Dynamic European stock market convergence: Evidence from rolling cointegration analysis in the first euro-decade

The introduction of the euro epitomizes European economic integration. This paper assesses the dynamic process of convergence among four major European stock markets in the first euro-decade. Using tests that allow for endogenously determined breaks in cointegrating relationships and rolling cointegration analysis, we show that although some convergence has been taking place over time, it is very much an ongoing process. There is also evidence that the German and French markets appear to be the ones with a higher degree of convergence while the dominant position of Germany within the eurozone seems to be (re)affirmed by tests conducted herein.     

Innovation diffusion with generation substitution effects

Markets of high technology products and services, such as telecommunications, are described by fast technological changes and rapid generational substitutions. Since the conventional modeling approaches that are based on diffusion models do not usually incorporate this important aspect into their formulations, the accuracy of the provided forecasts is consequently affected. The work presented in this paper is concerned with the development of a methodology for describing innovation diffusion, in the context of generation substitution. For this purpose, a dynamic diffusion model is developed and evaluated, based on the assumption that the saturation level of the market does not remain constant throughout the diffusion process but is affected by the diffusion of its descendant generation, as soon as the latter is introduced into the market. In contradiction to the conventional diffusion models, which assume static saturation levels, the proposed approach incorporates the effects of generation substitution and develops a diffusion model with a dynamic ceiling. The importance of such an approach is especially significant for markets characterized by rapid technological and generational changes. Evaluation of the proposed methodology was performed over 2G and 3G historical data and for a number of European countries, providing quite accurate estimation and forecasting results, along with important information regarding the rate of generation substitution.     

Federalism, weak institutions and the competition for foreign direct investment

This paper shows that vertical fiscal inefficiencies impede federally organized countries in successfully attracting foreign direct investment. Such countries, particularly if characterized by weak institutions, are disadvantaged in the process of bidding for firms and in their ability to commit to a low overall tax burden. The interaction of these problems deteriorates their competitive position vis-à-vis unitary states in the competition for foreign direct investment. These theoretical considerations are in line with recent empirical evidence that suggests that the number of government layers of host countries has significant and sizeable negative effects on the amount of foreign direct investment inflows.      

Exploring the determinants of the OSS market potential: The case of the Apache web server

A theoretical framework is proposed for the better understanding of the OSS global diffusion. Following a case study approach, the Apache web server's market potential is estimated, forecasted and examined in terms of the socio-economic factors determining its diffusion, across different economic environments in developed versus developing countries. Market saturation is explored under the prism of three theoretical perspectives: the institutional, the endogenous and the exogenous growth theories. Findings suggest that Apache market saturation levels depend on both endogenous and exogenous to a country factors and that institutional quality plays an important role to the market potential. Implications for theory and public policy are discussed.     

Institutions and financial dollarization: Indirect effects based on a policy experiment

We provide evidence that institutional improvements lead to lower levels of financial dollarization through previously unidentified channels. These indirect channels operate in addition to the direct impact identified in the literature and further illustrate the importance of institutions for the extent of banking dollarization.     

An Integrated System Supporting Virtual Consortia in the Construction Sector

Work in today's economic organizations is either performed through the execution of continuous operations or through the implementation of one-off projects; hence one can distinguish between "operation-centric" and "project-centric" business environments. New information and communication technologies facilitate the introduction of innovative organizational structures in both environments. Based on the term "virtual organization," which is used for describing the new organizational structures in operation-centric environments, we introduce the term "virtual consortium" for project-centric environments and provide an analysis of the business processes of a virtual consortium. We concentrate on the construction sector, as one of the most suitable application domains to test the new concept and related systems. Focusing on one of the most critical processes of a virtual consortium, the bidding/tendering process, we review the existing information systems available on the Internet, which support this process for construction projects. Our results show that although there are a substantial number of systems that support searching for call for tenders, few of them provide support for other vital elements of the bidding/tendering process, such as robust collaboration facilities for the virtual consortium formation and for the management of the bid. We then present the SupplyPoint system, which has been developed in order to electronically support and automate the whole tendering/bidding process of virtual consortia. SupplyPoint provides-in addition to what existing systems already do-a collaboration platform that facilitates, in a virtual manner, the formation of consortia.     

The Role of Location as a Selection Criterion in FDI: The Case of SMEs in Greece

The study examines the internationalization of Greek SMEs in Western Europe and the Balkan area, focusing on the role of location as a selection criterion in their FDI decisions. Data aimed at capturing SMEs’ perceptions with regard to incentives affecting their FDI based on location criteria. We find that location plays a significant role with regard to the benefits that firms gain, highlighting OLI paradigm's theoretical relevance in the examination of FDI, while presenting internationalization trends in the global environment. Findings further contribute to the adaption of effective practices to enhance firms’ competitiveness through more rational and targeted investment decisions.     

Fiscal and Monetary Policy Interaction in a Simple Accelerator Model

In this paper, a simple Keynesian and discrete time multiplier ?C accelerator model is developed, which results after the inclusion of the money market and a balanced government budget constraint in Samuelson??s (1939) business cycle model. The resulted model is proved to be less stable and the evolution of income around its equilibrium is more likely to exhibit a sinusoidal way of movement. The magnitude of the main tools of fiscal and monetary policy is assumed to be determined solely by the government and the Central Bank respectively, so that income??s constant amplitude around its intertemporal equilibrium value is minimized.     

Saving rates and portfolio choice with subsistence consumption

We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively and quantitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the higher fraction of personal wealth held in risky assets by the rich, and (iii) the higher volatility of consumption of the wealthier. On the contrary, time-variant “keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” weighted average consumption which plays the role of moving benchmark subsistence consumption gives the same portfolio composition and saving rates across the rich and the poor, failing to reconcile the model with what micro data say.