Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Ethics

Authorship statement

Conflict of interest

Funding

Provenance and peer review

Acknowledgements

References

Abstract

Background
To investigate intention rates to get vaccinated against COVID-19 among healthcare personnel (HCP) in Greece.

Methods
Cross-sectional survey.

Results
The response rate was 14.5%. Of 1521 HCP with a known profession, 607 (39.9%) were nursing personnel, 480 (31.6%) physicians, 171 (11.2%) paramedical personnel, 72 (4.7%) supportive personnel, and 191 (12.6%) administrative personnel. Overall, 803 of 1571 HCP (51.1%) stated their intention to get vaccinated while 768 (48.9%) stated their intention to decline vaccination. Most HCP (71.3%) who reported intent to get vaccinated noted contributing to the control of the pandemic and protecting their families and themselves as their reasons, while the most common reason for reporting intent to decline vaccination was inadequate information about the vaccines (74.9%), followed by concerns about vaccine safety (36.2%). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the probability of intending to get vaccinated increased with male gender, being a physician, history of complete vaccination against hepatitis B, history of vaccination against pandemic A (H1N1) in 2009–2010, belief that COVID-19 vaccination should be mandatory for HCP, and increased confidence in vaccines in general during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following factors were associated with a lower intention to get vaccinated: no vaccination against influenza the past season, no intention to get vaccinated against influenza in 2020–2021, and no intention to recommend COVID-19 vaccination to high-risk patients.

Conclusion
There is an urgent need to built safety perception towards COVID-19 vaccines and raise vaccine uptake rates by HCP, and thus to protect the healthcare workforce and the healthcare services.

Introduction

Shortly following the emergence in late 2019 and global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the consequences on healthcare systems became evident [[1]]. HCP have been recognized as a high-risk group for occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and onset of clinical illness, while fatalities occurred [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Moreover, high rates of absenteeism were noted among HCP, either because of infection or for post-exposure isolation purposes [[7]].

Starting this autumn, healthcare facilities around the world are experiencing an unprecedented surge of healthcare demands in association with a considerable influx of patients [[1],[8]]. HCP constitute a high-priority group for COVID-19 vaccination [[9],[10]]. Aside from protection of HCP, the rationale for vaccination relies also on the need to preserve the essential healthcare services from outbreaks and HCP absenteeism [[9]]. The underlying arguments for HCP prioritization for vaccination also include the principle of reciprocity, given their work under intense conditions, putting themselves but also potentially their households at higher risk for the sake of patients [[9]].

1- Introduction

2- Literature review

3- The case of Greece

4- Conclusions and policy implications

References

Abstract

Driven by the liberalization of the energy market that began in the 1990s, the European Union aims to unify its internal market and achieve price convergence among all European economies. The majority of European countries have successfully established power exchanges, aiming to conduct cross-border transactions in a transparent and reliable manner. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of prior literature on the market design of the European Power Exchanges. It also identifies recent developments in the electricity market in Greece and describes the structure of the Hellenic Energy Exchange and the markets that will be formed in the future. These upcoming markets are expected to provide greater flexibility to all market participants. At the same time, the Hellenic Energy Exchange is expected to facilitate the integration of Greece into the rest South East European electricity markets.

Introduction

The liberalization of energy markets began in the 1990s as an attempt to unify the internal market and achieve price convergence across all European economies. The movement towards the use of a single energy market in Europe is explicitly directed by the European Union (EU) through various directives (Directive 96/92/EG, Directive 98/30/EG, Directive 2003/54/EC and Directive 2003/55/EC). In particular, this process is clearly specified by the EU through the Third Energy Package. The majority of EU countries have successfully established power exchanges (PXs1 ) through which cross-border transactions are conducted in a transparent and reliable manner, ensuring greater liquidity in the energy market and at the same time providing a competitive environment for the benefit of the consumers. Additionally, PXs encounter supplementary advantages, such as easier access, lower transaction costs, elimination of counterparty risk, neutrality, price reference, clearing and settlement services. Power exchanges are considered an important part of the European energy sector, both in terms of physical and financial trading. Based on the most recent available data, the total volume of electricity traded across the European Union amounted to 12,647 TWh for 2017, out of which 42.3% was traded among PXs (European Commission DG, 2018). Given the ongoing coupling among various regions in Europe, in the coming years we are likely to witness a significant integration among energy markets. Currently, electronic auctions are conducted daily, where energy products such as electricity, natural gas, CO2 emissions and green certificates are traded between PXs all over Europe. The first PX that was established in the EU was OMIE [1997] in Spain, followed by APX [1999] in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, Nordpool [2001] in the Scandinavian countries, EEX [2002] in Germany and more recently IBEX [2014] in Bulgaria and CROPEX [2016] in Croatia. The main difference among those PXs is liquidity, since the less developed PXs struggle to survive or try to integrate with their neighbours in the region. Their role, design, and function of PXs have received considerable attention over the past decades. In the case of Greece, the framework of the energy market was reshaped radically in February of 2017, when the Market Operator (LAGIE – Operator of Electricity Market) and Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) signed a memorandum of cooperation, aiming to establish the Hellenic Energy Exchange (HEE).

Due to worldwide corporate governance failures and accounting scandals in recent years, there is a growing interest in studying the impact of corporate governance on firm performance (e.g., Brown and Caylor, 2006; Dittmar and Mahrt-Smith, 2007; Gompers et al., 2003). Among corporate governance elements, the oversight responsibilities of boards of directors and audit committees have been emphasized by policy makers, regulators, and researchers. Such emphasis is based on the idea that independent, informed, and proactive boards and audit committees can and should be key in protecting the interests of investors (Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2002 [SOX]). This paper investigates the association between characteristics of boards and audit committees and the formation of the latter, and firm performance. Our study is motivated by conflicting results in the literature and lack of research on the association between corporate governance practices and firm performance in emerging markets. Agency theory suggests that a better-governed firm should have better performance and higher valuation due to lower agency costs. For example, Gompers et al. (2003) find that better corporate governance is associated with higher firm valuation. Brown and Caylor (2006) find that bettergoverned U.S. firms have higher return on equity, higher return on assets, and higher Tobin’s Q— a measure of performance. However, resource dependency theory argues that corporate directors bring information and expertise to the firm, create channels of communication with the firm’s important external constituents, obtain commitments of support from outsiders, and work to create legitimacy for the firm in its external environment (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978). Thus, this theory views corporate directors as “insiders, business experts, support specialists, and community influentials” (Hillman et al., 2000). From the resource dependency theory perspective, there could be a negative relation between board independence and firm performance and value (Singh and Gaur, 2009; Khosa, 2017; Adams and Ferreira, 2007; Harris and Raviv, 2008). Our study investigates such board-performance relationships in an emerging market of Greece, where both monitoring and resource dependency/advisory roles of boards might be important to firms. The extant literature has also documented the role of audit committees in reducing internal control weakness and financial statement restatement frequency, and increasing earnings quality (Abbott et al., 2004; Klein, 2002; Krishnan, 2005; Zhang et al., 2007).

1. Introduction

2. Methodology and instruments

3. Results and discussions

4. Conclusion

References

Based on the multiple linear regression model, we investigating which of the observed macroeconomic factors: the unemployment rate, the current account of the country stock index, gross domestic product and industrial production are significantly associated with property prices in relation to the different cultural environments: Slovenia, Greece, France, Poland and Norway. We found that there are statistically significant correlations between the prices of residential real estate and selected macroeconomic factors. The results show a distinct pattern that applies to France, Greece, Norway and Poland, where the price of real estate observed statistically significantly associated with unemployment. In the case of Slovenia, the results show that a statistically significant relationship reflects only to a share index. That is illustrated by the finding that prices in Slovenia on an annual basis, between the observed cultural environments in the observed time interval, most declined.

Introduction

Real estate market and real estate prices are closely linked with general economic cycles (Quigley, 1999; Wang, 2003). Numerous researches as Hon-Chung (2009), Ludwig and Slok (2004), Case et al. (2005), Bardham et al. (2007), Goodhard and Hofmann (2007) and Zhang and Wu (2008) have revealed that among macroeconomic factors related to the real estate prices, the key factors were gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment, share index, current account of a country, demographic factors, household income, interest rate, industrial production and consumption of households. In accordance with the data of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (2015), the biggest influence on the price of real estate have factors associated with GDP, unemployment, current account of a country, domestic demand and share index. We follow the conclusions of HonChung (2009) who said that depending on various influences of the mentioned factors on the real estate price, the results of individual researches could not be generalized to all countries and regions with different environments, but had to be considered separately. Moreover, in the opinion of Mavrodiy (2005) the prices of real estate and activity in the real estate market are connected with the economic development of an individual country. Hong-Yu and Kuentai (2011) on the other hand determined that the prices of real estate in the capitals differed considerably from the prices of real estate in other smaller cities and that it was the prices of real estate in the capitals, which created the real estate market. As in other observed countries, the most expensive real estate can be found in bigger cities. (Mavrodiy, 2005; Himmelberg et al., 2005).

Environmental degradation has increased urgency for a transition to a low carbon, climate resilient and resource-efficient global economy. This new corporate environment leads to more capital-absorbing investments for “greener” products (Barbera and McConnell, 1990; Trumpp and Guenther, 2015). In these circumstances, 6 different stakeholders have proposed and implemented environmental policies such as (a) direct regulations, b) indirect regulations through environmental taxes, subsidies, 8 tariffs and quotas and c) promotion of voluntary agreements)in order to reduce the 9 burden on the environment. The effectiveness of these policies on firms’ behavior towards the environment depends on the response to two questions concerning the bidirectional relationship between corporate environmental (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Are resourceful firms more capable of responding to pressures from various stakeholders and overcome both the neoclassical trade-off between CEP15 CFP and the concentration of managers to their personal goals (managerial opportunism1 ), engaging in long-term and costly environmental performance 17 improving investments? At the same time, will the benefits from these investments lead to higher market share reducing costly conflicts with various stakeholders, environmental risk, and increasing production efficiency leading to better financial performance (Elsayed and Paton, 2005; Nelling and Webb, 2009)? In this context, environmental issues are confronted in management decision moving beyond the 22 ethical perspective to the promotion of a sustainable economic success (Ambec and 23 Lanoie 2008; Lacy, et al. 2010; Porter and van der Linde, 1995).

Monitoring and understanding how costs “behave” in the public sector could help towards making it more effective through the better allocation and management of expenditures. Moreover, rational management of expenditures could ideally lead to the provision of better services, and eventually to more satisfied constituents. In this realm, the “sticky cost” phenomenon that has recently received much attention in the private sector accounting literature could provide useful insights. This new theory was introduced by Anderson, Banker and Janakiraman in their seminal paper in 2003 and characterizes costs as sticky if they decrease less when activity levels decline than in comparison to how much they rise when activity levels increase. Sticky cost phenomenon has been studied in several research works following the seminal work of Anderson et al. (2003). These studies have enriched the fundamental findings by providing evidence of asymmetric cost behaviour across different cost categories, firms and industries of the private sector (Subramaniam and Weidenmier, 2003; Chen et al., 2012; Dierynck et al., 2012; Kama and Weiss, 2013; Banker et al., 2013, Banker and Byzalov, 2014). The starting point in the sticky cost framework is that many, but not all, costs arise as a result of deliberate resource commitment decisions made by managers. According to Anderson et al. (2003), sticky cost behaviour may be created because managers do not deliberately reduce resources that are not necessary to support the reduced activity level. However, cost stickiness may not only occur thanks to behavioural reasons but thanks to economic reasons as well. While management action and its effect on cost behaviour have been studied in the private sector, the public sector has been understudied even though the public sector decision-making could influence cost behaviour as well. The interrelation of politicians with managers creates an interesting setting for decision-making in the public sector, with the existence of strong political influence affecting sound economic rationality (Robinson and Brumby, 2005). At the same time, politicians’ self-interest for getting re-elected and bureaucrats’ career concerns drive both groups to invest in short-termism (Garrí, 2010).

Horizontal extension by normal faulting often results in arrays of fault-bounded blocks that have rotated about horizontal axes as their bounding faults slip (so-called ‘domino’ or ‘bookshelf’ faulting) (e.g. Gilbert, 1928; Proffett, 1977; Morton and Black, 1975; Jackson and McKenzie, 1983). However, questions remain over what controls whether faults positioned across-strike from each other are active simultaneously or sequentially, and how this may vary between different extensional settings (e.g. Jackson et al., 1982; Dart et al., 1995). Additionally, in cases where the location of dominant slip activity migrates across-strike between faults, it is not known whether this transition is sudden or gradual, or what controls the direction of migration (e.g. Goldsworthy and Jackson, 2001). Addressing these questions will reveal important information about the mechanics and behaviour of faults, and will also highlight whether multiple faults in arrays of parallel structures need to be considered as sources of earthquake hazard. In addition, understanding the behaviour of arrays of faults will allow us to probe the properties of the underlying ductile layer. Specifically, we can address the controversy of whether strain accumulation at faults is governed by flow in a laterally-homogeneous viscoelastic material (e.g. Meade et al., 2013), or whether lateral contrasts in effective viscosity are the dominant control (e.g. Yamasaki et al., 2014). We address these questions by making new observations of Holocene fault slip on the Kenchreai Fault on the south side of the Gulf of Corinth in central Greece. The Kenchreai Fault bounds the south side of the isthmus between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf (Fig. 1). The northern, hangingwall, side of the fault is occupied by the Corinth Terraces – a series of marine terraces, dating from ∼0.5 Ma to the present, that have been uplifted by motion on the Heraion (also known as Xylokastro) and Pisia faults to the north (e.g. Armijo et al., 1996). This northern fault system ruptured in Mw 6.7 and 6.4 earthquakes in 1981 (e.g. Jackson et al., 1982). The uplift of the Corinth Terraces relative to the sea-level highstands at which they formed (e.g. Armijo et al., 1996) shows that the Heraion and Pisia faults have been more active over the last ∼400 kyr than the Kenchreai and Loutraki Faults, motion on which would produce hangingwall subsidence in the region of the terraces. It is likely that the Kenchreai Fault was the most active fault in the region in the early/mid Pleistocene, because the sediments currently exposed in the cutting of the Corinth Canal (Fig. 1; Collier and Dart, 1991) represent a series of climatically-controlled sea  level cycles superimposed upon tectonic subsidence, of which the Kenchreai Fault is thought to be the cause (e.g. Mack et al., 2009; Charalampakis et al., 2014). The rate of activity on the Kenchreai Fault therefore seems to have reduced since the mid Pleistocene, but questions remain as to whether it has been active at all in the latest Quaternary.

Governments across the world are trying to reduce air emissions through various pledges, directives and regulations. The transport sector alone is responsible for 25.3 percent of the EU’s Green House Gas (GHG) (European Union, 2015) emissions, while road transport itself contributes to almost 72 percent of the EU GHG transport sector emissions (European Union, 2015). Furthermore, road transport contributes globally to 10 percent of total GHG emissions (OECD, 2009). As a response to the impact that the transport sector has to the environment, the EU has introduced various policies, including aiming at making the sector more competitive in the future while creating growth and providing employment. One of these main driving policies, the 2011 Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area (European commission, 2011), aim at shaping the future of the transport sector by increasing sustainability and competitiveness of the transport system through the reduction of GHGs, better energy efficiency, and the use of alternative fuels and energy sources. The White Paper also sets as a target the reduction of GHG emissions to 20 percent below their 2008 level by 2030 for the transport sector. As a response to the European Union’s heavy dependency on oil products, the European Commission introduced in 2015 the Energy Union package (European Commission, 2015), aiming at providing secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy to EU consumers. Disturbingly the following figures present how much the EU is dependent on hydrocarbons with 94 percent of transport relying on oil products out of which 90 percent is imported (European Commission, 2015). Reference to the development and deployment of alternative fuels as means to decarbonise transport and reduce oil dependency, is also made in the Clean power for Transport (European Commission, 2013) and the Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (European Parliament, 2014). Regardless, energy efficiency and the need for the EU to become a leader in renewable energies, are raised in President Junker’s agenda (Junker, 2014) not only as a climate change response mechanism, but also as a way of creating growth and jobs.

مقاله سال 2016

 مرور مدیریت ورزش – Sport Management Review

Sport holds a prominent place in the social life of people. A person may actively partake in a sport but he could also take on the role of an audience. In one way or another sport not only becomes part of the culture of a nation, it is also a potentially significant economic event. Team sports are high in preference and popularity and are the centre of attention. Fans are intrigued with a match when there is uncertainty of result. To be able to ensure uncertainty of the result between teams in a league, it would be desirable to have teams with equal chances of winning the match.

In Greece, team sports are undoubtedly the most popular. Basketball and handball are two team games that we discuss in this paper. Although both are team sports, they exhibit fundamental differences. Basketball appeared in Greece toward the end of the 1910s. The first championships took place in the 1927–1928 season divided between the north and south of the country, while the first national championship took place in the 1960s. An important structural change took effect in 1992 with the formation of the first professional league or the First League. However, even though players were not officially ‘‘professionals’’ before this date, they enjoyed considerable incomes or other perks.

On the other hand, handball in Greece officially started in 1979. It is a relatively newer sport than basketball. Handball is divided into one national league and several local leagues based on geographical criteria. Leagues in both sports are considered open, based on the promotion-relegation rule; that is, the last teams on the ladder are replaced the following season by the best teams of the immediate lower league. Even today, handball continues to be termed amateur as it has not been officially termed professional by the state even though in the beginning of the new millennia there was a tendency for higher wages and an introduction of more foreign players. Basketball has a longer presence than handball and is more popular as well as gaining good rankings in European basketball and world placements. In the beginning, participation in both sports was limited only to Greek players. Foreign players appeared in basketball and in handball in the 1988–1989 and 1999–2000 seasons, respectively.

مقاله سال 2016

Since May 2010, “Greece has been receiving financial support from Euro Area Member States and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cope with its financial difficulties and economic challenges. This support comes in the form of economic adjustment programs, which include measures to support the Greek government’s efforts to address economic imbalances, tackle social challenges, and pave the way for sustainable economic growth and job creation” (EU, 2016). In an effort to meet economic reform targets, the Greek Government invited on March of 2013 private investors to submit offers for the concession of the right to use, operate, manage and exploit 14 out of the 38 Regional Airports owned by the Greek State (Hellenic Republic Asset Development FundHRADF-2013a,b,c).1 In December 2015 HRADF (HRADF, 2015) and a consortium comprising of the German group Fraport and Slentel (a unit of the Greek Kopelouzos energy group) signed an agreement for the concession of 14 regional airports. This was ratified by the Greek Parliament in June 2016. The privatization is still in progress and is expected to be finalized in autumn 2016.

Over the years, Greek airports have been owned and managed by the Greek Government through the supervision of the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA-YPA in Greek), which is a public authority under the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Networks. HCAA was established in 1926 and its mission was the organization, development, and control of the country’s air transport infrastructure, as well as the research concerning the overall air transport policy. Despite changes that occurred due to Greece entering the EU in 1981, the Greek state has been solely responsible for the maintenance, development and management of Greek airports, with the exception of the new Athens International Airport (AIA) which became the country’s first international airport under private management in 1995.

Greece’s geomorphology includes 80% mountainous terrain and about 1400 islands, of which about 227 are inhabited and vary greatly in size, population, and development. Due to the insular specificity, Greece has an impressively large number of airports relating to its size: 39 airports used for civil aviation in total countryarea of 131,957 sq. km whereas Spain, for instance, has only 50 airports in a total area of 505,951 sq. km (Eurostat, 2014). As a result, air transport is a critical factor both for the social coherence and economic development of the country. It is characteristic that only in 2014 the air transport sector accounted for 807 million Euros of Greek national generated income, recording a 15,7% increase of its contribution over the years of 2010e2014 (Elstat, 2015).