percent of the total population by the end of the century. New technologies play a crucial role in urban environment, and this role is succinctly described by the term “smart cities”. This term first appeared during the nineties and mainly referred to the interconnection of communities and localities. Recently the term encompasses the use of new technologies in activities ranging from urban transportation, the improvement of social life and urban environment, as well as, the urban administration and the city image. Many city authorities have used specific policies in the application of new technologies in a broad array of social and economic life. New technologies have already had a positive impact on urba

Municipal Solid Waste Costs: A Comparative Analysis of Local Authority Policies in Attica

This paper presents the results from a comparative study of solid waste costs of the municipal authorities in Attica. At first, it attempts to estimate the economic cost of solid waste for a number of municipal authorities of the Attica region. The solid waste costs are determined by a number of factors, including the quantity and composition of the solid waste, collection and transportation processes, etc. A number of efficiency indicators are also estimated for each municipality in terms of solid waste disposal policy. In its last part, the paper attempts to identify the causal factors for the differentiation of municipal costs by using regression analysis.

Economic crisis and regional development in Greece

This paper sets out to examine the determinants of regional develop-ment in Greece before and during the economic crisis. By proposing an econo-metric model with spatial effects for the years 2005-2008 and 2009-2011, which represent the sub-periods of growth and decline of the Greek economy respec-tively, we make it possible to capture the different factors that affect the region-al economic development of the NUTS III regions in the country. Results high-light that the most urbanized and high income level regions are more affected by the economic crisis. However, these regions had been the ones that most benefited during the upturn of the economic activity. The same applies to the regions that are based on agriculture, which had benefited during the period of economic development but cannot sustain the gains of development during the recession. Specialization in manufacturing is an important determinant of re-gional development, either in times of growth or in times of crisis, while tourism generates benefits to the neighbouring regions in times of economic crisis. These results are also tested for geographical subsets of the country such as the North-South divide and regions belonging to the development axis of the coun-try (PATHE) versus the rest regions of the countr

Promoting regional economic growth in Greece by investing in public infrastructure

The role of public infrastructure capital in the development process, either at national or at regional levels, was a relatively neglected area of research until recently. The innovatory work of Aschauer, and the ensuing debate between himself, Munnell, and Holtz-Eakin regarding the role of infrastructure in the development process in the USA, has spawned much interest in the issue. The authors aim to assess the impact of public capital on Greek manufacturing industries, especially focused at the regional scale. Capital stocks were estimated for the private and public sectors and Cobb - Douglas production functions were used in the analytical framework. The results suggest that the role of private capital in economic development in recent times has been marginal, as private investment has declined, whereas the role of labour and public capital has been both positive and significant. The authors segregate public capital into 'productive' and 'social' infrastructure; they argue that when productive infrastructure makes a positive contribution to production output, the impact of social infrastructure is insignificant and/or negative in most cases. The network effects of infrastructure are also estimated.

Regional allocation of public infrastructure investment: The case of Greece

Lambrinidis M., Psycharis Y. and Rovolis A. (2005) Regional allocation of public infrastructure investment: the case of Greece, Regional Studies 39 , 1231–1244. This paper develops a model on the determinants of the regional allocation of public infrastructure investment and applies it to Greece for 1982–94 using panel methods of estimation. The principal conclusions are that regional allocations of infrastructure investment (1) were negatively associated with regional product per capita as well as with population size and population density, (2) were positively associated with the existing stock of infrastructure capital as well as with the share of agriculture in regional Gross Domestic Product, and (3) were increased across prefectures in years preceding national elections. These results are related to national and European regional policy.Infrastructure, Public investment, Regional economics, Regional policy, Political business cycle, Equipement, Investissement collectif, Economie régionale, Politique régionale, Cycle économique politique, Infrastruktur, Öffentliche Investierungen, Regionalwirtschaft, Regionalpolitik, Politischer Geschäftszyklus, Infraestructura, Inversión pública, Economía regional, Política regional, Ciclo político de empresas, JEL classifications: H54, R53, R58,