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In this paper the relative efficiency of the forest sector of 28 EU/EFTA countries during the period 2010–2015 is assessed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Three non-discretionary inputs (persons employed, forest available for wood supply and initial growing stock) are considered. The outputs are roundwood production, gross value added and final growing stock. The proposed DEA model not only computes efficiency scores but also improvement targets. The countries with the lowest efficiency scores during the period under study are Greece, Bulgaria and Italy. In the second stage, a fractional regression model is fitted and the factors that have an influence on the estimated efficiency are identified. The factors that have an influence are GDP and belonging to the NORTH Europe and CENTRAL-WEST Europe regions. Quantitative estimates of the partial effects of these factors are provided. The results can contribute in providing guidance towards the best practice in roundwood production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the 1st International Symposium and 10th Balkan Conference on Operational Research (BALCOR 2011) held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in September 2011. The event was attended by researchers and practitioners across the fields of statistics, mathematics, economics, engineering, computer science and information technology. They presented papers on a variety of topics including the effect of contextual variables on technical efficiency.

Sustainable forest management should be pursued in all public forests of the EU countries, as this constitutes a legal requirement within the frame of the FOREST EUROPE policy. However, the forest management sustainability assessment process is a complex task, mainly because it involves integration of multiple environmental, socio-economic and institutional impacts at different spatial scales of different forest management policies, which are considered for implementation at any forest location. Moreover, the conflicts and interests of the various stakeholders related to the forest resources should be included in the assessment process. Much of the on-going research, therefore, focuses on the development of tools that can facilitate the integration of the different type of forest resource impacts and conflicts towards achievement of forest management sustainability. This paper presents a multi-criteria approach, which combined spatial analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), spatially referenced impact indicator models for pairwise comparisons, the fuzzy extent analysis, fuzzy preference programming and the ideal solution concept in order to assess the performance of forest management sustainability at regional level. The combined multi-criteria approach was successfully implemented to the forests of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Region in northern Greece through the operation of the National Forest Governance Council. Seven forest management policies were subjected to sustainability assessment and an Overall Forest Sustainability Performance Index (OFSPI) was calculated for each one of them. The final ranking of the forest management policies was based on their OFSPI values. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was conducted to explore robustness of the final solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the effects on the productivity of Greek commercial banks of sector regulatory reforms in the pre-Euro era, using the Global Malmquist Index. In a bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis framework, we propose an alternative to smoothing that utilises the Pearson system random number generator, offering greater flexibility in the choice of the fitting distribution. In the context of a step-by-step approach, we demonstrate the contribution of deregulatory commercial freedoms to greater productivity and the negative effect of prudential controls. Our findings offer insights into the current state of the Greek banking sector, suggesting that the imposition of additional prudential controls may have a detrimental impact on the productivity of Greek banks, given the adverse business conditions. [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]

This paper presents a modelling study on regional sustainable development. First, the use of formal modelling for studying the multi-level relationship between economic, environmental and development processes is discussed. Such a relationship is analyzed for an island region in Greece. A potential conflict exists here between environmental conservation, local interests and rapid growth in tourism. A dynamic model is used to depict the development of the economies of three main islands and their interactions with the terrestrial and marine environment. The presentation of the case study model is followed by a discussion of scenarios, indicators and simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at introducing a social network analysiss based methodology able to predict the financial fraud of companies. For this purpose, data obtained from financial statements and auditors reports for all Greek companies listed on the Athens Exchange during the period 2008–2015 has been used. Nineteen cases of possible fraud were found. These cases comprise the primary research sample with falsified financial statements (FFS). Furthermore, a control sample (non-FFS) consisting of companies with no fraud possibilities was constructed respectively. Various comparisons and several tests were applied, in order to find a network textual analysis model that could serve as a predictor of 'red flags' in the auditing process of financial statements for fraud. The results of this study could be useful to the banking sector, to internal and external auditors, to the tax or other state authorities, and to potential investors or business consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test for the contagion effects stemming from the Greek debt crisis in the daily 10-year sovereign bond yield spreads in nine Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries. To this end, we estimate the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model of Engle (2002) from January 01, 2003 to December 31, 2015. In addition, we calculate and plot the upper and lower bounds of the confidence interval for each DCC series. To the best of our knowledge, this approach of Kchaou and Bellalah (2020) has never been used to study the contagion of the subprime and Greek crises between the 10-year sovereign bond yield spreads of the main EMU countries. Consequently, this approach enables us to compare our results with those of previous works based on other methods. It also offers useful insights to policy makers to address the contagion effect through the implementation of adequate measures. Although the Greek spread played the role of a global factor for the majority of countries during the observation period, the results invalidate the existence of contagious episodes resulting from the Hellenic crisis. We justify these findings either by the weakness of the weight of the Greek economy in the euro area or by the effectiveness of the unconventional monetary policies taken by the European Central Bank (ECB), the bailouts for Greece in 2010, 2012 and 2015 and the austerity measures and structural reforms implemented by the governments of EMU countries. Moreover, DCC between Greece and the other countries have shown a downward behavior during the acute phases of Greek crisis, suggesting a disintegration of the Hellenic bond market with those of other euro area countries during periods of financial turmoil. Furthermore, the results indicate that the subprime crisis affected a large part of these markets well before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. All these findings provide valuable information for international investors, central bankers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated valuation models are widely used in real estate to provide estimates for property prices. Such models are typically developed through regression approaches. This study presents a comparative analysis about the performance of parametric and non-parametric regression techniques for developing reliable automated valuation models for residential properties. Different approaches are explored to incorporate spatial effects into the valuation process, covering both global and locally weighted models. The analysis is based on a large sample of properties from Greece during the period 2012–2016. The results demonstrate that linear regression models developed with a weighted spatial (local) scheme provide the best results, outperforming machine learning approaches and models that do not consider spatial effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European policy target of substantially increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation, in combination with national subsidization support schemes, has strongly motivated private investors towards this business sector. In Greece, this interest is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy exploitation, due to a favourable legislative framework and the important wind potential available in several Greek regions. In such endowed regions, a very high number of applications were submitted to the competent authority, most of which compete for the same most attractive (windy) sites. The selection among these applications is a multicriteria problem that has been solved with the support of a Decision-Aid tool combining the multicriteria classification method ELECTRE-TRI with Integer Linear Programming. The developed approach takes into account both, the performances of the applications to the evaluation criteria, as well as a number of technical and policy constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]