Without purpose and strategy?: a spatio-functional analysis of the regional allocation of public investment in Greece

We utilise a large database on public investment at the prefecture (NUTS-3) level in Greece for the period 1976-2008 to examine the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in the country. We investigate the extent to which expenditures in different types of public investment are complementary across space and over time and examine their redistributive character. We also analyse regional specialisations and the geographical concentration of public investments and complementarily use an exploratory spatial data analysis to examine the extent of clustering of public investment and identify possible patterns in the geography of clusters and hotspots. Although our analysis uses predominantly descriptive tools, our results have confirmatory power, as they reveal a surprisingly random pattern for the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in Greece, thus raising important questions about the rationale for these allocations and, by implication, about the geographical, political and economic dynamics that underlie them. These questions obtain an additional salience in light of the administrative and fiscal reforms pursued currently by the Greek government under the pressure of the country’s sovereign debt crisis

Liberals, socialists, and pork-barrel politics in Greece

This paper analyses the role of pork-barrel politics in the allocation of public investment expenditures in Greece. It proposes a model which explicitly relates the allocation of public investment to electoral results using a unique dataset covering the period from the restoration of democracy in 1974 until 2009, just before the Great Recession that radically transformed the political panorama of the country. The analysis includes 10 legislative periods marked by governments of the two parties that dominated the political arena in Greece: the Liberal and the Socialist Party. The results show that Socialist and re-elected governments applied more expansionary fiscal policies relative to Liberals. The two main parties also used different tactics when it came to pork-barrelling: while the Socialists when in government rewarded/groomed their electoral fiefs, the Lib

A general synthetic route for the preparation of high-spin molecules: Replacement of bridging hydroxo ligands in molecular clusters by end-on azido ligands

Abstract A general method of increasing the ground-state total spin value of a polynuclear 3d-metal complex is illustrated through selected examples from cobalt(II) and nickel(II) cluster chemistry that involves the dianion of the gem-diol form of di-2-pyridyl ketone and carboxylate ions as organic ligands. The approach is based on the replacement of hydroxo bridges, that most often propagate antiferromagnetic exchange interactions, by the end-on azido ligand, which is a ferromagnetic coupler

Types of public investment and the regions: a spatial economic analysis of government spending on Greek prefectures over the period 1976-2005

This paper utilizes a large database on public investment at the prefecture (NUTS-3) level in Greece for the period 1976-2005 to examine a series of questions that have to do with the allocation of public investment in the country. We focus on five aggregate expenditure categories (productive, social, transport, urban and local expenditures). We start by examining the spatial distribution of these types of public investments for the 30-year period of our sample, seeking to describe the main patterns of spatial concentration and identify significant temporal structural breaks. We then examine the extent to which expenditures in different types of public investment appear to be complementary across space and over time. We also examine the redistributive character of each of these types of expenditures and try to relate the regional allocation of investments to specific economic, locational and political characteristics of the Greek regions. Finally, we perform a large set of complementary exploratory spatial data analyses to examine the extent of geographical clustering of public investment and identify possible spillovers across the Greek regions. Although much of this analysis is predominantly descriptive, the results of our analysis are directly used to inform a number of geographical, political and economic research questions that future research on the topic should focus on

Trinuclear NiII-LnIII-NiII Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands: Synthesis, Structure, and Magnetic Properties

The reaction of the Schiff base ligand o-OH-C6H4-CH=N-C(CH2OH)3, H4L, with Ni(O2CMe)2·4H2O and lanthanide nitrate salts in a 4:2:1 ratio lead to the formation of the trinuclear complexes [Ni2Ln(H3L)4(O2CMe)2](NO3) (Ln = Sm (1), Eu (2), Gd (3), Tb (4)). The complex cations contain the strictly linear NiII-LnIII-NiII moiety. The central LnIII ion is bridged to each of the terminal NiII ions through two deprotonated phenolato groups from two different ligands. Each terminal NiII ion is bound to two ligands in distorted octahedral N2O4 environment. The central lanthanide ion is coordinated to four phenolato oxygen atoms from the four ligands, and four carboxylato oxygen atoms from two acetates which are bound in the bidentate chelate mode. The lattice structure of complex 4 consists of two interpenetrating, supramolecular diamond like lattices formed through hydrogen bonds among neighboring trinuclear clusters. The magnetic properties of 1–4 were studied. For 3 the best fit of the magnetic susceptibility and isothermal M(H) data gave JNiGd = +0.42 cm−1, D = +2.95 cm−1 with gNi = gGd = 1.98. The ferromagnetic nature of the intramolecular Ni···Gd interaction revealed ground state of total spin S = 11/2. The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) parameters for 3 show that the change of the magnetic entropy (−ΔSm) reaches a maximum of 14.2 J kg−1 K−1 at 2 K. A brief literature survey of complexes containing the NiII-LnIII-NiII moiety is discussed in terms of their structural properties

Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Magnetic Properties of Trinuclear {Ni2Ln} (LnIII = Dy, Ho) and {Ni2Y} Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands

The reaction of the Schiff base ligand o-OH-C6H4-CH=N-C(CH2OH)3, H4L, with Ni(O2CMe)2∙4H2O and lanthanide nitrate salts in a 4:2:1 ratio lead to the formation of the trinuclear complexes [Ni2Ln(H3L)4(O2CMe)2](NO3) (Ln = Dy (1), Ho (2), and Y (3)) which crystallize in the non-centrosymmetric space group Pna21. The complex cation consists of the three metal ions in an almost linear arrangement. The {Ni2Ln} moieties are bridged through two deprotonated Ophenolato groups from two different ligands. Each terminal NiII ion is bound to two ligands through their Ophenolato, the Nimino atoms and one of the protonated Oalkoxo groups in a distorted octahedral. The central lanthanide ion is coordinated to four Ophenolato oxygen from the four ligands, and four Ocarboxylato atoms from two acetates which are bound in the bidentate chelate mode, and the coordination polyhedron is biaugmented trigonal prism, which probably results in a non-centrosymmetric arrangement of the complexes in the lattice. The magnetic properties of 1–3 were studied and showed that 1 exhibits field induced slow magnetic relaxation

Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Magnetic Properties of Trinuclear {Ni₂Ln} (Ln^III = Dy, Ho) and {Ni₂Y} Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands

The reaction of the Schiff base ligand o-OH-C6H4-CH=N-C(CH2OH)3, H4L, with Ni(O2CMe)2∙4H2O and lanthanide nitrate salts in a 4:2:1 ratio lead to the formation of the trinuclear complexes [Ni2Ln(H3L)4(O2CMe)2](NO3) (Ln = Dy (1), Ho (2), and Y (3)) which crystallize in the non-centrosymmetric space group Pna21. The complex cation consists of the three metal ions in an almost linear arrangement. The {Ni2Ln} moieties are bridged through two deprotonated Ophenolato groups from two different ligands. Each terminal NiII ion is bound to two ligands through their Ophenolato, the Nimino atoms and one of the protonated Oalkoxo groups in a distorted octahedral. The central lanthanide ion is coordinated to four Ophenolato oxygen from the four ligands, and four Ocarboxylato atoms from two acetates which are bound in the bidentate chelate mode, and the coordination polyhedron is biaugmented trigonal prism, which probably results in a non-centrosymmetric arrangement of the complexes in the lattice. The magnetic properties of 1–3 were studied and showed that 1 exhibits field induced slow magnetic relaxation

Site preferences in hetero-metallic [Fe 9−x Ni x ] clusters: a combined crystallographic, spectroscopic and theoretical analysis

International audienceThe reaction of mixtures of Fe(O2CMe)2·2H2O and Ni(O2CMe)2·4H2O of various compositions with di-2-pyridyl ketone (py2CO, dpk) in MeCN under an inert atmosphere afforded a family of hetero-metallic enneanuclear clusters with general formula [Fe9−xNix(μ4-OH)2(O2CMe)8(py2CO2)4] (2, x = 1.00; 3: x = 6.02; 4, x = 7.46; 5, x = 7.81). Clusters 2–5 are isomorphous to the homo-metallic [Fe9] cluster (1) previously reported by some of us, and also isostructural to the known homo-metallic [Ni9] cluster. All four clusters contain a central MII ion in an unusual 8-coordinate site and eight peripheral MII ions in distorted octahedral environments. The distribution of FeII and NiII ions over these two distinct coordination sites in 2–5 can be established through a combination of X-ray fluorescence and Mössbauer spectroscopies, which show that FeII preferentially occupies the unique 8-coordinate metal site while NiII accumulates in the octahedral holes. Density functional theory indicates that the distribution of ions across the two sites arises not from any intrinsic preference of the FeII ions for the 8-coordinate sites, but rather because of the large ligand field stabilization energy available to NiII in octahedral coordination

Spin-Relaxation Properties of a High-Spin Mononuclear Mn^IIIO₆‑Containing Complex

The magnetic properties of the mononuclear manganese­(III) complex [Mn­{(OPPh₂)₂N}₃] are investigated by means of magnetometry and dual-mode X-band electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Slow relaxation of magnetization is induced in the presence of external magnetic fields