Investment scenarios and regional factors in the solar energy sector

This paper examines the effects of regional factors related to macroeconomic, environmental and energy data in relation to regional investment attractiveness to the Greek solar energy sec-tor. Applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process method, the paper explores the significance of some criteria with reference to the regional investment attractiveness of solar energy enter-prises. The AHP method is applied to approach investments in the solar energy sector, by in-corporating regional factors in decision-making. Investment scenarios are created for the first time with the usage of multi-criteria methodology, and their scores are calculated based on regional factors Indeed, the results reveal that regions vary in terms of their investment attrac-tiveness in the solar energy sector; hence, decision-makers and business managers should take regional factors into account. This study aims to contribute to the renewable energy expansion, as it is key to a sustainable economy and global challenges. As the last COP21 in Paris will lead to an overwhelming expansion of renewable energy, decision-makers should take into account not only national but also regional parameters

An assessment of real exchange rate movements in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe

One common development in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe is the real appreciation of their exchange rates at the beginning of the 1990s. This article makes an assessment of the real exchange rate movements in transition economies at the beginning of the 1990s. After reviewing the main theories which explain real exchange rate patterns, it investigates the importance and the sources of these movements. Are these movements an equilibrium change resulting from an initial policy measure (e.g. devaluation), or they are due to divergent cost and price developments, or to different productivity trends or to increased capital inflows?

The White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment and Greek Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

This paper makes an assessment of the homogenous approach and policy measures towards SMEs, adopted by the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment and by national policies in Greece. It is demonstrated that there is a key distinction between the structure of competitive, high-tech, highly-specialized SMEs in advanced countries, whose size is determined by the size of the international niche market where they compete, on the one hand and on the other, SMEs in Greece or in other less developed member-states, whose (micro) size is determined by the local markets they serve, while in most cases they do not have the marketing skills/approach to address export markets. Copying successful instruments for SMEs in advanced countries can thus be most dangerous for the less developed countries, since the industrial organization of the typical SME is very different from those SMEs in Northern Europe. Therefore, the effects of policy measures, without further modifications, will be different from those envisioned by the EU policy-makers. Increasing the utilization of assistance by SMEs in less developed member-states is likely to be more effective if the assistance focuses on incentives and services, which support cooperative action in local and foreign markets, rather than on direct SME financing

An empirical investigation of Greek-Balkan bilateral trade

This article examines the role that Greece has played in the reorientation of the foreign trade of the transition Balkan countries toward the European Union (EU). Greece's imports from and especially its exports to the other Balkan countries have grown much more rapidly than that of the other EU countries. While proximity plays a role in explaining this, there are important schemes for regional integration in the Balkans that may also play a role. Nevertheless, a gravity model of trade in the region suggests that there is considerable unexploited potential for greater intra-regional trade

Currency crises in transition economies: An empirical analysis

This paper examines the causes of turbulence in foreign exchange markets by looking closely at the experience of four transition economies (Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine). It considers the influence of macroeconomic variables in currency crises occurrence through the use of logit models. In an environment of deteriorating fundamentals the examined issue is whether or not some fundamentals are able to maximise the likelihood of currency crisis incidence

Conditional Volatility Measures of Inflation Uncertainty: Evidence from the Greek Experience

This paper investigates the dynamics developed in the relationship between output and prices. It examines the case of Greece which is of particular interest since the Greek economy is currently characterized by surrounding inelasticities and rigidities in labour and goods markets. By using a model of conditional volatility the CPI-inflation is decomposed in two components, one expected and one unexpected. It is argued that there is a strong long-run relationship between the unpredicted inflation and total output for the period examined. © 2000 Economic Society of Australia (Queensland) Inc

Economic integration between the European Union and the transition economies of Central European Initiative countries

In this article we examine the main factors influencing trade and FDI flows between the transition countries of the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the EU member states. We distinguish three groups of CEI countries, according to the degree of trade and FDI integration with the EU: the 'fast mover' countries, the 'next tier' countries and the 'slow movers'. By estimating a number of trade and FDI equations we were able to locate the significance of alternative variables which affect the flows of trade between the CEI countries and the EU. According to our results, the low volume of trade and FDI between the 'next tier' and 'slow movers' of the CEI region, on one hand, and the EU, on the other, is a reflection of the fact that these particular countries have not yet achieved adequate institutional and economic reform while, at the same time, privatisation has not progressed as much