Pantelis Sklias

Amid growing academic discourse on teenagers’ political rights, this paper argues that the inclusion of teenagers in the decision-making process at the municipal level has positive effects. Based on qualitative and quantitative research on three municipalities in Greece and Sweden, this paper concludes that a level of awareness of the critical issue of climate change leads to a greater propensity for action from municipal councils aimed at restoring the environment. The findings demonstrate that including teenagers in the decision-making process at the local and regional level could lead to a greater focus on forward-thinking policies, particularly in areas concerning young people, such as environmental preservation efforts and democratic rights.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether private healthcare entrepreneurship can flourish and overcome obstacles in cases of a free-access public health system and periods of strict public policies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the paper aims to illuminate the wider social role of private healthcare entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a qualitative methodological strategy through 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews with the owners of diagnostic centres located in small Greek towns.FindingsPrivate healthcare entrepreneurship flourished and played a significantly positive social role in the context of a degraded public health sector, which lacked investments for more than ten years and was further depleted by its recent focus on COVID-19 incidents. This paper reveals that although public policies that aimed to deal with COVID-19 produced serious consequences, business activity adapted to the new circumstances.Resea...

The manifestation of the global economic crisis in 2007 and its consequences have driven the European economy and, more specifically, the Greek economy to new challenges for adjustment to the new era. In 2010, Greece adopted a fiscal adjustment programme in order to fix the fiscal weaknesses of its economy. After almost 7 years since the fiscal adjustment programme was adopted, the Greek economy is even worse off than the parties involved in the Greek programme had foreseen. For this reason, the aim of this chapter is to examine the productive capabilities of the Greek economy as a means to overcome the recession and stagnation. Exports are a tool for overcoming the stagnation of Greek economy that resulted from the internal devaluation policy. According to the latest available data, Greece is still facing a trade deficit. Its trade balance has improved after the integration to fiscal consolidation process mainly because of the reduction in imports. Greece’s accession to the Economic and Monetary Union and the adoption of euro strengthened consumption against investment. We are going to examine the Greek economy’s performance in regard to high-technology exports. High-technology exports generate higher earnings. The study of certain commodities that embody high technology in comparison with EU-28 and OECD member states will reveal the Greek economy’s potential to meet strong competition in the global economy. The methodology that is adopted is comparative advantage theory.

The aim of this article is to study certain aspects related to energy security, which is of great importance globally. A number of conceptual frameworks regarding the issue of energy security are examined to understand the relationships between relevant parameters and then to investigate their implications for the national security of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region under the broader consideration of the international political economy. Megatrends are major, transformative forces that affect the global future. They have a far-reaching impact on economies, industries, societies and individuals. Today’s world is in constant motion and goods, capital and labor are moving globally at a faster pace than ever, with overall energy-related issues becoming increasingly important for societies and states. Economic power is continuing to shift eastwards and it is thus of considerable interest to study energy security in the broader area of the Eastern Mediterranean and its effect on the national security of the countries located in the region. Research needs to examine whether energy security is a threat to the national security of such countries and/or an opportunity for them. In this study, the theory of economic nationalism is employed for the analysis as it emphasizes the primary importance of the state and national security, whereas realism is essentially a political ideology and mercantilism is an economic one.

Purpose: This paper is an analysis based on the comparison of the Greek Depression with the Great Depression of 1929 in the US. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis does neither focus on the pre-crisis period, nor on the manifestation of the crisis or the structural problems and economic policies that rendered the Greek economy vulnerable when the financial turmoil broke out. An entire decade has passed since the onset of the crisis, and various policies have been implemented, with explicitly stated goals and specific results. A clear distinction is made between these two periods, which appear to be relatively independent. The causes of the crisis itself are different than the causes that turned the crisis into a prolonged depression with irreversible consequences for the economy and the society. Finding: The comparison of the two crises on the basis of their effects on the real economy demonstrates that the Greek crisis had harsher consequences than the US crisis, taking into...

In this paper we assess the situation with regard to post-conflict development and the perspectives in the province of Kosovo. In order to better comprehend the current political and economic situation that sustains in the region, we attempt a presentation of the historical background. Then, we present specific macro-economic and political indicators. The macro-economic indicators may provide us with a complete picture of the economic situation in the province. The political ones may explain the external and political environment as well as its prospects. We conclude with the factors and the means that will be important in sustaining development and political stability in the said geographical region.

The international economic crisis has affected European countries in many ways. Certain countries like Spain and Ireland are facing negative effects to their national economies because of their banking systems and real estate bubbles. On the other hand, Greece, Italy and Portugal are facing the consequences of fiscal imbalances and high debt. Greece in the recent past has confronted the possibility of an exit from the eurozone (Grexit). Under these circumstances the European economies are looking for policies in order to overcome the negative effects of prolonged recession or stagnation to their national economies. The aim of this article is to study the development of alternative currencies for the European Union in two phases. Initially, we study the development of alternative currencies after the adoption of the euro as the official currency of the eurozone and the replacement of national currencies in 2002. The second phase is the manifestation of the world economic crisis, 2007 until 2016. The study of alternative currencies will reveal whether they constitute an alternative option in order to strengthen national economies in the context of the euro area.

This paper examines the adoption and implementation of IFRS by SMEs in the regions of Kavala and Serres, Greece. Our main objective is to examine the possibility of direct implementation of the International Accounting Standard for SMEs. Through empirical analysis and in accordance with the literature review, we set the main factors that affect business decision to implement IFRS/IAS.

This study highlights both the significance and impact of the developing changes in the last decades around Europe, the notion-related adjustments that remain to be carried and in parallel to provide a more general explanation concerning the institution of sovereignty in relation to the process of European integration. The main questions that this article seeks to answer are the following: Who governs who within the EU? How does the European nexus of institutions and governance affect sovereignty? Which are the main consequences of the Maastricht’s framework in relation to sovereignty? In order to provide an answer to the above questions, we intend to analyze the relationship of the institution of sovereignty and the ability of exercising independent economic policy within the EMU as well as reexamine the development of this relationship in close regard to the process of European integration. The major contribution of this research is that offers a complementary study in order to un...

The purpose of this article is to highlight the particular impact of China’s economic diplomacy on its attempt to maximise its power in the global economic and political system and to achieve its foreign policy objectives. We argue that the realist framework of analysis is the appropriate one in order to comprehend and assess China’s foreign economic policy. We examine the bilateral economic relations that China has developed with both Greece and Turkey, two countries which appear to have conflicting political and economic interests. Greece and Turkey are situated in a geo-strategically and geo-economically critical location, and are the gateway between West and East and vice versa. This article will show that, at a time of international financial crisis which has seriously affected Europe, China is promoting its own economic and political agenda by using various economic diplomacy practices. It is increasing its degree of influence and is upgrading the role it plays in the European...

From 2000 until 2008, the transition economies of Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe (CEE and SEE) experienced large amounts of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the West. Multinationals contributed to exports growth, but also to trade imbalance by forced imports or through the outflow of a large portion of their profits. Moreover, the ratio of credit to GDP doubled between 2001 and 2007, following a rapid expansion in consumption. Hungary was the first to reveal weakness, in a fall of growth rate from 4% in 2006 to less than 1% in 2007. In 2008, the downturn was sharpest where the growth had been most spectacular: in Estonia and Latvia with -5.1 and -4.2% growth rate, respectively. In 2009, all other Eastern European states (except Poland) were confronted with the most radical recessions throughout the EU – reflected in declining growth rates, from -4.2 in the Czech Republic to -18% in Lithuania. In the next phase, the IMF granted loans in order that such countries tackle ...

This article investigates the relationship between corruption and firm performance in Greece using firm level data. Corruption is overall negatively associated with firm size and growth at the firm level. We focus on the effect of ‘administrative corruption’, whereby firms engage in corrupt practices and bribery of government officials. We contrast the firm experience of corruption and the contextual experience of corruption at the sectoral level and find that the latter, contextual corruption is more important. The contextual effect of corruption identifies the magnitude of systemic corruption in Greece, indicating the need for reforms in an institutional environment that allows corrupt practices. Furthermore, firms of different size appear differently affected by corruption. This suggests that firm engagement in corruption is heterogeneous. Using quantile regressions, small and medium firms display a higher engagement in corrupt practices. However, their performance is less correl...

ABSTRACT Considering the regional trade pattern and business potential in the Western Balkans, we argue that despite the enormous political, institutional and socio-economic progress of the individual countries during the last 20 years regional integration and endogenous business development are still lagging. This is much the result of persistent state rigidities and trade distortions. On the one hand, regional integration has been adopted as the policy for en-hancing the region’s competitiveness in the context of EU accession and globalisation. But this has been only manifested in regional trade agreements with the EU. On the other hand, trade relations among the region’s countries have no substance. Moreover, many of their governments maintain intra-regional trade barriers to secure customs revenues as their main or only income. To compensate, they redirect trade to EU markets, but with poor results. FDI and exports have only risen in sectors such as textiles, metals and mining, where com-petitiveness is based on cheap labour or natural resources. Very few local companies can compete in EU markets for higher value-added products, as most are too weak financially to upgrade production to EU standards. Related data provides evidence supporting that in-tra-regional trade is important for the countries and sectors in question. As local businesses struggle with outdated equipment, high debts and low productivity, trade with neighbouring countries can be a realistic way to improve their potential and exploit existing opportuni-ties. Restoring old trading relationships interrupted by war could considerably increase cross-border trade for example, and assure economic viability for local firms. However, barriers posed by the individual countries in the region to doing business – especially across borders – discourage local firms to co-operate with neighbouring counterparts. In other words, regional integration in the Western Balkans is very weak from the economic point of view: trade relations and business co-operations between the countries in the region have no real substance; there is no functioning market and the production level is poor, thus una-ble to compete in the EU. We argue however, that regional integration on the society level - built on people’s common socio-cultural background, shared goals and concerns for good neighbourly relations – constitutes a solid base for cross-border business cooperation, with-out massive investment in product upgrades or marketing. Accordingly, we propose an ana-lytical approach to capture the complexity of the war-torn Western Balkan area and its socio-cultural and political specificities overlooked by mainstream economics. We argue that Western Balkan countries can accelerate their economic development by exploiting their potential for cross-border trading and entrepreneurship. This may offer a politically and economically realistic strategy for regional integration in the area. Economic development and regional cooperation could directly benefit stability and security as well. We propose cross-border business clusters, embedded in common socio-economic contexts, as devel-opment leverage. The existing obstacles need to be addressed and overcome; and this is more a question of political willingness than of corporate strategy. Market forces in transi-tional areas seem to be of secondary importance to regional economic integration; it is up to policy-makers to facilitate this process.

In the present study, the issue under scrutiny is the contribution of adult education to economic development. More precisely this paper seeks to develop a more rigorous understanding of how adult education programs in several aspects of today’s political, social and economic realms can empower individual actors, citizens, to involve in the societal evolution towards social cohesion, which consequently implies a transition to economic development. Transformative learning theory is such a tool to explain this empowerment to take action. What emerges from this paper is an alternative perspective on the benefits of adult education, differentiated from the dominant neoclassical approach framework of the Human Capital Theory, and relocated it in the methodological framework of International Political Economy. The latter serves as a tool of perceiving and understanding the existent complex context of political, economic and socio-cultural realities within European Union, coupled with the historical evolution of adult education. The upgrading of adult education standard is seen as central to the delivery of social cohesion and therefore to economic development.

The paper focuses on the regional integration of Western Balkans and its prospects. We enrich mainstream political economic approaches by a framework assessing regional integration with the use of political, cultural, institutional and economic variables: coincidence in political interests and national barriers; common perceptions, values, principles and culture; restructuring and maturity of institutions; production complementarities, trade flows and financial transactions; technology and infrastructures. Evaluating these variables in the Western Balkans, we conclude that integration can proceed through a top-down enforced process by the EU or the International Community rather, than through individual efforts of the region’s nation-states.

The paper aims to identify the roots and causes of the failure of existing regional economic integration efforts in the Western Balkans and the poor prospects for similar attempts in the future. Existing classical political and economic approaches are enriched by identifying a framework of analysis to capture regional economic integration. Seven political economic variables to measure regional economic integration