The Impact of Structural Reforms on Telecommunications Performance

The paper investigates to what extent regulation, competition and privatization affect Telecommunications performance for 30 OECD countries over the period 1975–2013. This study explores the difference between separate and joint effects among these structural reform variables, in the concept of a dynamic model, taking also into account the difference between short run and long run effects. We argue that regulation has a more aggressive effect on performance when it is combined with the other two structural reform variables in both models.     

Forecasting with limited data: Combining ARIMA and diffusion models

Forecasting diffusion of new technologies is usually performed by the means of aggregate diffusion models, which tend to monopolize this area of research and practice, making the alternative approaches, like the Box-Jenkins, less favourable choices due to their lack of providing accurate long-term predictions. This paper presents a new methodology focusing on the improvement of the short-term prediction that combines the advantages of both approaches and that can be applied in the early stages of a diffusion process. An application of the methodology is also illustrated, providing short-term forecasts for the world broadband and mobile telecommunications' penetration. The results reveal that the methodology is capable of producing improved one-year-ahead predictions, after a certain level of penetration, as compared to the results of both methods individually. This methodology can find applications to all cases of the high-technology market, where a diffusion model is usually used for obtaining future forecasts. The paper concludes with the limitations of the methodology, the discussion on the application's results and the proposals for further research.     

A Family of Differential Input Demand Systems with Application to Greek Agriculture

This paper develops a family of input demand systems via alternative parametrisations of Theil's differential model. Each member of this family is as flexible as any other locally flexible functional form. More importantly, selection among the competing family members is possible via simple parameter restrictions. The family of differential input demand systems is applied to the agricultural sector in Greece for the period 1961–96. Formal tests suggest that the model with the CBS-type effects dominates the alternative models. Divisia and price elasticities are calculated from the selected model and a decomposition of changes in the demand for inputs into technical change, total input volume, substitution, and residual effects is performed. The empirical results are quite reasonable. Overall, the analysis in this paper indicates that, in certain cases, the differential approach may provide an attractive alternative to the dual approach in modelling production behaviour.     

Optimum Growth and Carbon Policies with Lags in the Climate System

We study the optimal carbon tax in an economy in which climate change, stemming from polluting non-renewable resource, affects the economy’s growth potential. Our main contribution is to introduce and explore the natural time lag of the climate system between emissions and damages to capital accumulation in an endogenous growth setting. This allows us to investigate how optimal climate policy, and its interplay with climate dynamics, affect long-run growth and the transition of the economy towards it. Without pollution decay, a higher speed of emissions diffusion steepens the growth profile of the economy. With pollution decay, this leads to lower short-run but higher long-run economic growth during transition. Poor understanding of the emissions diffusion process leads to suboptimal carbon taxes, resource extraction and growth.     

Market Valuation and Equity Ownership Structure: The Case of Agency Conflict Regimes

This paper provides further evidence on the link between the firm's performance and the distribution of the common shares between insiders, blockholders and institutions. We endogenize the functional form of the market valuecommon equity structure relationship by using a switching regression methodology. This allows us to observe four distinct ownership structure types that constitute different agency conflict regimes. We provide evidence that supports the notion that investors recognize the existence of such regimes and assess market values differently depending on the type of agency regime the firm operates in. We find that firms with low insider stakes and low blockholder stakes and firms with high insider stakes and high blockholder stakes have the highest agency costs of free cash flow. We also find that the effect of the ownership variables on market values differs across regimes and that there are differences in the monitoring effectiveness of institutional holders and blockholders.     

Is Moderate Market Performance in the U.S. a Sufficient Condition for Abnormal Returns on CEFs?

In this project, our topic pertains to examination of market efficiency, employing data from closed-end funds (CEFs) trading in the American stock market. Employing both aggregate and individual data, we examine whether or not moderate market performance is a sufficient condition in order to achieve abnormal returns, in the short-run, through exploitation of discount deviations from its mean value. The main hypothesis tested is that market performance affects the mean-reverting properties of CEFs’ discount. Moderate market performance ensures the mean-reversion of CEFs’ discount and points to cointegration between the share prices of CEFs and their net asset value (NAV). Furthermore, when NAV is identified as the common stochastic trend of the system then, market inefficiency is detected.     

The dynamics between stock returns and mutual fund flows: empirical evidence from the Greek market

This paper examines the interaction between mutual fund flows and stock returns in Greece. Specifically, we investigate the possibility of a causality mechanism through which mutual funds flows may affect stock returns and vice versa. The statistical evidence derived from the error correction model indicates that there is a bidirectional causality between mutual fund flows and stock returns. Cointegration results show that mutual funds flows cause stock returns to rise or fall. This may be explained by the fact that, in Greece, equity mutual funds are obliged by law to invest a certain percentage of their cash in stocks. Thus, inflows and outflows of cash in equity funds seem to cause higher and lower stock returns in Greek stock market.     

Assessing the impact of liberalisation policies on the Greek labour market: an insider–experts' view from the perspective of the varieties of liberalisation

During the recent Great Recession (2008–2018), Greece has become the prototype example of the implementation of austerity policies in Europe. Contrary to public discourse, these austerity policies were complemented by substantial labour market reforms that promoted employment and wage flexibility. This article aims to present a theory-driven understanding of the implementation and the effects of these reforms. For this purpose, we employ a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with 50 labour market experts—government officials and labour lawyers, academics, labour union representatives and employer association representatives. Using Thelen's framework on the Varieties of Liberalization, we conclude that, contrary to the initial aims of the reforms, Greece followed a trajectory of direct deregulation, reducing considerably the level of both coordination between employers and workers, and coverage of employment protection. The interviews show that the dismantling of collective bargaining system was the most decisive move in this path.