Financial Development and Economic Growth: The Case of Greek Economy

This paper examines the relationship among financial development and economic growth, within a framework which also accounts trade openness, for the case of Greece using data covering the period 2001-2017. We investigate this relationship using the Johansen and Juselius (1990) cointegration approach and the Vector Error Correction Models (VECM), employing Granger causality technique, in order to explore the presence of causality among the variables. The results of cointegration analysis suggested that there is one cointegrated vector among the functions of financial development, economic growth and trade openness. Granger causality tests have shown that there are unidirectional causalities running from economic growth to financial development as well as from financial development to trade openness. The results support that financial development and trade openness do not have causal impact on economic growth in Greece, for the aforementioned period. On the other hand, economic growth has a causal impact on trade both directly and indirectly through financial development

Causal Nexus between Government Debt, Exports and Economic Growth for Three Eurozone Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

The relationship between government debt, exports and economic growth has been the focus of a considerable number of academic studies in recent years. The economic crisis, which started in the United States mortgage market, quickly went global when mortgage-backed securities traded by financial institutions. Europe’s response was immediate regarding the measures to tackle the crisis. The establishment of common strategies was the long term goal of the European Union (EU). This paper examines the relationship between government debt, exports and economic growth in the EU countries with the highest level of government debt, using panel data over the period 1990-2014. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) methods are used to estimate the long run relationship between the variables. In addition, the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) is used in order to investigate the causal relationship between the examined variables. The empirical results of the study revealed that there are both short and long run relationships. Findings suggest that that there is a unidirectional causality running from exports to economic growth as well as from exports and economic growth to government debt. The results provide evidence to support the export led-growth hypothesis. Exports are an important factor for economic development. Moreover, the results reveal that government debt is affected by exports both directly and indirectly through economic growth. Policy implications are then explored in the conclusions

The causal relationship between domestic private consumption and wholesale prices : the case of European Union

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and measure the proportion of changes in wholesale prices transferred to private consumption prices in European Union economy. The data used in the investigation are monthly, covering the period from 1996:9 to 2001:7 and refer to consumer price indexes and wholesale price indexes of all products. Cointegration method is used in order to investigate the cost transfer from wholesale prices to consumer prices, or in other words to test the existence or not of a long-term equilibrium relationship between the two prices.peer-reviewe

The Effects of FDI on Greek Economy: An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates the effect of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on economic growth in Greece, within a framework that also accounts unemployment rate, using annual data covering the period 1970 to 2017. Several econometric models are applied including the ARDL bound test approach for cointegration as well as ECM-ARDL model for causality. The results of the study confirm the existence of a long run relationship among the examined variables. The Granger causality results indicated a strong unidirectional causality between economic development and foreign direct investments with direction from economic development to foreign direct investments. Finally, the variance decomposition method and the impulse response functions are used to test the strength of causality between the variables. The results of the study offer new perspectives and insight for new policies for sustainable economic development, increasing investments and reducing unemployment

The effect of socio-economic determinants on crime rates: An empirical research in the case of Greece with cointegration analysis

The present paper analyzes the relationship between the criminal offences, the function of the justice system and some of their socio-economic determinants in the case of Greece by estimating their dynamic interactions. The analysis covers the period 1971-2006 and the cointegration methodologies of Johansen (1988) and Johansen-Juselius (1990, 1992) are applied to the VAR model. From the cointegration results, a cointegrating vector is shown among total offences, convicted persons and socio-economic variables. Moreover, Error Correction Models are estimated for the short-run dynamics of the explanatory variables and their convergence to a long-run equilibrium state

The main determinants of economic growth : an empirical investigation with Granger causality analysis for Greece

This paper examines empirically the causal relationship among exports, gross capital formation, foreign direct investments and economic growth using a multivariate autoregressive Var model for Greece over the period 1960-2002. The results of cointegration test suggested that there is only one cointegrated vector between the examined variables, while Granger causality tests showed that there is a unidirectional causal relationship between exports and gross fixed capital formation and also there is a unidirectional causal relationship between foreign direct investments and economic growth.peer-reviewe

Item Generation for a Music-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adult Cochlear Implant Users

Introduction: Existing music questionnaires designed for adult cochlear implant (CI) users are limited in their ability to measure real-world benefits of auditory music training and new technologies. Aims: To investigate aspects of CI users’ relationship with music that are relevant to quality of life (QoL) domains, with a view to generating items for a new questionnaire. Methods: Thirty adult CI users participated in 1 of 6 focus groups about music in everyday life. The group discussion data were analyzed based on the theory of template analysis. The QoL domains of the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire were used as broad a priori categories to help with organizing associated themes. Participants also evaluated items of existing questionnaires. Results: The themes identified in the discussion were organized into three main domains (music listening ability, attitude towards music, musical activity), which constitute the music-related quality of life (MuRQoL) of CI users. Fifty-three items were developed for a prototype questionnaire using a combination of these themes and items from existing questionnaires highly rated by participants. Conclusion: The study highlights musical abilities, attitudes and activities of adult CI users poorly addressed or not addressed at all by previous questionnaires. By covering novel aspects of music experience, the MuRQoL questionnaire has the potential to be a more suitable measure of music-specific CI outcomes than previous questionnaires, which may open up new avenues for the assessment and provision of music rehabilitation in clinical settings. The MuRQoL questionnaire was optimized and validated in another study before becoming available for use

Seasonal Analysis of Tourist Revenues: An Empirical Research for Greece

This paper examines the role and factors of seasonality in tourist revenues in the case of Greece. The empirical analysis of the current research is conducted using quarterly data for the period 1960:I– 2005:IV. Osborn et. al. (1998), Miron (1994) and Hylleberg et al. (1990) tests for seasonal unit roots are used to examine deterministic and stochastic seasonality in the various series. The results revealed that tourist revenues in Greece are to some extent seasonal, which implies that most involving parties should extend tourist period aiming at developing tourism of all seasons. Finally, recommendations are provided to deal with the “problem” of seasonality

Detecting ‘window dressing’ behavior among firms that go public in the Athens stock exchange

This paper uses income-smoothing methodology in order to examine whether the existence of window dressing behavior affects the operating and market performance of firms that go public in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The results depict that the window dressing behavior is unpopular among Greek IPO firms. The after-market performance of IPO firms in Greece reveals that issuers use underpricing as a means to signal their quality to the market. In addition, the findings posit that investors do not overreact to past earnings growth and that the window dressing assumption is unable to explain the post-issue performance of IPO firms in Greece. Finally, the results indicate that the market exhibits the ability to anticipate intentional income-smoothing behavior and classifies smoothing firms to higher risk classes.peer-reviewe

A Data-informed Public Health Policy-Makers Platform

Hearing loss is a disease exhibiting a growing trend due to the number of factors, including but not limited to the mundane exposure to the noise and ever-increasing amount of older population. In the framework of a public health policymaking process, modeling of the hearing loss disease based on data is a key factor in alleviating the issues related to the disease issuing effective public health policies. First, the paper describes the steps of the data-driven policymaking process. Afterward, a scenario along with the part of the proposed platform, responsible for supporting policymaking are presented. With the aim of demonstrating the capabilities and usability of the platform for the policy-makers, some initial results of preliminary analytics are presented in a framework of a policy-making process. Ultimately, the utility of the approach is validated throughout the results of the survey which was presented to the health system policy-makers professionals involved in the policy development process in Croatia