Advertising, anti-smoking campaign and cigarette consumption in Greece

This article considers mainly the effect of advertising and the antismoking campaign on the consumption of cigarettes in Greece. For this purpose, a non monotonic lag distributed model has been selected. The relevant estimates are based on monthly data for the period 1977-99. The results have shown on the one hand that the effect of advertising on cigarette consumption is statistically significant, but it is easing off within a very short time period, and on the other hand that the systematic anti-smoking campaign waged between 1979 and 1981 was effective. On the contrary, the banning advertising and health warning do not seem to affect cigarettes consumption significantly.peer-reviewe

Robust estimators of ar-models : a comparison

Many regression-estimation techniques have been extended to cover the case of dependent observations. The majority of such techniques are developed from the classical least squares, M and GM approaches and their properties have been investigated both on theoretical and empirical grounds. However, the behavior of some alternative methods- with satisfactory performance in the regression case- has not received equal attention in the context of time series. A simulation study of four robust estimators for autoregressive models containing innovation or additive outliers is presented. The robustness and efficiency properties of the methods are exhibited, some finite-sample results are discussed in combination with theoretical properties and the relative merits of the estimators are viewed in connection with the outlier-generating scheme.peer-reviewe

Relative efficiency in the branch network of a Greek bank : a quantitative analysis

Measuring and evaluating the efficient use of resources of Bank branches plays a decisive role in a Bank’s strategic planning. Usually, efficiency is measured by using accounting ratios, such as labor productivity, capital productivity, return on assets etc. When these ratios are properly used, they provide significant information regarding the effective operation of the branch, and contribute in carrying out intrabank comparisons and comparisons over a period of time. However, by using such ratios, an important part of the branch operation remains uncovered: the measurement of the effective use of the resources. New mathematical programming models that are related with the degree at which each branch makes use of its resources, are applied to deal with the weaknesses of such ratios. This study discuss the limitations of using accounting ratio analysis for assessing performance and, presents and interprets the results from the application of mathematical programming models in a sample of branches of a Greek Bank.peer-reviewe