Spring Semester 2024-2025
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Arvanitis, S., "Topics in Stochastic Dominance: Robust Inference and Ambiguity-Resolved Preferences"Date:22/05/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
Title: "Topics in Stochastic Dominance: Robust Inference and Ambiguity-Resolved Preferences"
Speaker: Professor Stelios Arvanitis, Athens 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
Abstract: The presentation discusses methodological tools for stochastic dominance (SD) inference with applications ranging from income distribution comparison to robust portfolio selection. It introduces distributionally robust SD testing procedures that leverage norm-regularization and Wasserstein ambiguity sets to control false dominance errors in finite samples. Additionally, and beyond empirical testing, the talk explores a category-theoretic framework to formalize ambiguity resolution in expected utility models, culminating in a recursive construction of universal vNM preference spaces.
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Date:29/05/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
POSTPONED
Title: "tba"
Speaker: Dr. Nikos Kokonas, University of Bath
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
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Date:05/06/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
Title: "The Presale Price Premium Puzzle”"
Speaker: Associate Professor Miroslav Gabrovski, University of Hawaii Manoa
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
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Date:12/06/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
POSTPONEDTitle: "Agreed and Disagreed Uncertainty"
Speaker: Professor John Tsoukalas, University of Glasgow
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 of Relevant PaperAbstract: We formalize two novel concepts of uncertainty in a model of imperfect and dispersed information: agreed and disagreed uncertainty. We show that consumer disagreement significantly shapes the effect of uncertainty on economic activity. Episodes of elevated uncertainty accompanied by high consumer disagreement (disagreed uncertainty) do not exert negative effects on economic activity. In contrast, episodes of high uncertainty with low consumer disagreement (agreed uncertainty) lead to substantial economic contractions. These results challenge the conventional view that uncertainty invariably triggers recessions. We establish these findings using both time-series and micro-survey panel methods.
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Date:12/06/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
Title: "Lost in Aggregation: decomposing the Eurozone's business cycle fluctuations"Speaker: Associate Professor Katerina Karadimitropoulou, University of Piraeus
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
Abstact: This paper examines the dynamics of business cycle (BC) synchronization at a disaggregated level across regions, sectors, and countries within the Eurozone, with a focus on the impact of the euro’s introduction. Using data from 51 NUTS 1 regions and six sectors across nine Eurozone countries for 1980–2019, we employ a Bayesian dynamic latent factor model (DFM) that includes four different types of factors: Eurozone, country, sectoral and regional. Our results show that, prior to the euro, regional factors were the main drivers of BC fluctuations, whereas sectoral factors became more prominent post-euro. This shift suggests that international factors, that is sectoral and Eurozone-wide components, have gained importance in explaining cyclical fluctuations, indicating greater synchronization. However, regional disparities remain, highlighting the need for policies that address intra-national differences in future economic integration efforts.
Keywords: international business cycles, business cycle synchronization, Bayesian dynamic factor model, sectoral data, regional data, Eurozone
JEL: C38, E32, F44
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Date:18/06/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Title: "The Effect of Non-Wage Competition on Corporate Profits"
Speaker: Assistant Professor Ioannis Branikas, University of Oregon
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 of Relevant PaperAbstract: Most S&P 500 corporations disclose that their profits depend on non-wage competition for worker talent via workplace amenities like work-life balance. We quantify this dependence using a labor market matching model with endogenous amenities. When productive (unproductive) firms provide the amenities demanded by workers at a lower cost, firm quality becomes more (less) dispersed relative to worker quality, which results in higher (lower) firm profits due to competition. This cost advantage is identified with data on wages, worker satisfaction, and firm scale. Calibrating our model to Glassdoor surveys, a 1% increase in workers’ non-pecuniary preferences raises firm profits by 0.6%.
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Date:19/06/2025 - 15:30 - 17:00
Title: "Debt and Growth: Friends or Foes? A Political Economy Approach"
Speaker: Postdoctoral Researcher Elias Boultzis, Department of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business
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 of Relevant PaperAbstract: In this paper I discuss the relationship between government debt and growth in small open economies using an overlapping generations’ model with two generations and probabilistic voting. In this context, intergenerational conflict over government policy drives the results of the model. A calibration of the model using data from 20 western democracies verifies that the model is consistent with growth and debt in these countries during the period 1980-2010. The results of the calibration imply that an increase in the political power of the old decreases growth and increases debt both in the short and in the long run. The same is true for an increase in government corruption. Moreover, the calibration indicates a negative relationship between debt to output and growth in the short run. However, shifts in the steady state or differences in parameters between countries might make the identification of this relationship difficult.
