SPOUDAI - Journal of Economics and Business

3-17

Authors: Stephan Humpert

This paper analyses gender-specific differences in working time mismatches by using three different measures for representing satisfaction and work life balance. Results show that, while male satisfaction with life or work is in general not affected by working for more or less hours, over-time is found to significantly lower male work life balance. Women are more sensitive to the amount of working hours as they prefer part-time employment and they are dissatisfied with changes towards working more or less hours than agreed. JEL classification: J22, I31, J16 Keywords: Working Hours, Gender Differences, Work Life Balance, European Social Survey

39-66

Authors: Alexandros M. Goulielmos, Ioannis M. Sitzimis

The great deficits created in the pursuit of the Keynesian welfare state led to governmental failure. This increasingly posed a greater risk to financial system than market failure, due to the increasing scale effects. Competition ceases to exist. The operations of markets first described by Adam Smith (1776) and confirmed by Alfred Marshall (1920). As a result of the increasing risk of governmental failure, legal barriers to ‘entry’ removed (liberalization) and private ownership promoted (privatization). Here, we investigate the impact of the ‘liberalization processes of (private)’ ‘Aegean Ferry System’ since 2001, and look at the effect on passenger fares and private cars freight rates under ‘free entry’. Quality of service was never regulated…We showed the existence of increasing returns to scale in the ferry system and in the individual ship, basing our arguments on empirical data and on theory. The fixed cost of the ferry system is 68%, indicating failure of the ferry market, when prices had to be determined by marginal cost leading to operational losses, since average cost is twice greater than marginal cost. Despite the hopes of the users that Greek Aegean ferry system’s liberalization would lead to reduction in fares and freight rates, this did not happen. Reforms paralleled those in air transport in USA, and a similar “hub and spoke” network system proposed and adopted careless by Greece, following the ΣΕΘΑΜ study. Fares and private car freight rates rose in a series of waves, owners frequently blaming the rising oil prices… JEL Classification : D4, L1, R49. Keywords: Liberalization of the Greek Aegean Ferry system, Fares and freight rates, increasing returns to scale

75-86

Authors: Ioanna Reziti

This paper examines the farm-retail price transmission mechanism in the Greek milk market by using monthly data for the period from January 1998 to June 2014. Through this period, the dairy industry underwent significant changes, resulting in increasing concentration in the market for fresh pasteurized milk. On the other hand, in the past five years, the number of dairy farms has decreased dramatically. The milk supply chain can be described as an atomized raw milk production sector confronted by a quite concentrated dairy sector. We apply an error correction model to test for asymmetric behaviour in the transmission process. The empirical results indicate that transmission between producer and consumer milk prices in Greece is asymmetric in both the short and the long run, implying that retailers exercise market power over producers. JEL classification: C10, L11, Q10. Keywords: asymmetric price transmission, cointegration, error correction, milk market.

3-29

Authors: Wei-Bin Zhang

The purpose of this paper is to examine dynamic interdependence between wealth accumulation, capital accumulation, economic structure, domestic and global division of labor, international trade and environmental change with transboundary pollution. It analyzes not only inequalities in income, wealth and economic structures between (any number of) countries, but also differences in environmental changes between countries. The model is built on the basis of the Solow model, the Uzawa two-sector growth model, the Oniki-Uzawa trade model, and the neoclassical growth models in environmental economics. The general equilibrium dynamic model includes any number of national economies and each national economy has two sectors. After building the model, we show that the dynamics of the world economy with countries is described by differential equations. We simulate the motion of the global economy with three national economies. We also examine the effects of changes in the propensity to environmental taxes, the efficiency of environmental protection, and the population upon dynamic paths of the system. Our analysis provides some insights into the complexity of global economic growth with environment. For instance, the well-known study by Grossman and Krueger (1995) identifies no evidence that “environmental quality deteriorates steadily with economic growth.” Our simulation indicates that this conclusion holds for some countries, but is invalid for other countries. JEL Classification: F11; O41; Q56. Keywords: trade; economic growth; transboundary pollution; environmental change; environmental policies.

49-72

Authors: Christos Triantopoulos

The global financial crisis of 2007/2008 was the painful peak of a decade of “financial euphoria” and inadequate financial re-regulation in the advanced economies. However, during that period of “financial euphoria”, the structure of the developed financial systems in the EU varied significantly, considering the importance of the banking market or that of the capital market in the system as a whole. Thus, an area for political economy research emerges, considering the institutions and the structural elements of an economy that could have contributed to this kind of differentiation. In this paper, the analysis is focused on the financial system’s funding from individuals and households as one of the three basic fields of the financial intermediation process. Particularly, we discuss and examine the relationshipbetween “privatization of risk” and income inequality -as characteristics of the households’ investment orientation- with the development of structurally varied financial systems in the EU. The descriptive and statistical results suggest that households’ investment orientation is related with the differentiation in the characteristics of the EU financial systems. However, this nexus can partially interpret -in terms of political economy- the varied financial systems in the EU, as the analysis must take into account the remaining fields of the financial intermediation process: the funding from international and interbank markets and the financial system’s funding to the economy. JEL Classifications:P51, P16, P34, G21. Keywords:Varieties of capitalism; Financial structures; Household investments; Privatization of risk; Income inequality.

94 - 115

Authors: Irene Fafaliou, Marinos Stefanitsis, Aelita Skaržauskienė

Although small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) involvement in the innovation process is a long standing issue and recently has resurged in the relevant literature, building and sustaining innovation is a hard and non linear work. The purpose of the paper is to explore the propensity of SMEs to innovate drawing evidence from three different countries and a wide variety of sectors and firms’ ages and sizes. In particular, this paper focuses on differences between various characteristics of the surveyed SMEs and attempts to establish links with firms’ tendency to innovate. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey addressed to a sample of 336 firms located in Greece, Croatia, and Lithuania. Findings suggest a somewhat problematic relationship between Greek and Croatian firms and their involvement to innovation. Lithuanian firms, however, seem to be more committed to innovation since they employ a more dynamic approach to innovation process and its implementation. JEL Classification: O31; L20; O57. Keywords: innovation; small and medium-sized enterprises; Greece; Croatia; Lithuania

5-13

Authors: Hercules E. Haralambides, Helen Thanopoulou

Cyclicality in shipping is inherent. However, the speed and amplitude of market changes, since the fateful collapse of Lehman brothers in 2008 - distinguishes this particular crisis from most previous cycles. Predictions and investment moves made until immediately before the crisis have, in retrospect, been proven erroneous. The same applies to many of freight rate forecasts made subsequently. Yet, the information for deciphering market signals was already there in the critical months before the crisis, the authors argue. The paper demonstrates that if investors had relied on certain very simple indices of over-investment in new ships, they would have concluded that the advent of an inflexion point was unavoidable. A market turn should have been anticipated even if favourable demand developments were to continue undisrupted. Indices such as the ratio of orderbook to the existing fleet had deviated manifold from their long-term average since the previous major cycle. The authors conclude that the nature of this last cycle, akin in many respects with the origins and course of the crisis of the 1970s and the 1980s was determined more by what Metaxas called in 1971 «endemic tendency to over-invest». JEL Classification: E32; F170; E37. Keywords: shipping cycles; international trade; freight market forecasts.

40-49

Authors: Evangelos Sambracos, Marina Maniati

The world financial crisis has resulted in the slowdown of Greek economy leading to the recession of certain sectors, like Passenger Shipping. Factors, such as the decrease of private consumption and GDP, have negatively influenced Passenger Shipping, resulting in the reduction not only of the relevant demand, but also of the sector’s financial results. The paper examines the current situation of Greek Passenger Shipping during this “crisis” period. Financial analysis of the sector has indicated that companies face many problems; annual turnover decreases, reduced profit margins and deteriorating liquidity ratios, while the relevant financial ratios are worse than the corresponding ones of the Greek Economy on average. Considering the role of passenger shipping in combination with the particularity of the Greek insular area (many islands connected primarily with mainland and among them through sea transport), the paper examines and evaluates possible solutions, in order for the passenger companies to survive and keep providing their vital services. JEL Classification: R11; G01 Keywords: Financial Crisis; Passenger Shipping; Financial Analysis.

5-15

Authors: Jason Angelopoulos, Constantine Chlomoudis, Eustratia Dalvadani

The part of the port industry that serves international trade flows, competes and satisfies demand with global characteristics. Port services production and supply, within an open market, can only be governed by global regulations, and should be taken into account by those who wish to implement them. International organizations influence both safety aspects and the protection of professional life from new working methods in ports. Assessing the importance of labor factor in ports, it is argued that it constitutes a key factor in port production. Several factors have facilitated the gradual substitution of port manual labor, leading to changes in both requirement in skilled labor quantity, but also labor skill and quality requirements. Studying the three I.L.O. conventions pertaining to dock work (C032, C137 and C152) we argue that they can form a positive model for the integration of work rules on a global scale. Main aim of these conventions is the mutual development for all port stakeholders and prevention of unfair competition. We assess the current state of acceptance and degree of implementation of the Conventions by national governments, and argue for the mutual benefits for port stakeholders arising from their implementation, from the perspective of globalization governance, in the era of post – globalization. JEL Classifications: R41; J28; M54. Keywords: ILO Conventions; Port labor; dock work; global regulations.

29-41

Authors: Chara Theodoraki

Several studies have focused on the relationship between the R2 and the firm value. They have tried to explain how different values of R2 affect the firm value. In this paper we examine this relationship for the Greek companies listed on the Greek Stock Exchange, analyzing a sample of 135 listed companies for the 2004-2010 period. The results reveal that R2 is inversely related to the firm value. This is consistent with the model of Dow and Gorton (1997). Moreover, we found that companies with high R2 have significantly higher returns than those with low R2, over a two year period time, which is inconsistent with the findings of Stowe and Xing (2011). Moreover, this research shows that the investment decisions are likely to be based more on investor psychology rather than an analysis of firm-specific information. JEL Classification: G11, G12, G14. Keywords: R2; firm value; Tobin’s Q; long run performance.

53-62

Authors: Ioannis Vogiatzis, Costas Siriopoulos, Nikolaos Frangos

This paper presents the results of the actuarial valuation method Projected Unit Credit (“benefits/years of service”) in order to assess the effects of the public sector downsizing on real economy and social security in Greece, using a prototype data set. We found a social security loss of about 1.3 bn.€, and the effect on the GDP is estimated -13.6 bn.€ (or -7%). We also report a decrease in the direct income by 6.1 bn.€. JEL classifications: C58; H55. Keywords: Projected Unit Credit Method, Public Sector Downsizing, Pensions, Social Security