Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Attractiveness in Southeastern European countries

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the inward Foreign Direct Investment in South-eastern European countries in relation with the factors which determine the ability of a country to attract foreign investment capital. The paper begins with the definition of the main terms related with Foreign Direct Investment and literature review related with the factors which determine the regional allocation of the FDI flows. Specifically, the article focuses on the definition of the Foreign Direct Investment flows, regional attractiveness, location of FDI, as well as the factors which affect the location of FDI activities within and across countries and regions. Then, the article presents a comparative analysis of the relative position of the South-eastern European countries, as far as FDI is concerned. Moreover, the paper attempts, through a model specification and results analysis to estimate the relationship between FDI and a selection of potential determining factors. The analysis is made for thirteen South-eastern European countries covering a period of twelve years. The paper is completed with reference to prospects regarding the implementation and planning of an effective FDI attraction policy aiming at economic development and cohesion.

The Cultural Environment Approach of Urban Development: the Case Study of the City of Veria, Greece.

The culture of any city undoubtedly promotes its development. The formulation and implementation of cultural policies, a key issue for urban economic development, relate to a variety of economic sectors. Cultural elements that can contribute to urban development could be either a direct promotion of its cultural identity, or their residents’ contribution to the achievement of high quality of life, generating competitiveness between similar cities. The research aim is the investigation of the ways that a city’s cultural reserve can be the means of its development. The particular research methodology was a questionnaire survey, addressed to the inhabitants (200) and visitors (50) of Veria, a medium size city in Northern Greece. The research object was Veria’s cultural environment and its impacts to urban regeneration. It is of vital importance to establish whether Veria’s residents are familiar with their local culture, whether they appropriate it and, consequently, whether they are satisfied from the relevant promotional policy. It was requested from them to evaluate the current management policy of their city’s cultural reserve, followed by their observations and proposals. Furthermore, it was examined whether Veria’s culture could be a stimulant for visitors, by demanding a direct evaluation of the applied cultural promotional policy. It is observed that tourism was one of the main visiting criteria, followed by commuting to working, and using the city as a passage point to other neighbouring destinations. Visitors claim that Veria’s cultural environment could be, undoubtedly, the main stimulant for cultural tourist attraction, if promoted in the appropriate manner. The residents’ discontent was also expressed in terms of the city’s inadequate applied cultural reserve management. They believe that Veria’s local culture could contribute not only to urban regeneration, but also to regional development. A formulation of innovative management policies is critically essential, as well as the immediate need of the inclusion of innovative technologies in Veria’s cultural promotion plans.

Defining the quality of urban life: Which factors should be considered?

In 2010 the World Health Organisation dedicated the Word Health Day to urbanization and health, highlighting the impacts of urban living on physical and mental health. This is because it is increasingly acknowledged that cities face various problems that undermine the quality of urban life, e.g.social inequalities, urban crime, poor environment, and traffic congestion. Despite this fact, cities continue to play a vital role in development, as they offer higher education, specialized services and jobs. When it comes to an assessment of the living conditions and well-being in cities, economic indices have failed to capture the aforementioned contradiction of urban life. A concept able to monitor the multidimensional nature of cities seems to be the “quality of urban life†(QOUL). The multidimensionality of the QOUL concept reflects the variety of the examined dimensions, but also the range of the different uses of the term. Many different approaches of this concept can be found not only between papers of different disciplines (health sciences, social sciences or planning), but also in the context of the same scientific field. Thus, although there has recently been a remarkable number of comparative studies and papers concerning the evaluation of QOUL in different cities, the factors taken into account are far from being standard. In part, this is because the constituents of the QOUL depend on rather subjective factors, such as culture and tradition in the examined places. However, for a given place and a specific time period there can be an agreement concerning the determinants of QOUL. This will allow for relative research to be comparable and better interpretable. This paper starts with an analysis of the standard approaches of the QOUL concept as they can be found in the relative scientific literature. It continues with the analysis of QOUL determinants in societies, focusing in cities. The criteria taken into account for the measurement of the QOUL in the evaluation of cities and the city rankings are also examined. Finally, a range of factors which can be used as a standard set when examining the QOUL in European cities is proposed.

The determinants of Covid-19 mortality rates across Europe

The aim of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of the demographic structure and socio-economic environment on the Covid-19 mortality rate across 29 European countries. The analysis is based on empirical data recorded cumulatively from the start of the Covid-19 disease until 26th May 2020 covering 'the first wave of the pandemic'. Results indicate that, although countries with a higher degree of ageing structure are anticipated to be more vulnerable to Covid-19, this study provides evidence that population ageing contributes only marginally to Covid-19 death rates across Europe. Urbanization, the level of economic development and health care systems, seem to better explain patterns of interstate mortality rates. The analysis provides important policy implications since it underlines the importance of urbanization and socio-economic conditions in the accelerating incidence of casualties and signifies the importance of health care systems for the protection of people and places from the pandemic

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

Political Resilience in Times of Economic Crisis and Local Government Reforms

Economic crisis and fiscal consolidation policy in Greece had a tremendous impact on local government finances and the provision of services and local public goods to citizens and localities. The implementation of these policies resulted in deterioration of service delivery and caused serious discontent towards the local representatives. As a result, the local political system and the representatives were unable to sustain the political discontent of the local people who voted against them. The chapter presents the implemented policy, the political discontent and the voting outcomes for the case of the Municipality of Volos and examines the resilience of the local political system under the pressures for reforms and the implementation of restrictive policies during the period 2010-2014

The geographical dimension of income and consumption inequality

This paper aims at examining interpersonal income and consumption inequality within the Attica Metropolitan Region, which includes Athens, the largest metropolis of Greece. It also aims to make comparisons between Attica and the rest of the country. The analysis is based on income and consumption microdata from Greek Household Budget Surveys (HBS) over the period 2008-2019, encapsulating the period from the commencement of the economic crisis until the year before the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that income inequalities are systematically higher than consumption inequalities. From a spatial comparative perspective, the results show that the Attica Metropolitan Region exhibits a higher degree of income and consumption inequality relative to the rest of the country. Furthermore, the economic crisis increased income inequality in Athens and in the rest of the country, while consumption expenditure inequality increased in the Athens metropolitan area only. Finally, the distance between socio-economic groups, which stands as a measure of the degree of social polarization, increased during the economic crisis. However, this does not hold true for consumption inequality. Overall, the analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of inequality outcomes to the selection of the welfare indicator (income or consumption), as well as a number of noticeable differences in inequality outcomes between the Metropolitan region of Attica and the rest of the country. The paper unveils facets of inequality which necessitate the implementation of more people and place-targeted policies aimed at more inclusive and balanced welfare conditions in metropolitan regions and across the country

Public Spending Patterns: the regional allocation of public investment in Greece by political period.

The spatial dispersion of public investment constitutes one of the principal elements and also one of the key issues concerning a country’s strategic regional development. Public investment expenditure represents in part the ‘social wage’ citizens receive, while at the same time it generates external economies for the productive sectors of the economy. Using a dataset that includes total outlays by all central, regional and local authorities, this paper traces the distribution of public investment in Greek prefectures (NUTS 3) over the period 1976-2005. It seeks to highlight the spending pattern governments of that period had followed, to compare the changes (if any) between different periods, and to explain whether redistribution of national wealth or other factors, including political ones, could be contributing to explaining the pattern and its temporal changes.Public investment, regional analysis, territorial public expenditure.