Aikaterini Kokkinou

Innovation Geography and Regional Growth in European Union

There is a huge literature regarding the main determinants and sources of economic growth. Most of the recent work emphasizes on the role of knowledge and innovation activities typically produced by a specific sector of the economy, and on analyzing the implications and the importance for economic growth. Moreover, the socioeconomic and public policies aim to distinguish the determining factors of growth to enhance the regional cohesion and the convergence process. Much of the recent work on regional growth can be viewed as refining the basic economic insights of economic geography. This article attempts to analyze the European systems of innovation and the effects of European technological policy to regional growth.

THE ROLE OF TOURISM IN EUROPEAN REGIONAL GROWTH

AbstractNowadays the world tourism represents one of the industrial areas with the highest development potential and always in expansion. With its variety of attractions and quality of its tourism services, Europe is the world leading tourist destination: so tourism is an activity which can play an important role in the attainment of the Growth and Jobs Strategy goals. In fact in the European Union about 5% of the GDP and of total occupation rate comes from tourism and currently 8 millions of people result to be directly employed in this sector. However these esteems grow if considering all the economy linked to tourism: the European Unions travel and tourism economy is expected to account for 10,9% of GDP and 25,7 millions of workplaces (11,8% of total employment) in 2007. Greece attracts well over 16 million tourists a year contributing 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nations Economy. The country has been an attraction for international visitors since antiquity for its rich and long history and more recently for its glorious Mediterranean coastline and beaches. In 2005, 6,088,287 tourists visited only the city of Athens, the capital city. In 2004, the country welcomed over 16.5 million tourists. At the same time, tourism consumption increased considerably since the turn of the millennium, from US

A Benchmarking Study for Human Capital in Europe

17.7 bn. in 2000 to US

Social Policy and Socio-economic Integration in Europe

29.6 bn. in 2004. The number of jobs directly or indirectly related to the tourism sector were 659,719 and represented 16.5% of the countrys total employment for that year. This article focuses in the fields of tourism and regional growth in Europe. Moreover, it attempts to analyze the evaluation of tourism and industrial sectors in European Union. It combines both a theoretical and an empirical background. It also investigates and attempts to explain the role and socio-economic effects of tourism activities in the convergence and divergence process of European regions (in an attempt to interpret the so-called Dutch Disease phenomenon).

Political Decision in a Game Theory Approach

Since early, economic theory dealt with the innovation as basic factor of economic development and technical change. The first approach in defining innovation has been made by Schumpeter (1934), which first focused on innovation factor as one of the core sources of dynamism in the capitalistic social and economic growth, asserting that innovation is one of the centred activities towards economic change and growth.

Education Policy and Regional Convergence in the European Union

Nowadays, economies all over the world are described taking part in a race seeking the most appropriate and effective ways that could provide them with the strengths and opportunities necessary to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Due to this competitiveness race, productivity enhancement is of great importance for the economic development in the face of uncertainties generated by international competition. That is the reason why countries are struggling to maintain and also accelerate their growth rates.

A New Methodological Approach of Job Requirement Assessment

Neoclassical approach is based on the importance of the information problems in order to determine the inter-sequential behavior of agents and the necessity of considering the state as a major player in the strategic game. Using the hypothesis regarding the agents’ rationality, we can examine the optimum way of using the information available at a certain moment in order to make decisions.

ECONOMIC GROWTH, INNOVATION AND COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

In the past three decades, important changes in the pattern of economic growth and productivity have been interpreted as a movement towards knowledge-based economy. Currently, output and employment are expanding fast in high-technology industries, as well as in knowledge-based services. More resources are spent on the production and development of new technologies, in particular on information and communication technology. At the same time, major shifts are taking place in the labour market, in particular, the increased demand for skilled labour. Globalisation and worldwide competition has shifted the comparative advantage of economies towards the factor of knowledge and innovation, where productivity based on the endogenous development capabilities plays a rather important role, as far as growth and competitiveness enhancement are concerned.

A Note on Theory of Productive Efficiency and Stochastic Frontier Models

Human capital accumulation, education and training skills, is one of the main determinants of individuals’ earning capacity and employment prospects and therefore plays an important role in determining the level and distribution of income in society. Many countries seek to ensure that all young people enter working life with a minimum amount of human capital acquired during the years of compulsory education (Wende van der 2003). However, governments are also heavily involved in the financing and delivery of post-compulsory education and training where returns may to a larger extent accrue to the individual and where participation is by choice. An important motivation for individuals to invest in education is that the acquired knowledge and skills tend to raise their productivity and hence earnings potential. Education appears to provide not only an initial earnings advantage but also a wage premium that increases with time spent in the labour market. The strategic objectives for the European systems of education and training were grouped in three big categories that concern: