THRESHOLDS IN THE PROCESS OF FINANCIAL INTEGRATION OF ALBANIA – HOW FAR AWAY IS ALBANIA FROM GREECE?

Msc. Dorjana NANO

Faculty of Education and Social Sciences,

University “Eqrem Cabej” Gjirokaster, Albania

Email: doriananano@yahoo.com

and

Msc. Teuta LLUKANI

Faculty of Education and Social Sciences,

University “Eqrem Cabej” Gjirokaster, Albania

Email: t.llukani@gmail.com

Abstract

Recent global financial crises have caused immense debate about costs and benefits of financial integration. Overall, evidences show that industrial economies utilize benefits of financial openness and export their problems to the emerging and less developed countries. There is a substantial and empirical literature that define certain thresholds levels of financial and institutional characteristics beyond which the trade – off improves and makes opening of the capital account beneficial and less risky, especially for a developing country like Albania.

The main aim of this study is to analyse institutional quality, financial sector development, macroeconomic policies and trade openness as thresholds that must be satisfied in order to foster further financial integration and making it work for good, in particular for Albania and Greece. In addition, the comparison of economic characteristics and institutional development between these countries and the minimum standard will be also estimated, in order to reveal their discrepancy and deficiencies and as well to develop several policy proposals.

The main objectives of this study are:

  • To analyse the importance of institutional quality, financial sector development, macroeconomic policies and trade openness in the process of financial integration.
  • To estimate the above mentioned economic and institutional indicators for Albania and Greece and to use the standards level of this indicators (Prasad 2009) as a benchmark in order to reveal deficiencies, the most problematic aspects, and as well future challenges for each country.
  • To draw and assess policy implications and recommendations for improving economic characteristics in Albania and Greece, in order to fully utilise the benefits of financial integration.

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TYPOLOGY OF EMERGING PATTERNS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA IN THE ENERGY SECTOR: A TWO TIER APPROACH

Anastasia BISKA

PhD Candidate, National Technical University of Athens, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, Iroon Polytechniou 9, Campus Zografou,   15780 Athens, Greece, Tel.: +30 210 7722756, E-mail: abiska@survey.ntua.gr

and

Maria GIAOUTZI

Professor, National Technical University of Athens, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, Iroon Polytechniou 9, Campus Zografou,15780 Athens, Greece, Tel.: +30 210 7722749, E-mail: giaoutsi@central.ntua.gr

Abstract

Energy poverty is intensely debated lately, mainly at the political level, both in the developed and developing world. The concept of energy poverty refers to issues such as lack of the necessary infrastructure that prevents citizens from having access to various sources of energy.

In the Mediterranean region, there is a divergence among countries, regarding both the energy poverty patterns and the related policy framework. Apparent differences also appear between the EU countries and non-EU countries, concerning the existing infrastructure, the energy demand, the availability of natural resources and energy sources and the related policy measures.

The aim of this paper is to develop a typology of the energy poverty patterns in the Mediterranean countries and elaborate on the prospects for policy measures.

The first part provides the definition of energy poverty and the patterns appearing in the Mediterranean region. The second part presents data issues on the energy consumption and production patterns in the study region. In the third part, the available data and their sources are presented, while the fourth part presents the methodological framework and the tools used in a clustering exercise in order to identify groups of countries with similar characteristics which may be addressed by a common set of policies. The clustering process consists of two separate parts, one including all the Mediterranean countries and a second clustering separately the EU and the non-EU countries in order to identify differences among the two clusters. The fifth part presents the results of the clustering process and the visualization of the new typologies. Finally, in the sixth part, follows a set of conclusions drawn from the resulting typologies, but also the prospects for policy action in the Mediterranean region.

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THE IMPACTS OF NEW TOURIST FLOWS AT GLOBAL SCALE

Carmen BIZZARRI

European University of  Rome – Via degli Aldobrandeschi,190 – Rome –

carmen.bizzarri@uniroma1.it

Abstract

The present globalization tends to assume in a lot of areas of our world – in particular in Mediterranean countries – some common geographical, social and cultural  features.

While it assists in this homologation, there is a rediscovery of the different local value through the enforcement of the “subsidiarity principle” for determining a stronger cohesion in the local community.

Mass tourism, in a lot of traditional destinations, comes up against the limits that reduce the wellness of costumers, that lead to require new types of tourist services and aim to discover local resources and value.

In this direction, the tourists become a vehicle or tool of multicultural dialogue with residents and both communities absorb the cultural feature.

On account of this, new forms of personal relationships between tourist and resident are being established with economic, environmental and social consequences of utmost importance for the support of tourist development.

This behaviour of  tourists tends to follow the innovative structures  “horizontal networks”, which, in this paper, are analyzed  by original  instruments  characterized by a high level of multidisciplinary.

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