Browsing by Author "Trachanas, Emmanouil"

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    Does intellectual property rights protection affect UK and US outward FDI and earnings from FDI? A sectoral analysis
    (Emerald, 2021-11-26) De Vita, Glauco; Alexiou, Constantinos; Trachanas, Emmanouil; Luo, Yun
    Purpose Despite decades of research, the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) remains ambiguous. Using a recently developed patent enforcement index (along with a broader IPR index) and a large sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset, the authors revisit the FDI-IPR relationship by testing the impact of IPRs on UK and US outward FDI (OFDI) flows as well as earnings from outward FDI (EOFDI). Design/methodology/approach The authors use disaggregated data for up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK for OFDI flows and EOFDI, for a panel of up to 42 developed and developing countries over sample periods from 1998 to 2015. The authors employ a panel fixed effects (FE) approach that allows exploiting the longitudinal properties of the data using Driscoll and Kraay's (1998) nonparametric covariance matrix estimator. Findings The authors do not find any consistent evidence in support of the hypothesis that countries' strength of IPR protection or enforcement affects inward FDI, or that sector of investment matters. The results prove robust to sensitivity checks that include an alternative broader measure of IPR strength, analyses across sub-samples disaggregated according to the strength of countries' IPRs as well as developing vs developed economies and an extended specification accounting for dynamic effects of the response of FDI to both previous investment levels and IPR (patent) protection. Originality/value The authors make use of the largest most granular sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset employed to date in the analysis of the FDI-IPR nexus with disaggregated data for OFDI and EOFDI across up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK The authors employ a more sophisticated measure of IPR strength, the patent index proposed by Papageorgiadis et al. (2014), which places emphasis on the effectiveness of enforcement practices as perceived by managers, together with the overall administrative effectiveness and efficiency of the national patent system.
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    Health outcomes, income and income inequality: revisiting the empirical relationship
    (De Gruyter, 2022-10-19) Alexiou, Constantinos; Trachanas, Emmanouil
    In this paper we revisit the relationship between health outcomes, income, and income inequality by applying alternative panel methodologies to a dataset of high-income countries spanning the time period 1980–2017. In this direction, we adopt alternative methodological frameworks in order to provide a) meaningful results by taking into account standard errors that alleviate problems of cross-sectional (spatial) and temporal dependence, and b) insights into the underlying relationships at several points of the conditional distribution of the health outcomes dependent variables. The evidence strongly supports the significant role that income plays in determining health outcomes. The findings relating to income inequality and nonlinear terms are more fragmented in that their significance and sign-direction depend on the functional form and the respective quantiles of the distribution the relationships are evaluated.
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    The impact of trade unions and government party orientation on income inequality: evidence from 17 OECD economies
    (Emerald, 2022-03-25) Alexiou, Constantinos; Trachanas, Emmanouil
    Purpose: Despite the existing conceptual analysis on the impact of trade unions on employees' welfare and the wider economy, the mediating effect of political party orientation (i.e., right, centre and left) on income inequality remains under researched. In this paper, the authors empirically explore the relationship between the nature of political party orientation, trade unions and income inequality. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use three different measures of income inequality and dummy variables that capture government party orientation with respect to economic policy for a panel of 17 OECD economies over the period 2000–2016. The authors employ a panel fixed effects approach and the Driscoll and Kraay's (1998) nonparametric covariance matrix estimator. Findings: The empirical evidence indicates that strong unions and, to some extent, left party governance, are fundamental institutional elements to combat rising levels of income inequality whilst countries dominated by right-wing political parties appear to exacerbate income inequality. The results pertaining to the impact of centrist parties on income inequality are ambiguous suggesting that a potential fragmentation may exist in their political approach. Originality/value: The evidence generated can have significant policy ramifications in alleviating rising levels of income inequality as well in relation to the declining unionization rates observed across advanced economies.
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    Politics, government health expenditure and infant mortality: does political party orientation matter?
    (Emerald, 2021-08-26) Alexiou, Constantinos; Trachanas, Emmanouil
    Purpose Motivated by the scant available evidence, this paper explores the relationship between government political party orientation and infant mortality. Design/methodology/approach A panel quantile methodology is applied to a data set that consists of 15 countries of the G20 group over the period 2000–2018. The authors control for heterogeneous parameters across countries and quantiles and obtain estimates across the different points of the conditional distribution of the dependent variable. Findings The findings support the hypothesis that political party orientation has a significant effect on a population health indicator such as infant mortality. The analysis suggests that, to a great extent, left-wing government parties contribute to better health outcomes – when compared to right and centre political parties – both individually as well as interacted with government health expenditure. Moreover, the impact of redistributing policies appears to be of a paramount importance in alleviating infant mortality, while more education and lower unemployment can also contribute to better health outcomes. Originality/value The authors explore the relationship between the nature of government political party orientation (i.e. right, centre and left) and infant mortality whilst at the same time gauging the mediating effect of party orientation via government health expenditure on infant mortality. Additional aspects of the impact of other control variables, such as income inequality, unemployment and education on infant mortality are also investigated.
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    Predicting post-war US recessions: a probit modelling approach
    (Elsevier, 2020-05-28) Alexiou, Constantinos; Trachanas, Emmanouil
    This paper investigates the factors associated with the occurrences of US recessions over the period 1963Q1 to 2018Q2 using multivariate probit models. The evidence suggests that the probability of a recession decreases with higher profitability, as implied by the proponents of the Marxian tradition. Equally significant are the results that relate to manufacturing activity, investment, and inflation. The theoretical argument however, of those who regard the burgeoning growth of private credit as a factor triggering recessions, is not supported by our findings. Finally, interest rates, Tobin's Q, and labour's share of income are not statistically significant, hence implying that the likelihood of these being closely associated with US economic recessions is rather slim.