https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/28521 Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:38:36 GMT 2026-04-28T12:38:36Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31234 Title: Determinants of tourism for “Sun and Sea” Cyprus Authors: Tsangari, Haritini Abstract: Tourism is an essential contributor of economic growth, social and cultural development. Cyprus is now an established tourist destination, which, however, is passing through a slowdown phase. The determinants of tourism have been extensively examined for other countries, but the literature regarding Cyprus is very scarce. This paper examines the factors that affect tourism in Cyprus for the period 1995-2010, using time series regression analysis. Tourism is represented by tourist arrivals and tourism expenditure, while the predictors are relative prices, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Cyprus and the income of the main countries that send tourists to Cyprus. The results show that tourism expenditure is significantly affected by the GDP of Cyprus and the relative prices between Cyprus and its main competitor, Greece, while tourist arrivals are additionally affected by the level of income of the origin countries. Increased competition, high operational costs, standardization of touristic product (sun and sea), as well as the international political instability and global financial crisis, which have raised unemployment and reduced tourists’ disposable income, appear to influence tourism in Cyprus. These findings are discussed, in combination with the corresponding low or high rankings of Cyprus in various pillars of travel and tourism competitiveness. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31234 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31233 Title: Using behavioral economics to analyze credit policies in the banking industry Authors: Peon, David; Calvo, Anxo Abstract: 2008 world financial meltdown highlighted significant shortcomings on procedures used by the banking sector to provide credit to the real economy. A long period of indulgence granting personal loans and mortgages that boosted a credit bubble all over the world has been followed by an era of suspicion within the banking sector, precipitating the liquidity crunch and the credit squeeze to private agents. Behavioral Finance has emerged as an alternative approach to analyze efficiency on financial markets, revealing a world with less than fully rational investors and arbitrageurs limited by risk aversion, short time horizons and agency problems. In this paper we consider the possibility to extend Behavioral Finance topics such as investor sentiment, overconfidence, heuristics or herd instinct to analyze banks behavior when providing credit to private agents, and how the absence of arbitrageurs in the credit market could justify the role of public banking as a countercyclical policy maker. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31233 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31232 Title: Government regulations come always after big crises. Are bankers next to split following the auditors? Authors: Pelagidis, Theodore; Moutafidis, Yanni Abstract: When things are good nobody asks why. When things are too good to be true, only a few realise that it is true. When things finally turn bad everybody finds out that the emperor has no clothes on. Then, promising politicians take over the crisis to save the world. Is this process just human nature where the system works always in favour of the ruling class, or well-educated humans is a must for a true democracy? In any case, society would be betteroff when informed, rather than ignorant. In this short note, we offer an explanation for the current persisting mediocre growth rate mainly in the US. At the centre of our analysis and explanation for the above matter lie the persisting structural distortions found in the US banking industry.. We focus on the investment banking system in particular as we are considering it as the absolutely principal factor that circulates and allocates capital in the globe. We show why and how this system malfunctions, we focus on the conflicts of interest and we finally offer both an explanation and a way out of the current Wall Street institutional distortions, which we consider of critical importance for bringing back the US as well as the western economy as a whole, back on track. In addition, our view also offers an indirect explanation about the inability of the Western economies to succeed high growth rates, reducing government debt and unemployment at the same time. It is in fact the inability to substantially reform the banking system, leaving it substantially operating as before, that drags down the economy to inadequate growth rates, despite repetitive programs of Quantitative Easing (QE) by the FED in the US or “backdoor QE” in Europe. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31232 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31231 Title: Geographical economics and per capita GDP growth in Romania Authors: Lopez-Rodriguez, Jesus; Bolea-Gabriel, Cosmin Abstract: This paper analyses the growth dynamics in the Romanian economic over the period 1995-2008 and the link between them and the economic geography of the country in light of the transition process started in the early nineties. The analysis of the growth dynamics is carried out at different geographical scales and using different time spans. The analysis of the growth dynamics is followed by an econometric exercise which first tries to check for the (non)existence of convergence and then we have studied to which extend the economic geography of the country is a key ingredient in the observed growth dynamics. The results of our analysis point out that regardless of the period of study under consideration a catching-up process across Romanian counties is not taken place. Rather a divergence process is pretty much at work. Our second important conclusion is that the economic geography of the country is shaping the growth dynamics observed over the course of the years in Romania. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31231 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z