Spring Semester 2024-2025

  • Date:
    27/02/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Title: "Mutual insurance and land security in rural Ghana"

    Speaker: Early Career Researcher in Economics Georgios Manalis, University of Edinburgh.

    Host:  Assistant Professor Kospentaris Ioannis, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room: 2 Troias, Kimolou and Spetson Street, Room T106

  • Date:
    06/03/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Title: "Regression Modelling under General Heterogeneity"

    Speaker: Professor George Kapetanios, King’s College London

    Host:  Assistant Professor Alexopoulos Angelos, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Αbstract: This paper introduces and analyses a setting with general heterogeneity in regression modelling. It shows that regression models with fixed or time-varying parameters can be estimated by OLS or time-varying OLS methods, respectively, for a very wide class of regressors and noises, not covered by existing modelling theory. The new setting allows the development of asymptotic theory and the estimation of standard errors. The proposed robust confidence interval estimators permit a high degree of heterogeneity in regressors and noise. The estimates of robust standard errors coincide with the well known estimator of heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors by White (1980), but are applicable to more general circumstances than just the presence of heteroscedastic noise and allow regression estimation with  missing data. They are easy to compute and perform well in Monte Carlo simulations. Their robustness, generality and ease of use make them ideal for applied work. The paper includes a brief empirical illustration.

  • Date:
    12/03/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Wednesday, 12 March 2025

    Title: "Parental Investments in Private Tutoring: Compensating or Reinforcing?"

    Speaker: Senior Research Associate Konstantina Maragkou, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

    Host:  Assistant Professor Efthymios Athanasiou, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Abstract: Do parents use private tutoring to compensate or reinforce for their child's cognitive skills? We use linked survey and administrative data from schools in England to evaluate how parents' tutoring decisions respond to their child's abilities. We adopt a correlated random effect estimation which exploits within-child across-subject variation in test scores and tutoring investments. We find that parents use private tutoring to compensate for their child’s skills, but better educated parents do so more than low educated parents. While we show that tutoring improves educational progression equally across socio-economic groups, the differences in parental investment strategies are likely to amplify inequalities in children's educational outcomes, in addition to the vastly unequal levels of investment.

  • Date:
    19/03/2025 - 15:00 - 17:00

    Wednesday, 19 March 2025

    Title: "Cash and Cognition: The Impact of Transfer Timing on Standardized Test Performance and Human Capital" 

    Speaker: Assistant Professor German Reyes, Economics Department, Middlebury College 

    Host:  Assistant Professor Efthymios Athanasiou, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Attachments: PDF icon PDF of Relevant Paper

    Abstract: This paper shows that the timing of monetary transfers to low-income families affects students' cognitive performance on high-stakes standardized tests. We combine administrative records from the world's largest conditional cash transfer program with college admission exam results of 185,000 high school students from beneficiary families. Exploiting random variation in payment dates, we find that receiving the transfer in the days preceding the exam increases test scores by 0.01 standard deviations relative to receiving it the subsequent week. Question-level analysis reveals that effects are concentrated in final questions and easier questions, suggesting improved cognitive endurance and effort allocation. The impacts are largest for recipients of larger transfers, who experience persistent gains in human capital accumulation: their college enrollment increases by 0.6 percentage points, with higher graduation rates and formal employment. Our findings show that short-term liquidity constraints during high-stakes events can have long-lasting implications, and suggest opportunities to improve social programs through improved payment scheduling.

  • Date:
    20/03/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

     

    Title: "Screening, Investment Incentives and the Welfare Trade-offs of Privacy"

    Speaker: Associate Professor Anastasios Dosis, ESSEC Business School

    Host:  Assistant Professor Efthymios Athanasiou, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

  • Date:
    27/03/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Title: "The Gradual and Heterogeneous Effects of European Trade Integration"

    Speaker: Associate Professor Petros Milionis, University of Groningen

    Host:  Assistant Professor Kospentaris Ioannis, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Abstract: We use a theory-consistent empirical gravity framework to compare the effect of Eurozone membership on trade flows relative to that of participating in the European common market as well as other EU and non-EU bilateral and multilateral trade arrangements or institutions. We conduct this analysis based on different bilateral trade data sets which capture both gross and value-added trade at different levels of aggregation. The data allow us to compare these effects across pairs of countries, economic sectors and sub-national regions at the NUTS-2 level. Overall we find that participation in the European common market has a large positive effect on bilateral trade flows while participation in the European monetary union leads typically to weak and statistically insignificant effects. At the same time we document substantial heterogeneity in these effects across sectors and regions. Across sectors we find the effects of the common market and the common currency to be larger for trade in manufacturing goods. Across regions we find both effects to be larger for regions that are geographically close and regions that share a common language. Exploiting further the timeline of EU integration, we demonstrate that the two effects increase in magnitude the longer a given pair has been part of both the common market and the common currency. The findings suggest that European trade integration is gradual and it builds on pre-existing ties.

  • Date:
    03/04/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Title: "The Dynamics of Informality and Fiscal Policy under Sovereign Risk"

    Speaker: Assistant Professor Francesco Pappada, Ca Foscari University of Venice

    Host:  Assistant Professor Kospentaris Ioannis, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Attachments: PDF icon PDF of Relevant Paper

    Abstract: This paper examines how the dynamics of informality affects optimal fiscal policy and default risk. We build a model of sovereign debt with limited commitment and informality to assess the consequences of dynamic distortions induced by fiscal policy. In the model, fiscal policy has a persistent impact on taxable activity, which affects future fiscal revenues and thus default risk. The interaction of tax distortions and limited commitment strongly constrains the dynamics of optimal fiscal policy and leads to (i) more frequent default episodes and (ii) costly fluctuations in consumption

  • Date:
    10/04/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

    Title: "Information Intermediaries in Monopolistic Screening"

    Speaker: Panagiotis Kyriazis, Research Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI)

    Host:  Assistant Professor Efthymios Athanasiou, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

    Attachments: PDF icon PDF of Relevant Paper

    Abstract: We investigate the relationship between product offerings, information dissemination, and consumer decision-making in a monopolistic screening environment in which consumers lack information about their valuation of quality-differentiated products. An intermediary, who is driven by the objective of maximizing consumer surplus but is also biased towards high-quality products, provides recommendations after the monopolist announces the menu of product choices. We characterize the monopolist's profit-maximizing finite-item menu. Our results show that as intermediaries place greater emphasis on consumer surplus over product quality, sellers are prompted to strategically expand their product range. Intriguingly, this augmented product variety decreases economic efficiency compared to scenarios where direct seller-to-consumer information provision is the norm. The role of information intermediaries proves pivotal in shaping consumer welfare, market profitability, and overarching economic efficiency. Our insights underscore the complexities introduced by these intermediaries that policymakers and market designers must consider when designing policies centered on consumer learning and market information transparency

  • Date:
    08/05/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00

     

    Title: "tba"

    Speaker: Professor Louis-Philippe Morin, University of Ottawa

    Host:  Assistant Professor Kospentaris Ioannis, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

  • Date:
    15/05/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00


     

    Title: "tba"

    Speakers:  Professor Plutarchos Sakellaris & Dr Stelios GiannoulakisAthens University of Economics and Business

    Host:  Assistant Professor Efthymios Athanasiou, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business

    Time: 15.30 -17.00

    Room:  76, Patission Str., Antoniadou Wing, 3rd floor, Room A36

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