Seasonality in consumption: An economic analysis of the alimentary patterns in Greece (1957-2005)

This paper attempts to explore financial expenditure of households in post-war Greece (1957-2005) in our endeavour to describe annual seasonality patterns of food consumption. Agricultural/industrial, animal/plant-based, in-house/away-from-home alimentation features are examined in an effort to understand and qualitatively categorise the evolution and progression of food consumption over time. Our analysis is performed presenting descriptive statistics and data gathered from the "Household Budget Surveys" (H.B.S.) of the National Statistical Service of Greece (E.S.Y.E)

Economic crisis and firms’ performance: Empirical evidence for the Greek cheese industry

The main purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the characteristics of the cheese sector that lead businesses in Greece to profitability. It is also important to evaluate the impact of the current economic crisis on the economic performance of cheese enterprises. This study uses a panel data set that come from balance sheets and income statements of almost 100 companies operating in the cheese sector for the period 2006 to 2011. The first results show that during this economic crisis period, the profitability of cheese businesses has been affected adversely. Moreover, the smaller sized businesses are presenting the most significant efficiency and profitability losses

Evaluation of equity mutual funds’ performance using a multicriteria methodology

Summarization: The evaluation of the performance of mutual funds has been a very interesting research topic for not only researchers, but also for managers of financial, banking and investment institutions. In this study a well-known MCDA method based on the theory of outranking relations, the PROMETHEE II method (Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluations; [Brans and Vincke (1985)]) is used to develop outranking models for mutual funds’ performance. This method is applied on real-world data of mutual funds derived from the Association of Greek Institutional Investors. The results of the PROMETHEE II method are indicative of ranking the funds from the best to the worst ones according to their performance.Presented on: Operational Research, An International Journa

On the construction of mutual fund portfolios: a multicriteria methodology and an application to the Greek market of equity mutual funds

Summarization: The evaluation of the performance of mutual funds (MFs) has been a very interesting research topic not only for researchers, but also for managers of financial, banking and investment institutions. In this paper, an integrated methodological framework for the evaluation of MF performance is proposed. The proposed methodology is based on the combination of discrete and continuous multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) methods for MFs selection and composition. In the first stage of the analysis the UTADIS MCDA method is employed in order to develop mutual fund's performance models supporting the selection of a small set of MFs, which will compose the final portfolios. In the second stage, a goal programming model is employed to determine the proportion of the selected MFs in the final portfolios. The methodology is applied on data of Greek MFs over the period 1999–2001 with encouraging results.Presented on: European Journal of Operational Researc