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This paper explores the effectiveness in the use of texture painting software packages, which are more commonly used in the film and game industries, as a method for detecting and recording carvings on non-planar surfaces. This new approach is demonstrated through a case study of the Piraeus Lion, a sculpture in Venice which has documented engravings that are subtle and have proven difficult to fully recorded and interpret using traditional approaches. Through the creation of a new digital documentation of the Piraeus Lion using Structure from Motion, the model was processed using existing methods and other experimental visualisation techniques. The outputs from these were then compared to the those from two software, Substance Painter and Mari. These software packages helped to visualise the carvings and showed that the method has potential for a wide range of uses, both within epigraphy and other fields of study relating to carvings on stone including rock art and runology. The presented method is intended to be used alongside existing digital and analogue methods as a tool for annotating, evaluating, and discovering new carvings in their original context. In particular, Substance Painter offers a repeatable, easy to use, and intuitive solution to creating easily distributable visualisations and annotated models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 crisis of refugee policies saw an upgrade in the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as service providers for the migrant population in Greece. CSOs attempted to substitute for the government's failure to provide a migration policy designed for the social integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (MRAs). As a result, they have been overseeing a majority of services related to the integration of MRAs in the labour market. This paper aims to enrich the underdeveloped so far discussion on the role of CSOs in the integration of refugees and asylum seekers (RAs) into the Greek labour market. This will be attempted by adopting a qualitative approach. The paper is based on 34 interviews done in 2019, involving refugees, asylum seekers and representatives of third-sector organizations, namely non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and grassroots solidarity initiatives (GSIs) provide various activities that seek to improve the employability of refugees and asylum seekers and help them navigate the employment policies. The article concludes that the lack of a follow-up to the various actions, the fragmented funding schemes and the absence of a clear integration policy from public actors and support from the public administration lie behind the relatively limited role played by CSOs for refugees and asylum seekers in labour market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the short-term employment impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in Greece during the first few months following the pandemic onset. During the initial lockdown period, aggregate employment was lower by almost 9 percentage points than it would have been expected based on pre-pandemic employment trends. However, due to a government intervention that prohibited layoffs, this was not due to higher separation rates. The overall short-term employment impact was due to lower hiring rates. To uncover the mechanism behind this, we use a difference-in-differences framework, and show that tourism-related activities, which are exposed to seasonal variation, had significantly lower employment entry rates in the months following the pandemic onset compared to non-tourism activities. Our results highlight the relevance of the timing of unanticipated shocks in economies with strong seasonal patterns, and the relative effectiveness of policy interventions to partly absorb the consequences of such shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The considerable relevant size of the tourism sector for some economies, together with this sector's vulnerability to CC, renders this study an insightful aid to tourism demand forecasting. The paper applies a pooled mean group (PMG) model to identify climate parameters that affect tourism demand. Then, it continues with an input–output table analysis to show the transmission effects of CC on each component of the tourism sector. The PMG model imposes homogeneity on the long-run coefficients and while less restrictive, it is more efficient than other methods of the same family. The estimated gravity equation enables comparisons of the baseline scenario with various different scenarios of CC and finds how tourist arrivals could be affected up to 2080. Our results suggest that there is mostly a positive relationship of the squared difference of temperature and precipitation between Greece and tourist origin countries. Our findings also suggest that CC could lead to a fall in Greek GDP between 1.79 and 2.61%. We believe that our findings will help design appropriate policy actions that may offset or alleviate these negative future negative impacts of CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroeconomic changes such as economic depression and stock market crashes can have an impact on private life, mood and attitudes toward individuals and, by this, on the macroeconomy. This paper deals with the mental health indicators depression and grief as a result of economic and financial crises. For this purpose, it refers to the seminal five phases of crisis response well known from psychology and applies them to the setting of Greece since the start of the most recent crisis. In this context, we differentiate between investors and the "normal" population and deal with important feedback effects from lower mental health to the macroeconomy. Finally, as these feedback effects tend to lead even deeper into macroeconomic trouble, a vicious cycle cannot be excluded given these findings. The paper also generalizes its considerations to the case of mental health effects of economic crises beyond the Greek case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greek National Annex for current Eurocode 8 has adopted the seismic hazard zonation map published in 2003 as part of the modifications to the Greek Seismic Code EAK 2000 (EAK 2003). This map, which followed the catastrophic earthquakes that hit the country between 1978 and 2001, includes three seismic hazard zones with peak ground acceleration (PGA) ranging between 0.16 and 0.36 g. In this paper, following the significant progress that has been made worldwide in the last two decades towards the improvement of the definition of seismic actions and the seismic hazard maps using fully probabilistic models, we make a complete proposal for the Greek National Annex of the ongoing revision of Eurocode 8, which includes a new seismic hazard zonation map for Greece, as well as a novel site categorization scheme and related site amplification factors. To this end, we use the results of the European Seismic Hazard Model, ESHM20, as reported by Danciu et al. (The 2020 update of the European Seismic Hazard Model: Model Overview, 2021) which will be adopted as informative reference for the seismic hazard at European level in the forthcoming revision of Eurocode 8 (CEN/EC8). The herein proposed ground shaking zonation for rock conditions includes five zones with PGA values ranging between 0.13 and 0.37 g. For each zone, two newly proposed ground motion parameters, i.e., Sα,475 and Sβ,475, are provided, which are the two parameters used for anchoring the elastic response spectrum as defined in CEN/EC8, along with all the other necessary parameters for the definition of the elastic response spectrum, including site amplification. The proposal for the new seismic zonation is supported by a preliminary investigation of the impact of its adoption on the seismic design of new structures and on the seismic risk of the current building stock in Greece, to help gain a better insight on how important the differences imposed by the new zonation might be for the end-users and the administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the critical role of Mega Infrastructure Projects in sustainable urban and peripheral development by presenting a Sustainable Infrastructure Serum Analysis supported by primary field research. In the Athens Metro case study, we examined the project's impact on sustainable development by analysing the opinions of the project's users. As a result, the Athens Metro serves as a case study to help us better understand sustainable infrastructure as a framework for green growth from the standpoint of society. The three pillars of sustainable development are inextricably linked. This study focuses on the social comprehension and acceptance of a Mega Infrastructure Project effects. We attempt to demonstrate the interdependence of the three pillars of sustainable development through public opinion responses to our research by developing a statistical model fed by public responses to a prototype questionnaire that we developed to support our research objectives. The study's findings highlighted the project's social acceptability and necessity by establishing a direct positive correlation between sustainability, society, the economy, and the environment from the standpoint of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 2010, the fiscal situation of Greece was unsustainable, and an ambitious but costly adjustment plan had to be put in place under a consortium of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank. It took three consecutive adjustment programmes, including debt-relief through private sector involvement, to restore confidence in the economy and achieve a budget surplus. In this paper, we provide a theoretical analysis of the Greek Crisis starting from 2010. We build a series of counterfactuals using the National Institute General Econometric Model (NIGEM) to analyse why the cost of the adjustment in terms of GDP loss and increase in debt-to-GDP ratio turned out to be much worse than expected. In doing so, we analyse three scenarios: (i) one in which we simulate a much more conservative cut in public investment by the Greek central government; (ii) a second scenario of a lower risk-premium, signalling, e.g., lower political and re-denomination risks, had the European Central Bank guaranteed its lending of last resort role earlier than 2012; (iii) finally, a similar financial envelope as the one adopted during the first Greek adjustment programme but over a longer period, moving beyond the standard IMF three-year duration programmes. We find that the mix of expenditure cuts and loss of confidence among households and firms explain a large part of the unanticipated costs of the adjustment in the Greek crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU has set ambitious commitment to achieve low carbon energy and economy transition up to 2050. This low carbon transition means sustainable energy development path based on renewable energy sources and first of all should address the energy poverty vulnerability and justice issues. The main goal of the paper is to develop indicators framework for assessing low carbon just energy transition and to apply this framework for analysis how climate change mitigation policies in households targeting enhancement of energy renovation of residential buildings and promotion of the use of micro-generation technologies and other policies are affecting household's energy poverty and vulnerability in selected countries: Lithuania and Greece. This framework allows to assess three main dimensions of sustainable energy development: environmental, social and economic. The paper provides policy recommendations how to deal with just low carbon energy transition which means addressing energy poverty issues during moving to 100% renewables in power generation based on performed case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely known that both geography and institutions determine the location of an investment. However, little is known about the impact of these factors on entrepreneurs' future business plans. Using a questionnaire survey, this paper examines whether the 'first-' and 'second-nature' geography and institutions affect the plans of entrepreneurs to expand or sell their businesses in Greece. The analysis shows that entrepreneurs intend to expand their businesses when the importance of the country's relative geographical location to the international market increases, but that of localisation economies decreases. There is also evidence that entrepreneurs aim to sell their businesses to domestic investors when sea access, the natural environment, the agglomeration economies, the location of Greece and the local governance are ideal for the business performance in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk perception has been widely recognized as an essential factor in shaping attitudes and behaviors of individuals and communities proactively, during and after the experience of extreme catastrophic events. Its importance derives out mostly due to its intrinsic relationship with socioeconomic parameters and capacity building of communities affected by such events. The aim of this paper was to elaborate on the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of earthquake risk perception of populations living in an extremely earthquake-prone environment. For this purpose, a population sample of municipalities in the Corinthiakos Gulf in Central West Greece was examined. The sample (230 men and 276 women) was randomly selected from three coastal municipalities of the Gulf: Aigialeia, Nafpaktia and Corinthos. Multi-adjusted linear regression analysis was performed to reveal the determinants of the participants' perceptions regarding earthquake risk. Findings revealed that mean earthquake risk perception score was moderate in both men and women and notably lower for the participants living in the municipality of Nafpaktia, as compared to the participants of the other two study areas. Earthquake risk perception varied significantly according to age, sex, income and building construction period (of assets resided or used by the participants). Younger strata, especially young men, and households of lower-income status tend to correlate to lower earthquake risk perception. Moreover, individuals living in newly constructed buildings presented lower earthquake risk perception levels. Also, increased individuals' earthquake safety information provided by state agencies and local civil protection authorities was associated with increased risk perception. Issues like education, household structure, building earthquake insurance, savings and trust in civil protection authorities were not associated with risk perception. From a policy design point of view, such findings provide noteworthy insights for local communities and civil protection authorities allowing to identify vulnerable population groups and to provide noteworthy insights to design targeted measures and policies in the making of a safe and resilient environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In every emergency medical situation, access to emergency medical services is an inalienable right of any citizen. The average acceptable time to provide first aid assistance is 60 minutes. In this paper, the possibility of using helicopters for air travel in mountainous areas was examined for the first time for all of Greece and especially for a mountainous and isolated area such as the Municipality of Agrafa. Initially, the time distance — virtual distance, from the hospitals was calculated at the national level of Greece, with an acceptable first contact time of 60 minutes (golden hour), i.e., less than two hours from the nearest hospital to the incident and back to the hospital and the relevant conclusions are drawn. Then, the case study of Municipality of Agrafa, one of the most mountainous areas in Greece, was examined. The time distance of the settlements from the nearest primary health point, namely the Primary Health Centre (PHC) of West Fragkista, was calculated and the transportation by ground means was compared with the corresponding time by flying means, to investigate the contribution of air transportation or not, of the timely arrival of the patients in the appropriate health structure. Finally, possible helicopter landing locations were identified, using a geographic information system to facilitate the process of air medical transportation in the Municipality of Agrafa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of external pressures, internal motivations and their interplay, with the intention of identifying whether they drive substantive or instead symbolic implementation of ISO 14001. The context is one of economic crisis. We focus on Greece, where the economic crisis has weakened the country’s institutional environment, and analyse qualitatively new interview data from 45 ISO 14001 certified firms. Our findings show that (a) weak external pressures can lead to a symbolic implementation of ISO 14001, as firms can defend their legitimacy without incurring the costs of internalization in the local market; (b) weak external pressures can lead to substantive implementation of ISO 14001 when firms have strong internal motivations seeking to strategically differentiate from competitors in international markets. Firms internalize ISO 14001 so as to restore their legitimacy and reputation in foreign markets and stimulate their competitiveness; and (c) strong internal motivations pave the way for companies to stimulate their competitiveness by enhancing their efficiency, as some companies might strengthen their position in the local market by implementing ISO 14001 substantively. The contribution of this paper to the literature on ISO 14001 internalization lies in refining existing theory on the importance of internal motivations for the substantive implementation of ISO 14001 in the context of economic crisis. In addition, this paper extends current theory by challenging studies that dismiss the importance of external pressures. We argue that the intensity of external pressures influences the internalization of ISO 14001, but propose that this relationship might not be linear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to determine potential tsunamigenic morphostructural nodes in Greece using pattern recognition algorithms. The earthquakes that have produced local tsunamis in the region were confined to morphostructural nodes whose locations were found by morphostructural zoning. The recognition problem consisted in separating all nodes in the region into the tsunamigenic class and the non-tsunamigenic class based mainly on the geomorphologic parameters of the nodes. The data on tsunamigenic earthquakes in Greece for training the Cora-3 algorithm were taken from the GHTD global historical catalog of tsunamigenic events (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/tsu%5fdb.shtml). The recognition procedure resulted in determining 27 tsunamigenic nodes, with most of these being situated in the southern tip of the Peloponnese Peninsula, as well as in the gulfs of Corinth and Patras. Three tsunamigenic nodes were identified in the area of the Malian Gulf on the Aegean coast of Greece. According to the relevant literature, most local tsunamis in Greece were initiated by submarine slides and slumps due to earthquakes. According to the characteristic geomorphologic features derived in this study, the tsunamigenic nodes are situated in settings of contrasting relief characterized by steep slopes. This favors submarine landslides when subjected to earthquake excitation. The results reported in this paper form a basis for developing a methodology to be used in long-term tsunami hazard assessment, supplying information on local potential tsunamigenic sources required for tsunami regionalization of coastal areas in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Greece, there are many audiovisual resources available on the Internet that interest scientists and the general public. Although freely available, finding such resources often becomes a challenging task, because they are hosted on scattered websites and in different types/formats. These websites usually offer limited search options; at the same time, there is no aggregation service for audiovisual resources, nor a national registry for such content. To meet this need, the Open AudioVisual Archives project was launched and the first step in its development is to create a dataset with open access audiovisual material. The current research creates such a dataset by applying specific selection criteria in terms of copyright and content, form/use and process/technical characteristics. The results reported in this paper show that libraries, archives, museums, universities, mass media organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations are the main types of providers, but the vast majority of resources are open courses offered by universities under the "Creative Commons" license. Providers have significant differences in terms of their collection management capabilities. Most of them do not own any kind of publishing infrastructure and use commercial streaming services, such as YouTube. In terms of metadata policy, most of the providers use application profiles instead of international metadata schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two strong earthquakes hit Thessaly region on March 3rd, 2021 (Mw = 6.3) and on March 4th, 2021 (Mw = 6.1). The epicentres of the earthquakes were located at approximately 23 and 29 km respectively NW of Larissa, one of the most populous cities in Greece. Several aftershocks followed thereafter. Although no injuries were recorded, several structures suffered significant damage close to the epicentre, while some others collapsed. Approximately 300 residents of the village of Damasi were transferred to temporary settlements and tents. The event occurred during the COVID19 lockdown and created significant stress and disruption to residents. This paper focuses on the earthquake swarm itself as well as the damages observed in residential buildings, schools, and churches in the earthquake-stricken region. The earthquakes mainly impacted low-rise domestic masonry buildings, while the more modern reinforced concrete structures built following the recent seismic regulations were almost unaffected. The typology of buildings in the region, together with photographs demonstrating the extent of damage are presented herein. Despite the rather satisfactory performance of modern buildings in recent earthquakes in Greece, the preliminary investigations from the Thessaly Earthquakes showed that there is still a significant level of vulnerability in existing masonry building stock constructed using traditional methods and materials. This issue could re-emerge in future earthquakes striking other rural areas of Greece, something that needs to be addressed systematically in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper deals with landscape management issues, not only of terrestrial landscape but also of coastal and marine landscape. This paper also proposes a methodology to introduce the landscape dimension in marine zoning and underline the need to include marine landscape as a discrete unit in Greek marine spatial planning. More specifically, this work presents key issues and basic axes related to marine zoning implementation by identifying marine landscape typologies that have emerged based on the visibility of the marine space in structures with negative visual impact that are placed in the terrestrial space. For the empirical part of the study, Crete island is chosen where the coastal and marine exploitation is significant and continues to increase. The methodological approach for the quantitative rendering of visibility is based on viewshed analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the difference in life expectancy at birth between females and males in the Greek population between the years 1994–2017. After constructing life tables per gender, we used the method of Arriaga in order to decompose life expectancy's differences by age and sex. We found that the gender gap increased until 2009 and decreased afterwards. Moreover, we estimated the differential contribution of the broad age groups of the population to the regulation of gender inequalities in longevity and studied the different effect of the causes of death. Besides age, the most important regulators are the neoplasms and the diseases of the circulatory system, followed by the external causes of morbidity and mortality, as well as the diseases of the respiratory system. All other causes of death play a marginal role. The results of the analysis indicate the need for the development and expansion of several public interventions and programs in order, not only to reduce the gender inequalities in longevity, but also to reduce the prevalence of several preventable diseases in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a set of empirical regularities that characterize the activity of Greek exporters. Using a unique data set of Greek manufacturing firms with firm-level exports, credit scores and other financial variables for the 2003–2015 period, we find that export value increases with the firm's size, labour productivity, the skill premium of wages and the employment ratio in research and development activities. Moreover, the results indicate that less credit-constrained Greek exporters with higher credit scores export more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health expenditure data are known to be afflicted by restricted range, zero values, skewness and kurtosis. Several methods for modelling such data have been suggested in the literature to cope with these problems. This paper compares the performance of several alternative estimators, including two-part models and generalised linear models. The dependent variable is household expenditure on health care in Greece, a country where out-of-pocket health expenditure is higher than anywhere else in the European Union, whether as a proportion of GDP, as a share of all health spending, or in per capita terms. To facilitate comparison of model performance, household health expenditure is examined in two different specifications: expenditure on all health care (where zero values are rare) and expenditure on hospital services alone (where zero values are common). In the case of expenditure on all health care, three of the estimators performed almost equally well in terms of three alternative model performance indicators: a modified two-part model with non-linear least squares in the second part, a constant-variance generalised linear model and a variance-proportional-to-mean generalised linear model. In the case of expenditure on hospital services, the constant-variance generalised linear model out-performed the rest. The findings suggest that no estimator is best under all circumstances, while most alternative estimators are likely to produce relatively similar results. The paper concludes by discussing implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the link between increased trade and regional GDP growth across the regional income distribution in Greece during the post-EMU period (2000–2013). By means of quantile regression techniques, panel fixed effects and system generalized method of moments (GMM), we disentangle the effects of EU trade—trading with generally richer countries—versus global trade—in the case of Greece, mostly trading with poorer countries—at several points of the regional income distribution to identify differences in trade elasticities. The analysis finds that the impact of EU trade is highly heterogeneous and mainly affects negatively the economy of the richer regions in Greece. In contrast, the effects of EU trade display insignificant results for the lower-income regions, attributed to the absence of direct substitution effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dive tourism has been growing constantly in recent years, contributing to socio-economic development of coastal zones and islands. In Greece new users are attracted, while coastal communities seek to create marine infrastructure, such as diving parks. Within this context, this paper deals with issues of diving park location. More specifically, it attempts to propose a methodology by identifying marine typologies and classify them according to specific criteria favourable or not to the location of diving parks. Rhodes island is chosen for the empirical part of the study, since the island's local economy is based on sea tourism. Marine typologies are identified based on selected criteria, and the marine space is classified according to favourable characteristics of the location of the diving park. The results indicate that, due to the significant human-induced activities in the marine environment, the potential dive locations are significantly reduced, underlining the risk of sea use conflicts and emerging the need of MSP implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Greece, the overall procedure of producing public works is defined in detail by juridical rules. This has the effect of reducing the purchaser-commissioner of the technical merchandise to a determinative factor in the manner of construction of the merchandise in question, given that intervention extends even to description of the individual works to be performed if the study for the technical project is to be transmuted into a material construction. Because of this, there is no relevant bibliography or relevant references which could be used to document the subject matter of this paper. According to Greek legislation, the value of a Greek private sector project functions as an independent variable for determining the value of a Greek public sector project. In this way it can be proved that Greek public works are overpriced. Prior to 2004, to be specific, the contracting agent had secured a profit even before he enters the production process, because of the difference between the exchange value asked by its seller and the exchange value which he would have asked if the buyer were not the state but a private citizen. This fact is demonstrated in this paper by a mathematical model. After 2004, however, with a view to reducing the relevant overprofit, the Greek legislator changed the method of costing for public works projects, with the result that the cost of each project now tended to approximate what it would have been if the project had been constructed for a private individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why Greek high school students aspire to emigrate, in relation to their educational and socio-economic background. Through fieldwork research conducted at three specialist high schools in Thessaloniki, three main conclusions have been drawn. Firstly, potential emigrants are ambitious, with high educational and professional expectations and a clear migration plan. Secondly, they are middle and upper middle class and excel at school-in socio-economic and educational terms, they therefore constitute the most dynamic Greek youths. Thirdly, in a period of recession on a European level, the alarming fact is that student emigration can undermine recovery for a country in crisis such as Greece. That is, middle-class shrinkage caused by the recession can be aggravated by emigration, which in turn might cost the loss of developmental human resources for Greece and a deepening of the recession. This can further stimulate migration, resulting in a vicious circle between crisis and emigration. Furthermore, if potential emigrants do not return because temporary emigration for studies becomes permanent migration for work, the economic crisis is worsened, and Greece's prospects for development are further undermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at presenting the state of the art regarding systemic/family therapy in Greece, in relation to practice, professional and accreditation issues and training. It is argued that systemic/family therapy in Greece constitutes a lively and diverse terrain with roots in the 1960s and a rapid dissemination of the approach following the mid 1980s. The field's development in Greece is out-sketched by means of 'data' collected from a variety of sources, like web sites of associations and training centers, published articles and informal and semi-structured interviews conducted with seminal figures. First, a concise historical overview of the birth of systemic/family therapy is presented in relation to the wider socio-political context and the attempt for the reform of the psychiatric system in Greece during the 1980s. Second, a brief sketch of the existing associations as well as of the contexts where systemic/family therapy is practiced is outlined in relation to issues regarding accreditation and statutory regulations. Third, a non-exhaustive list of currently existing training programs is reviewed in respect of axis, like their content and structure, accreditation issues, entry requirements, etc. The paper concludes with inferences regarding the existing state of the art including future potential directions, whilst hinting to research ventures, which could enrich our understanding of both the history and the potential of the field in the Greek context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of this paper is to investigate the Greek 'path' to water privatization and its possible interconnections with the ongoing restructuring of the water sector on an EU and a global level. The paper starts with a contemporary, spatially-sensitive analysis of the expanding role of water multinationals, by focusing on water supply operators of the southern EU. Afterwards, it highlights the peculiarities of the 'Greek path' to private sector participation by studying the two most important Greek water companies, in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki respectively. As found, these companies have partially, though successfully, been transformed according to the rules of the 'market-environmentalist' paradigm. The state drives the privatization effort, while at the same time, insufficiently regulates the activity of both companies. Based on the Greek case, the paper discusses whether the analytical tools offered by a critical approach, the 'accumulation-by-dispossession' thesis, can better interpret changes in water companies of the 'advanced-South'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to investigate entrepreneurial activity and to analyze the incentives of female participation in the labor market. Female entrepreneurial activity is closely related to social and economic issues. They represent a driving force, active and effective members of economic, political, professional and managerial societies. On the other hand, they have families with serious maternal responsibilities and inelastic household obligations, roles which they are trying to balance effectively. To that reason, specific actions and carefully designed measures are essential in encouraging and promoting them to engage into entrepreneurial activity. To investigate the issue of entrepreneurial activity, personal characteristics and various motivation incentives are examined in order to determine the major factors that may influence female entrepreneurial spirit in Greece. Obtaining data from 1600 industrial firms located in the prefecture of Piraeus over the period 1999-2009, this study makes use of the panel methodology approach to provide evidence about the main determinants of female entrepreneurship. What is found is that a combination of pull and push motives and effective mentoring framework, in addition to a set of personal characteristics such as risk of failure, educational level, creativity, innovativeness, ambitiousness and marital status, seem important for the encouragement of women entrepreneurship in Greece to start up a new business. The implications seem very substantial for the formulation and implementation of effective support policies and measures for female entrepreneurs' vital start up and early stage period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the magnitude of the Balassa-Samuelson effect for Greece. We calculate the effect directly, using sectoral national accounts data, which permits estimation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the tradeables and nontradeables sectors. Our results suggest that it is difficult to produce one estimate of the BS effect. Any particular estimate is contingent on the definition of the tradeables sector and the assumptions made about labour shares. Moreover, there is also evidence that the effect has been declining through time as Greek standards of living have caught up on those in the rest of the world and as the non-tradeables sector within Greece catches up with the tradeables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to use museum collection data to estimate measures of species rarity and then to relate these measures to extinction risk. For this purpose, 170 taxa (138 species and 32 subspecies) of tenebrionid beetles from 32 Aegean Islands (Greece) were considered. For each taxon, rarity was evaluated as geographic distribution (mean incidence on islands in the archipelago), potential habitat exploitation (total area of the islands occupied on the total area of the study system) and contactability (number of decades of taxon’s records on the total number of decades of assumed persistence from 1870 to 2000). All of these indices were correlated to each other. Whether expressed in terms of range size or habitat exploitation rarity was a major determinant of a species’ risk of extinction (evaluated as extinction decade). Thus, the designation of rarity provides a good basis for identifying species that are most in need of conservation at a particular scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the Growth Accounting methodology to estimate technological change, as well as labor and capital productivity in the various sectors of the Greek economy over the period 1988–1998. The results show that the technological level, as measured through annual growth in Total Factor Productivity, has remained practically unchanged. Meanwhile, technological change accounts for about 40% of economic growth, which is slightly lower compared with the relative performance of other O.E.C.D. countries. Finally, our main findings are, in general terms, consistent with estimates by other researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper applies empirically the methodology of backward and forward R & D multipliers for the case of Greece, which, despite its high growth rates in output (G.D.P.), ranks last among European Union (E.U) countries in R&D expenditure. The backward R&D multipliers measure the total amount of R&D expenditure embodied in one unit of an industry’s final demand. On the other hand, forward multipliers reflect the percentage of an industry’s R&D expenditures that is embodied in the final output categories. The results show that the Greek economy experiences a decrease in backward R&D multipliers over the time period 1993–1997, and some policy implications are discussed, regarding the country’s priority to increase R&D diffusion and stimulate R&D financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privatisation, coupled with liberalisation and competition, constitutes one of the most popular policy options to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises. However, in Greece, it was only after 1991 that privatisation started to gain ground in the political and economic agendas of governments. Drawing upon the theoretical underpinnings of privatisation, the paper overviews and critically analyses the new legal framework on denationalisation in Greece. The paper argues that, though the modernisation of the legal regime is welcomed, the Greek government has failed to treat privatisation as part of wider structural reforms aiming at enhancing competition and foreign investment. The paper concludes that wider structural reforms, including regulatory reform and liberalisation, as well as combating corruption and bureaucracy and promoting transparent capital markets, are absolutely necessary in order to create a competitive environment, which would both complement and support privatisation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on the epidemiology of serious fungal infections in Greece are scarce. Our aim was to calculate the burden of serious fungal diseases in Greece. A thorough literature search for papers reporting epidemiological data on serious fungal diseases in Greece was performed. Where no Greek data existed, we used a structured set of assumptions to estimate fungal disease burden, based on specific high-risk populations. Of the 10.8 million population, 85.5 % are adults and 27 % are over 60 years of age. The annual fungal disease estimates are as follows: 142,337 Greek women get recurrent vaginal thrush (2,632 cases/100,000 females); there are 889 cases of esophageal candidiasis (8.2 cases/100,000); annual incidence of Pneumocystis pneumonia is 112 cases; chronic pulmonary aspergillosis prevalence is 386 cases; there are 20,843 patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and 27,744 with severe asthma with fungal sensitization; candidaemia incidence is 541 cases (5.0/100,000); there are 81 cases of Candida peritonitis; invasive aspergillosis occurs in 1,125 patients. According to our calculations, 194,067 individuals (1.79 cases/100,000) in Greece suffer from serious fungal diseases each year. This is the first attempt to determine the burden of fungal diseases in Greece, and provides a crude estimate on its impact on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We here describe abundant new fossil material of amphibians and reptiles from different late Neogene localities of northern Greece: the Early Pliocene (MN 14) of Spilia 0, Spilia 1, and Spilia 2; the Early Pliocene (MN 15) of Spilia 3, Spilia 4, Spilia 5, and Vevi; and the Late Miocene or Pliocene of Chalicorrema and Rema Marmara. These new late Neogene herpetofaunas are highly diverse, documenting a considerably rich herpetofauna allowing the identification of at least two salamander, seven frog, two turtle, seven lizard, and eight snake taxa. Salamanders are represented by the salamandrid genera Ommatotriton and Ichthyosaura. Frogs are represented by the bombinatorid Bombina, the discoglossids Latonia cf. ragei and Latonia sp., the pelobatid Pelobates aff. praefuscus and Pelobates sp., the ranids Pelophylax and Rana cf. dalmatina, the hylid Hyla gr. arborea, and the bufonid Bufotes gr. viridis. Turtles are represented by the emydid Emys and an indeterminate geoemydid. Lizards are represented by the scincid Ophiomorus, two lacertids (one of which potentially pertaining to Lacerta), amphisbaenians, agamids, the anguid Pseudopus, and a potential varanid. Snakes are represented by the erycid Eryx, the natricid Natrix aff. rudabanyaensis, a small-sized elapid, an "Oriental viper", the colubriforms Periergophis and Paraxenophis, as well as two further distinct but still indeterminate morphotypes of colubriforms. For the material from Spilia tentatively referred to Ommatotriton, this is only the third occurrence in the fossil record globally. The new material of Ichthyosaura and Bombina mark the first documentation of these genera in the Greek fossil record. Abundant cranial and postcranial material from Spilia is tentatively referred to Latonia ragei, a taxon previously known from the Early Miocene of Western Europe. The new record of Pelobates represents the oldest documented occurrences of the genus in the Greek fossil record. Interestingly, the Pelobates from Spilia bears much resemblance to an extinct taxon, Pelobates aff. praefuscus, which is otherwise known from the Late Miocene of the Caucasus, and not to the extant species that currently inhabits the area. The identification of Pelophylax and Rana adds to the rather poor Neogene record of ranids from Greece. Particularly for the case of Rana cf. dalmatina from Spilia 4, this corresponds to the only documented occurrence of this extant taxon in the Greek fossil record. Similarly, the identification of Hyla gr. arborea in Spilia 1, Spilia 3, and Spilia 4, marks only the third documented occurrence of this genus in the Greek fossil record. The Bufotes material from Spilia 1, Spilia 3, and Spilia 4 represents the first documented fossil occurrence of the extant Bufotes viridis complex in Greece. The material of Emys gr. orbicularis from Vevi marks the only known pre-Quaternary record of the genus in Greece and one of the only few Neogene members of the genus known from Europe. The scincid Ophiomorus is identified in Spilia 4, known from several cranial and postcranial remains, well outside the extant range of the genus. Practically, the Spilia Ophiomorus is only the fourth known fossil occurrence of this extant genus globally and also represents one of its oldest known occurrences. Material from Spilia 1 and Spilia 3 is tentatively referred to cf. Lacerta sp., and this would mark the first known occurrence of this emblematic extant genus in the Greek fossil record, denoting the presence of the genus since at least the Early Pliocene. The new amphisbaenian specimens from Spilia 4 add to the recently described single vertebra from the same locality, and represent the youngest occurrence of amphisbaenians from continental Eastern Europe. The new agamid material from Vevi and Chalicorrema add substantially to the record of this group, which was in Greece so far known exclusively from the latest Miocene/earliest Pliocene of Maramena. A similarly important addition is the record of Pseudopus from Spilia 4, as this genus had been known in the Greek fossil record only from a very few localities. The potential varanid from Spilia represents one of the few Pliocene occurrences of this group in Europe. We identify Natrix aff. rudabanyaensis among the material from Spilia 0, Spilia 4, and Vevi, adding to the previously known record of this taxon from Maramena, however, its precise species level assignment should await a revision of Neogene European Natrix spp. The find of a small elapid from Spilia 4 represents the youngest occurrence of a coral snake from Europe, extending their statigraphic range up to the Early Pliocene (MN 14). Periergophis and Paraxenophis, two bizarre snakes, so far exclusively known from their type locality in Maramena, could be also present here, even if tentatively identified. Most notably, the new material from these localities comprises forms that are now extinct (e.g., Periergophis and Paraxenophis) or extirpated from Europe (e.g., Latonia, Varanidae, Elapidae) but at the same time also loudly attests the emergence of the extant genera that dominate the extant herpetofaunas of Greece (Ichthyosaura, Bombina, Pelobates, Pelophylax, Rana, Hyla, Bufotes, Emys, Ophiomorus, Lacerta, Pseudopus, Eryx, and Natrix), for some of which their fossil record is documented here for the first time in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature review has revealed the critical role of local residents in ongoing tourism development. The present paper investigates the perceptions of the Greek local population toward tourism development and their engagement in participatory opportunities in a case study of a Greek protected area. According to the results, the respondents have not fully understood the meaning of the protected area. They pay particular attention to activities related to business and economic development, derived from the activities which are proposed as necessary for tourism development. Furthermore, the study shows the weak engagement of the respondents in participatory opportunities which is related to the demographic characteristics of them, as well as to the factors related to economic benefits and environment. However, residents support the need for a new scheme where local population will actively participate in the decision-making process. The supporting role of local authorities is likely to be one of the main factors affecting residents' intention to engage in participatory opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important piece of legislation towards integrated water management in Europe is the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) based on the river basin. During its implementation each Member State (MS) should prepare a River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) accompanied with the Programme of Measures (PoMs) aiming at achieving good quality for all water bodies. The paper aims at presenting a summary of the progress regarding the RBMPs developed by each EU27 MS and special focus is given in Greece. The paper attempts a comparative analysis of the 12 Greek RBMPs highlighting the problems occurred and the drawbacks identified. Special focus is given in the economic analysis assessment where different methodologies are used to estimate the full water cost. Finally suggestions are given that can be taken into consideration during the second WFD implementation cycle in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the various interactions among the institutional and cultural environment and the quality of entrepreneurial activity in Greece. The institutional context and the way in which institutions perform in particular, shape the structure of entrepreneurial incentives. As explicitly demonstrated by Baumol (J Political Econ 98:893-921, ) institutions actually channel entrepreneurial talent toward different activities which may be productive, unproductive or destructive. At the same time, informal institutions, i.e. culture and values have proven to be of equal importance for entrepreneurship. Within this context, the paper builds a simple model of rewards' satisfaction accounting for first, the existence of income externalities, in order to test the hypothesis that individuals care about their relative position, i.e. economic status, and second, for the institutional quality, trust and values pertaining in the society, in order to analyze the possible existence of an underlying 'social consensus' that is supportive of rent-seeking behavior in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greece is a parliamentary republic in southeastern Europe populated by over 10 million permanent residents: 9 million reside on the mainland, with almost 4 million in the greater Athens area. The remaining 1 million populate the over 1200 Greek islands. In addition, more than 160,000 asylum-seekers reached Greece in 2022, and more than 25 million tourists have visited Greece in the last two years. Modern Greek Emergency Medicine (EM) is now in its 4th decade. The Greek government has focused the last few years on enhancing the quality of emergency services provided in public hospitals. Emergency Departments (EDs) are being modernized, undergraduate medical education gradually incorporates EM, and a specialty training program in emergency nursing has been established. However, the late recognition of the critical importance of EM as a specialty in Greece has resulted in the subsequent need to create three alternative pathways to EM, none of which are direct from residency. The first is a 24-month Emergency Medicine fellowship after completing a residency in another specialty and then passing the national exam. The second is for physicians who have worked in a public hospital ED (Gr: Ethniko Systima Ygeias (ESY) ESY for at least three years and successfully passed the national exam. The third, which no longer exists, is a 'grandfather' pathway for those physicians who worked in an ESY ED for five years prior to the creation of the fellowship training program. As a result, there is a critical shortage of EM-trained physicians, resulting in most care being provided by physicians without formal training in EM. This is further confounded by the country's challenging geography, with frequent air transfers from the islands to mainland hospitals. Creating an EM Residency training program is a critical next step to overcoming many of the challenges facing EM provision in Greece today: it would address the shortage of EM-trained providers, decrease the need for costly ground and air transfers, and improve the quality of emergency care throughout Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast majority of tools recovered from Palaeolithic sites are made of stone varieties. Only rarely do non-lithic implements come to light, let alone tools produced on marine mollusc shell. Interestingly, a good number of shell implements made on Callista chione and Glycymeris sp. valves have been reported from 13 Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) sites in southern peninsular Europe. Of these, more than 300 specimens display evidence of deliberate edge retouch. They are all considered products of Neanderthals and date from ~110 ka BP to perhaps ~50 ka BP. In this paper, we review the evidence for Mousterian shell tool production in Italy and Greece-the only two countries in which such tools have been securely identified-and present experimental results obtained in the effort to understand the production process and typo-functional role(s) of the artefacts. We examine the general provisioning pattern of raw materials, as well as the typological, species-related and chronological data pertinent to the production of shell tools by Neanderthals. The data suggest that the Mousterian shell scrapers are a response to poor availability of lithic raw material in the areas of occurrence, and may be best described as an extension of chipped stone technologies to specific types of marine shell, their form defined by an existing mental template. As such, they constitute evidence for refined adaptation strategies and advanced provisioning of resources amongst Neanderthals, and may lend further support to the idea that these hominids displayed a degree of complex behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet technologies have a great potential for changing fundamentally the banks and the banking industry. The opportunities, which the e-banking services and technologies offer to the banking sector in order to fulfil existing customer needs and to attract new prospective customers, are the driving forces for banks in order to design, develop and operate their own e-banking systems. This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of e-banking for the Greek banking sector, during the e-commerce era, and also presents the results of a survey of banking executives working at banks offering e-banking services. The main findings demonstrate that banks expand to e-banking services in order to remain competitive, to keep track with technological developments and to benefit from the lower cost of e-banking transactions. The major problems they face are the low response rate from customers and the implementation of security and data protection mechanisms. The relatively low Internet usage, the non-familiarity with technologically advanced devices and problems regarding security and privacy are the main factors that have a negative influence on the adoption of e-banking services by customers in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to use socioeconomic indicators for analyzing convergence within Greece at regional (NUTS II) and prefecture levels (NUTS III) since 1960. We use two alternative approaches. The first one is based on the coefficient of variation and the second one on quality of life rankings. We confirm the decline of regional inequalities in Greece, with the exclusion of the 1980s. Regions with increased tourist and trade activity are also regions with high quality of life. Border regions are usually the laggards of social and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the way the national higher education entry examinations in Greece are used to determine entry into the 100 percent government-controlled state tertiary education system. The database refers to the population of all secondary education graduates taking (or not taking) the June 2000 national secondary school examination. There is considerable achievement variation across regions and types of school. Poor districts, evening schools, and state schools are associated with lower achievement. Private schools are associated with higher achievement, even controlling for parental schooling and wealth. Regardless of the student's achievement in the national examinations, entry each year is mainly determined by the number of available places. Given the fact the state cannot afford to provide free access to all those who want entry, the non-university cycle has expanded rapidly to accommodate a greater number of students into ``higher education technological institutes'' that are most frequently not the candidates' first choice. Thus, the fable of Procrustes is revived in modern Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 5, 2015, Greek voters were asked whether to approve or reject the terms of an austerity program offered by the European Union (EU) to resolve an ongoing financial crisis. With a turnout rate of 62.5% overall, 61.3% of Greeks voted 'no.' While a majority of voters in every district opposed the bailout's terms, the margin against the proposed austerity measures ranged from 51.2% in Lakonias to 73.8% in Chanion. This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of the 'no' vote across Greece's 56 electoral districts. Our analysis is grounded in public choice theories of why large numbers of people turn out to vote in mass elections. In addition to controlling for standard 'instrumental' vote motives, we ask whether political party labels, which serve as summary measures of partisan positioning, and party platforms, which express partisan preferences on ballot questions, are salient in determining electoral outcomes. Holding constant the unemployment rate and average voter age (at the regional level) and the fraction of young people casting ballots for the first time on July 5, 2015 (at the district level), we find that the percentage of 'no' votes was reduced significantly by voter support for Greece's leading pro-austerity party (New Democracy) in the previous nationwide election held in January 2015. In contrast, voter support in January for the anti-austerity party (Syriza), led by sitting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, had no measurable impact on July's referendum results. This finding offers support for both instrumental and expressive theories of voting and bolsters the claim that political parties can shape electoral outcomes on questions decided by an institution of direct democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper simulates the macroeconomics of Greece following its 2009 government debt crisis that precipitated a 4-year depression with stagnant growth since. A model of aggregate supply and demand estimated with quarterly data from 2003 to 2018 is constrained to a balanced government budget, outside euro exchange rate, and exogenous international interest rate. Dynamic stochastic simulations starting in 2011 capture the effects of less erratic government spending, quicker transition to debit cards, and returning investment sentiment to the pre-crisis level. Simulations track the path of income along with the trade balance, tax revenue, price level, and equilibrium quantity of money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the assessment of alternative aspects of the efficiency of 98 out of 126 hospitals of the Greek national health system. The analysis is directly concerned with the degree of utilisation of resources and the production efficiency of the general hospitals selected. For the measurement of the indices or efficiency, the internationally known method of Data Envelopment Analysis (modified to the particular characteristics of the Greek NHS) was used. The efficiency of Greek hospitals was assessed utilising two alternative conceptual models: one focusing on production and the other on cost efficiency. The results, in both cases, indicated the scope for substantial efficiency improvements. The analysis has sought to discuss the policy implications resulting from the current efficiency status of the hospitals with reference to issues of resource re-allocation and optimal scale size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a constant, data-coherent, equilibrium correction model for broad money demand (M3) in Greece over 1976-1994. The aggregate M3 was targeted until recently, and current monetary policy still uses such aggregates as guidelines. In spite of financial innovation, financial liberalization, and large fluctuations in the inflation rate, the estimated model is remarkably stable. Dynamics are important, with price and income elasticities being much smaller in the short run than in the long run. The model provides a better understanding of the portfolio consequences of financial innovation and the effects of monetary policy in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the research literature, we have identified a lack of common understanding of the 'development' concept. The meaning of development has changed over the last decades from referencing simple economic growth to embracing social and environmental concerns. The aim of this paper is to highlight the Worth-living Integrated Development theory (WID) in the context of postgraduate education and interdisciplinarity. In particular, through the description of three research projects undertaken within the interdisciplinary postgraduate programme 'Environment and Development of Mountainous Areas' of the National Technical University of Athens, the methodology of WID applied to the Greek mountain area of Konitsa is presented. In the first step of the methodology, the recent development strategies enacted by the municipality of Konitsa were compared with the principles and the values of WID. This was done to document the necessity of an integrated development process. In the second step, the investigating parameters and indicators were selected and then bibliographically and empirically researched following extensive discussions within the interdisciplinary team. In the third step, the data were analyzed to highlight the problems, the objective and the 'potential' development opportunities, as well as the objective constraints on the Integrated Development of the study area. In the fourth step, a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches was followed by interdisciplinary workgroups for the formulation and documentation of alternative scenarios for Integrated Development. In the fifth step, a set of criteria was described to allow residents to evaluate the proposed development actions and choose the optimal development policies for the Municipality of Konitsa. Finally, a set of principles and values was clarified to help residents speak out and reject actions or policies that might lower their living standards. The results of each methodological step and the integrated development approach for the region of Konitsa can be used as an important tool in the planning, development and support of relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents a new series two-stage DEA modeling framework for credit risk evaluation in terms of operating performance efficiency and effectiveness that is implemented to a sample of listed Greek firms of basic resources and chemicals sector. In the series stages two types of DEA metrics are used: The first type is based on the range adjusted measure (RAM) whereas the second type is based on a common set of weights (CSW) of RAM. Performance inefficiency is uncovered in both performance dimensions, but the real problem of inefficiency of the sampled firms is a lower level of effectiveness, rather than operating performance efficiency. The operating efficiency is not correlated with effectiveness, and thus it seems that there is not a link between the performance at the operational (cost-oriented) and financial (profit-oriented) spaces of the firm. Therefore, sample firms should give more emphasis on their profit-oriented policies to ensure their success in the industry. The research framework may benefit not only Greek listed firms, but also firms in other countries to quantify their performance and improve their competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of thermal bioclimate can be conducted employing either observational or modeling techniques. The advantage of the numerical modeling approach lies in that it can be applied in areas where there is lack of observational data, providing a detailed insight on the prevailing thermal bioclimatic conditions. However, this approach should be exploited carefully since model simulations can be frequently biased. The aim of this paper is to examine the suitability of a mesoscale atmospheric model in terms of evaluating thermal bioclimate. For this, the numerical weather prediction Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the radiation RayMan model are employed for simulating thermal bioclimatic conditions in Greece during a 1-year time period. The physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) is selected as an index for evaluating thermal bioclimate, while synoptic weather station data are exploited for verifying model performance. The results of the present study shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the numerical modeling approach. Overall, it is shown that model simulations can provide a useful alternative tool for studying thermal bioclimate. Specifically for Greece, the WRF/RayMan modeling system was found to perform adequately well in reproducing the spatial and temporal variations of PET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]