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Due to the fast growth of consumption, the promotion of purchasing green products could be a way to minimize the environmental impact and achieve the sustainable consumption. Considering that there is a lack of studies about green purchase behavior and its determinants in all European Union countries (EU), the aim of this paper is to evaluate the main determinants of green purchase behavior by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior. Referring to Hostefe's cultural dimensions we revealed how cultural aspects contribute to purchase behavior. The results showed that there were observed big differences in terms of green purchase behavior in the EU countries and it did not depend on economic development significantly. The subjective norms and interaction of knowledge and confidence in green products significantly determined the green purchase behavior in all countries. According to the cross-culture studies, all cultural dimensions did not have significant influence on green purchase behavior. However, cultural dimensions are related to factors which directly influence green purchase behavior. Therefore, due to the process of the EU cultural convergence and economic crisis, it could have indirect impact on green purchase behavior. These findings have important implication for marketers and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the determinants of the inclusion of European firms in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Dow Jones Stoxx Sustainability Index. While a restricted econometric analysis implies a positive effect of corporate financial performance, this impact becomes ambiguous in more flexible panel probit models. Our estimation results therefore strengthen the importance of the use of panel data and the incorporation of unobserved heterogeneity. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the sustainability assessment and selection process for the composition of the Dow Jones sustainability indexes and thus factors that need not necessarily be directly connected to corporate environmental or social activities also have an influence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Accurate forecasts of aggregate European variables are crucial for conducting a union-wide monetary policy. This paper investigates empirically whether pooling forecasts from disaggregate models is a promising strategy for forecasting actual macroeconomic European variables. In contrast to previous studies we formulate an intermediate case of disaggregation with regard to forecast combination by pooling forecasts obtained from models which are separately specified and estimated for subgroups of actual EMU Member States. Moreover, by modeling different degrees of monetary autonomy across countries during the EMS-era we explicitly account for cross-country heterogeneity in advance of 1999. We find that policymakers might obtain more accurate forecasts of actual European macroeconomic variables by pooling subgroup-specific forecasts compared to forecasting with a single union-wide model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]