Anthony N. Rezitis

This paper examines supply response models in a rational expectations framework for each one of the four major Greek meat markets, i.e. beef, broiler, lamb and pork. A multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model with Cholesky decomposition is used to incorporate price volatility into the rational expectations supply response model for each meat category and as a result the conditional covariance matrix remains positive definite without imposing any restrictions on the parameters. The empirical results confirm the existence of rational behaviour by meat producers in the four examined markets and indicate that price volatility is a major risk factor in Greek meat production. Furthermore, the last Common Agricultural Policy reform is found to have a negative impact on beef and lamb production in Greece.

This article investigates the nonlinear adjustment between consumer and producer prices in the Greek milk sector using a threshold error correction autoregressive model. The results reject the null hypothesis of linear cointegration in favor of a 2-regime threshold cointegration model. A cointegrating relationship is expected only when equilibrium consumer price is decreased more than 24.12% or the equilibrium relative markup is squeezed more than 62.74%. In this case consumer prices have to increase faster than producer prices to restore the long-run equilibrium between consumer-producer milk prices.

This article applies the Window Malmquist Index (WMI) approach to measure changes in agricultural Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for the United States and a sample of nine European countries for the period 1973 to 1993. The dataset used in this article is obtained from Ball et al. ( 2001 Ball, VE , Bureau, JC , Butault, JP and Nehring, R . 2001. Levels of farm sector productivity: an international comparison. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 15: 5–29. [Google Scholar] ). The WMI is constructed by combining Data Envelopment Analysis, window analysis with the Malmquist index approach. Furthermore, the ‘Kruskal and Wallis rank test’ is used for testing frontier shifts among observed periods. The article also explores the question of convergence in TFP across the countries under consideration, by testing for β- and σ-convergence, as well as for stochastic or long-run convergence. The results show wide variation in the rate of TFP growth across countries with an average trend growth rate of 1.62%. The results indicate the presence of β-convergence but the absence of σ-convergence for the full period under consideration but the presence of both β- and σ-convergence for the sub-period 1983 to 1993. Finally, a wide spectrum of panel unit root test results support the presence of long-run convergence among the sample countries.

This paper investigates productivity growth and technical efficiency in the Greek banking industry for the period 1982–1997. It also compares the 1982–92 and 1993–97 sub-periods, since after 1992 the Greek banking sector experienced substantial changes. The Malmquist productivity index and the DEA method are used to measure and decompose productivity growth and technical efficiency, respectively. Productivity growth is higher after 1992. Recent growth is mainly attributed to technical progress, while until 1992 growth is mainly attributed to improvements in efficiency. Furthermore, after 1992, pure efficiency is higher, and scale efficiency is lower, indicating that although banks achieved higher pure technical efficiency, they moved away from optimal scale. Finally, Tobit results show that size and specialization have positive effects on both pure and scale efficiency.

This article investigates the behavior of agricultural input prices, agricultural output prices, and retail food prices using the cointegration/error–correction methodology. The findings support “cost push” and “demand pull” theories, because disequilibrium at the input level is transmitted to the retail level, and vice versa, through the output level. The estimated error–correction coefficients and price responses indicate, first, imperfect price transmission among agricultural input, output, and retail food prices, and second, that agricultural output prices are more flexible than agricultural input and retail food prices. [EconLit citations: Q110; Q130]. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 19: 425–437, 2003.

This study investigates causality, price transmission and volatility spillover effects between producer and consumer prices in lamb, beef, pork and poultry markets in Greece, using the methodology of the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) approach. The empirical findings indicate significant price effects in the markets under consideration.