Policy Makers In Greece Research Articles

How can public policies facilitate local cooperation? insights from the EU’s wine policy

ABSTRACT Decentralised cooperation is key for achieving a range of policy goals, but we still know relatively little about how to create it in low-trust, institutionally weak settings. This article develops an account of Facilitative Overarching Institutional Frameworks (FOIFs) as macro-level institutions that abate the obstacles to local cooperation. Through qualitative evidence collected via fieldwork, it is shown that the EU’s wine policy is a good example of a FOIF, and that it has crucially contributed to the puzzling emergence of demanding forms of local cooperation in the Greek wine sector. When combined with favourable local conditions, and particularly with local leadership, as in Santorini, a FOIF can have transformative implications for local cooperation. When local leadership is absent, as in Lemnos, the final degree of local cooperation will be more limited. While the rareness of embedded policymaking in Greece inhibits the adoption of public policies that favour decentralised cooperation, in the wine sector the EU’s system of subsidies and geographical indications partially compensates for these for domestic institutional deficiencies. The article contributes to our knowledge about the emergence of decentralised cooperation in adverse circumstances and improves our understanding of the effects of transnational integration regimes on local governance arrangements.

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) VACCINATION: SCIENTIFIC FACTS. THE GREEK REPORT

Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, COVID-19 has rapidly become a pandemic spreading to all countries worldwide and demanding urgent healthcare response. The social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken variable shapes and forms regarding its effect on communities and decision-making, while the major risks probably arise not from the virus itself but from the indirect effects of the control measures and the societal activities. Owing to experiences from previous pandemics generating global health crises such as the HIV5 pandemic (1980), the Spanish flu (1918) and the 2009 flu the healthcare community had now more scientific facts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic as shown by the faster time it took for the development and licensing of the vaccines from the time the first case was identified. Although the control and vaccination strategies against the COVID-19 virus are still controversial issues as they have the potential to multiply the impact of the pandemic, this report aims to provide a timely review on the facts regarding the measures and the policy-making in Greece and how they affected the citizens in a socioeconomic and psychological context.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0007/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Implementation of the Robson Classification in Greece: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.

Cesarean sections have become the most commonly performed operations around the world. The World Health Organization recommended the use of the Robson classification system as a universal standard to establish a joint control system in healthcare facilities. The aim of this study was to implement the Robson classification for the first time in Greece to identify trends in cesarean births and examine the groups of women who are the main contributors to the increasing rates. Moreover, the indicators for cesarean sections will be evaluated as per the Robson classification. In the sample analysis, we included the records of 8572 women giving birth in one private health facility in Greece. A total of 8572 women gave birth during the study period, of which 5224 (60.9%) were cesarean section births and 3348 (39.1%) were vaginal births. In our study, according to the Robson classification, the largest contributors to the overall CS rate were as follows: (a) nulliparous women with a single cephalic term pregnancy, who were either labor induced or delivered by cesarean section before labor-Group 2 (34.6%); (b) multiparous women with a single cephalic term pregnancy and at least one previous cesarean section-Group 5 (30.7%); (c) women with a single cephalic preterm pregnancy-Group 10 (11.7%); (d) women with multiple pregnancies-Group 8 (7.0%). Our study is expected to assist policymakers in Greece in planning further interventions for each subgroup of women in order to reduce the overall CS rate and unnecessary CSs.

The strategy of venue creation: Explaining health policy change in Greece

How do policy entrepreneurs affect policy change in environments of institutional instability? The literature has predominantly explored policy entrepreneur strategizing in contexts with established institutional settings. In this paper, we argue that under conditions of institutional fluidity and a weak and politicized public administration, venue creation is the more frequently encountered and the more likely successful strategy. We define venue creation as the entrepreneurial strategy of setting-up institutional arrangements of finite duration, predominantly in the form of committees, delegated exclusively with designing reforms. We test our hypothesis in the Greek health policy sector. We explore two policy instances: the unsuccessful attempt at a public health reform in 1992 and the successful introduction of radical policy change for public health in 2003. We employ a process tracing approach spanning thirty years, processing primary data (elite interviews and documents) applying the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF). We find that under conditions of institutional fluidity and administrative weakness, policy entrepreneurs failed in their pursuit of change using venue shopping in 1992 but succeeded through venue creation in 2003, confirming our hypothesis. We conclude with insights for contingent policy entrepreneurship success, the MSF and patterns of policymaking in Greece.

Introducing New Paths towards Public Primary Healthcare Services in Greece: Efforts for Scaling-Up Mental Healthcare Services Addressed to Older Adults.

The exponential growth in the aging population challenges the Primary Care Providers (PCPs) who provide health care services to older adults who are considered highly vulnerable and are in need of specialized healthcare services. The development of new policies and the adoption of appropriate health strategies by PCPs may improve the early detection and prevention of mental disorders in older adults. This reduces both queuing and costs in outpatient clinics while preventing stigma for patients and families. To this end, specialized training for PCPs at the Local Primary Health Care Unit (LPHCU) was provided in order to conduct efficient assessments of older adults (65 and above years old, without previously diagnosed depression or dementia, and willing to participate). The assessment is based on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Older adults identified with MMSE <20 and GDS >5 were referred to the psychiatric outpatient clinic. The aim of this study is to discuss evidence-informed policymaking in Greece with a focus on advancing mental health practices and scaling up quality primary healthcare services for older adults.

Reforms in Times of Crisis: Notes on the Greek Policy Making from Bankruptcy to COVID-19

In this paper, an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of the “emergency” regulation in Greece over the years of acute economic crisis and up to the COVID-19 public health crisis is performed, to examine if this kind of regulation has been too extended and whether it undermined any effective policy design. According to our working hypothesis, the “fast-track” legislation highlights the fragmented and somewhat erratic way of policymaking in Greece, while it also affirms the country’s limited capacity to properly initiate and implement reforms. Thus, the paper focuses on the collection and evaluation of the legislative corpus during the 2009-2021 period; its objective being, on the one hand, to evaluate whether and how much each government resorted to the invocation of urgency and on the other hand to examine the documentation and description of the legislative process vis-àvis the imperatives and quality criteria of Better Regulation and EvidenceBased Policy Making. At the same time, the article focuses on legislative texts of the 2020-2021 COVID-19 health crisis period. It will showcase the latter as an additional trigger aggravating the “urgency” element of regulation, transforming it into a persistent feature of Greek policymaking. Ergo, we examine methods and practices at the international level, focusing especially on the Evidence-Based Policy Making paradigm. Based on the analysis of the crisis regulation and international EBPM best practices, the paper concludes with key recommendations for an effective policymaking procedure, dependent on the establishment of an integrated Center of Government in Greece.

Energy Efficiency contribution to sustainable development: A multi-criteria approach in Greece

ABSTRACT This study performs a model-based multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for supporting policy makers in Greece, in designing energy-efficiency policies through the selection of the most effective measures, towards sustainable development. The impact assessment of energy-efficiency measures is based on their macroeconomic, environmental and social implications. Such an evaluation of a quite large number of energy-efficiency measures, regarding both the building and the transport sector and based also on the combination of PROMETHEE and SIMOS methods while performing a sensitivity analysis, is not available in the international literature. The analysis deploys three energy-efficiency co-benefits, derived from energy models and input-output analysis, as well as the cost-effectiveness and the technical feasibility of each measure. This combination of MCDA with input-output analysis is another innovation of the study. The final ranking revealed that, generally, measures in buildings are more effective than those in transportation, while significant differentiations between residential and commercial buildings emerged.

Interrelationships between tourism, energy, environment and economic growth in Greece

ABSTRACT This study empirically investigates the interrelationships between tourism, energy, environment and economic growth in Greece over the period 1989–2018. The results reveal that there is a positive long-run relationship between tourism, investment, energy consumption, environmental pollution and economic growth. Tourism significantly stimulates economic growth in Greece. In addition, tourism has a favourable but not substantial effect on energy consumption and carbon emissions, while energy consumption and economic growth increase environmental pollution. The challenge for policymakers in Greece is to further support the tourism industry and to design and develop policies that aim to coordinate more efficiently tourism, energy, environment and economy, by keeping a sustainable and long-term economic growth path.

The impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on economic growth: the case of Greece

ABSTRACTThis study empirically investigates the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in Greece, using annual data from 1990 to 2016. The results reveal that there is a significant positive long-run effect of both, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, on economic growth. In the short run, the results are in the same direction. The overall findings imply that renewable and non-renewable energy consumption significantly stimulates economic growth in Greece. Taken into account that renewable energy sources reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment, the expansion of renewable energy consumption with a strategic plan is required. The challenge for policymakers in Greece is to substitute conventional energy fuels with others that produce less pollution and to raise renewable energy sources by keeping a sustainable and long-term growth path. Energy policy should be combined with the implementation of coherent, consistent and sequential renewable energy-enhancing structural reforms.

The Use of Information Systems (GIS) to Monitor the Quality of Life of Older People in Greece

The aim of the study is to present the usefulness of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore the socio-economic indicators that affect the health level of the elderly. The study uses a specially designed questionnaire to capture data on socio-economic indicators of the elderly in Grece. The results of the survey are plotted in the corresponding geographical locations on the maps, using GIS in a way that provides the person concerned a full picture of the geographical distribution of socio-economic indicators that affect the health level of the elderly. The study finds that there is an obvious proportional relationship between Sense of Quality of Life with healthier characteristics, a less proportional relationship with financial characteristics and even a less proportional relationship with the age and the education level of the respondents. The study has implications for health sector professionals and policy makers in Greece.

The Architecture of the Emergency Framework of Greece: Inactivity and Second Generation Emergencies

In 20th century Greece, officially Hellenic Republic, which is an independent state from 1830, wars, social unrest, and armed coups informed the drafters of the 1975 Greek Constitution on the issue of emergency. The Constitution of 1975, which established the so-called third Republic, replaced the Constitution of 1952, which was overthrown in 1967 by a military coup that lasted seven years until 1974. The current constitutional document was amended three times in 1986, in 2001 and finally in 2008. The first part of this article will show that de lege lata, the emergency toolbox of Greece, provides policymakers with a plethora of options to address emergency situations. But given the fact that policymakers in Greece have such powerful tools at their disposal to address potential threats to national security before these escalate and cause breakdowns, one may wonder why the constitutional system has been unable to respond promptly and efficiently during recent emergencies — like the economic crisis in 2009 and the emerging refugee crisis that began in 2015. This article will argue that the reason why the Greek constitutional system repeatedly fails to address emergencies in practice is threefold. First and foremost, the emergency framework of Greece is well equipped with numerous provisions, but it still lacks specific provisions on economic emergencies. Suffice to mention here that many newly adopted constitutions contain provisions and regulate economic emergencies explicitly. Second, the imperfect formulation of the separation of powers makes emergencies initiative monopolized by the cabinet, thus, allowing the Prime Minister, head of the cabinet and leader of the majority party in Parliament, to remain inactive during emergencies. Third, despite the fact that the constitutional drafters have foreseen the need to regulate second generation emergencies when there is an official declaration of the state of emergency (de jure), the absence of a specific derivative emergency framework during de facto emergencies creates deadens and inefficiencies. In particular, the occurrence of the refugee crisis amidst the economic crisis is a prime example of an emergency within an emergency. In principle, it is apparent that governments rely on the emergency provisions to face second-generation emergencies as well. But given that emergency provisions are drafted on the assumption that an emergency will occur under normal circumstances, one must wonder if the existing emergency provisions will be good enough to address second-generation emergencies.

The tale of the two Greeces: Some management practice lessons

Based on an original double‐blind survey on randomly drawn samples of over 10,000 manufacturing firms across a range of different industries and countries, the World Management Survey is one of the first large and internationally comparable management practices data sets. In this paper, I describe and compare the performance of Greek firms to those from other countries around the world with the aim of identifying some lessons for both managers and policy makers in Greece on how to increase management quality, and hence, firms' productivity.

Policies, Practices, and Attitudes toward Inclusive Education: The Case of Greece

Inclusive education is now firmly established as the main educational policy for children with special educational needs and disabilities, which emerges as the mean of creating an inclusive society in which equal opportunities are provided. However, there are concerns expressed on the effect of such a change in the educational system and on how possible it is to make this a reality. The concerns and objections of educators toward inclusion are mainly based on the diversity of learning disabilities, the learning outcomes that could be generated by applying this practice, and the lack of confidence of teachers to teach in an inclusive environment. In this study, we examine teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education, while at the same time, we analyze current inclusive policies and practices in the Greek educational system. Results revealed that teachers have generally positive attitudes toward inclusion. However, they indicated some issues and barriers to the implementation of inclusion. We consider that policy-makers in Greece should target educator training and increase funding for education.

European Funds and the Hermeneutics of the Capitalist Crisis: Insights from within the Greek State

AbstractIn this article, I seek to explore the political and epistemological implications of European Union developmental funds in settings of policymaking in Greece. Building on fieldwork with specialized technocrats in Athens and with political personnel in Evros, I initially posit that the discourse on European funds has functioned as a recurrent argument for the justification of a coherent liberal idealist paradigm starting in the 1980s. Notwithstanding the ideological usage of European funds, I suggest that its increasing relevance in the practices and worldview of these social agents also pertains to a broader relocation of political and analytical focus onto the ethical conduct and qualitative features of dominated classes. Most evidently, the recent manifestation of the capitalist crisis in Greece reactualized the precept of moral and cultural introspection as well as its interrelation with the discourse of past benefaction. Ιn this sense, the recent crisis also made evident the pertinence of Michel Foucault's “hermeneutics of the self” to understand the delineation of class hegemony in capitalism. I argue that the discourse of European funds has been conducive to the consolidation of the “hermeneutics of the self” as an overarching political imperative in Greek society over the last decades.

Posttraumatic Stress During the Greek Economic Crisis: Is There Evidence for Mass Traumatization?

AbstractThe aim of the study was to investigate levels of posttraumatic stress due to the recent economic crisis in a Greek community sample and identify particularly vulnerable demographic groups. A sample of 1,208 residents of a western Athens borough completed the Impact of Events Scale—Revised. According to the findings, almost 60% of respondents reported severe and 28% moderate symptoms. Individuals in employment presented similar levels as the unemployed, while caring for dependants, having lower educational attainment, and being female and older were associated with greater posttraumatic stress. The present findings suggest a high prevalence of posttraumatic stress in a community sample, indicating that policymakers in Greece, Europe, and worldwide need to take very seriously the growing evidence for the detrimental effects of austerity politics on both individual and collective well‐being.

The Effect of Government Debt and Other Determinants on Economic Growth: The Greek Experience

This study empirically investigates the relationship between economic growth and several factors (investment, private and government consumption, trade openness, population growth and government debt) in Greece, where imbalances persist several years after the financial crisis. The results reveal a long-run relationship between variables. Investment as private and government consumption and trade openness affect positively growth. On the other hand, there is a negative long-run effect of government debt and population growth on growth. Furthermore, the study addresses the issue of break effects between government debt and economic growth. The results indicate that the relationship between debt and growth depends on the debt breaks. Specifically, at debt levels before 2000, increases in the government debt-to-GDP ratio are associated with insignificant effects on economic growth. However, as government debt rises after 2000, the effect on economic growth diminishes rapidly and the growth impacts become negative. The challenge for policy makers in Greece is to halt the rising of government debt by keeping a sustainable growth path. Fiscal discipline should be combined with the implementation of coherent, consistent and sequential growth-enhancing structural reforms.

Cash and Ownership on Firms Market Value: Evidence from Greek Panel Data

We implement panel data econometrics on non-linear empirical models to investigate how the firms' market value is related with cash holdings and ownership concentration, on non-financial listed companies in Greece, before (2000-2009) and during the Eurozone crisis 2010-2015. It is confirmed the existence of an optimum level of cash (CASH) and the top 5 major shareholders ownership (OWN5) at which firms' return on equity (ROE) has been maximized (concave function), especially over the crisis period and the total one. Yet, a convex function of the Tobin's Q ratio (Q) on OWN5 has also been revealed significant for all sample periods. The findings support the tradeoff theory and the new kind of agency cost literature on expropriation effects of the minority by the majority. Interaction terms have also been found statistically significant, confirming that the special context of the Eurozone has influenced business, in the narrow Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The estimated averages that maximize firms' market values (for instance ROE), in relation to either CASH (0.83 of net assets, during the whole sample period 2000-'15, while 0.77 in the crisis one 2010-'15) or OWN5 (0.10 of equity, during 2000-'15, while 0.36 in the crisis one 2010-'15) could be useful for both investors and policy makers in Greece, a member-country of “sui generis†Eurozone, with an unsustainable public debt.

Greece’s Three-Act Tragedy: A Simple Model of Grexit vs. Staying Afloat inside the Single Currency Area

Against the backdrop of the Greek three-act tragedy, we present a theoretical framework for studying Greece’s recent debt and currency crisis. The model is built on two essential blocks: first, erratic macroeconomic policymaking in Greece is described using a stochastic regime-switching model; second, the euro area governments’ responses to uncertain macroeconomic policies in Greece are considered. The model’s mechanism and assumptions allow either for a Grexit from the euro area or, conversely, the avoidance of Greece’s default against its creditors. The model also offers useful guidance to understand key drivers of the long-winded negotiations between the Greek government and the “institutions”.

Forecasting tourist arrivals using origin country macroeconomics

ABSTRACTThis study utilizes both disaggregated data and macroeconomic indicators in order to examine the importance of the macroeconomic environment of origin countries for analysing destinations’ tourist arrivals. In particular, it is the first study to present strong empirical evidence that both of these features in tandem provide statistically significant information of tourist arrivals in Greece. The forecasting exercises presented in our analysis show that macroeconomic indicators conducive to better forecasts are mainly origin country-specific, thus highlighting the importance of considering the apparent sharp national contrasts among origin countries when investigating domestic tourist arrivals. Given the extent of the dependency of the Greek economy on tourism income and also the perishable nature of the tourist product itself, results have important implications for policymakers in Greece.

Creating a high‐skills society during recession: issues for policy makers

The present study looks at the skill formation policies adopted by policy makers in Greece in order to create a high‐skills society. It examines empirically the demand side of the skill creation process within 300 small enterprises in order to understand how far supply‐side measures have influenced the demand for well‐trained staff within small businesses. The article draws on empirical data from 650 interviews with workers and small firm owners that explored owner demand for higher level skills and training. The study questions the effectiveness of the measures put forward by policy makers in order to encourage an up‐skilling strategy in the country. The analysis reveals that this policy agenda has been supported predominantly by various skills supply‐side initiatives including investments in higher education and subsidized accredited company training. Yet the empirical evidence indicates that such initiatives have not so far influenced owner demand for higher level skills and training, suggesting a new agenda for policy intervention may be necessary. The study provides valuable lessons for policy makers across the advanced capitalist world on the development of a high‐skills society.