Adolescent Online Gambling in Cyprus: Associated School Performance and Psychopathology

This paper presents results from the study of gambling behaviors in a representative sample of Cypriot high-school students. The aim of the study was to ascertain epidemiology of adolescent online gambling in Cyprus and possible correlates. The sample consisted of 2,684 students (48.5 % boys, 51.5 % girls) from the first grades of junior (Gymnasium) and senior (Lyceum) high school. Our results indicate that gamblers presented with lower school achievement and related expectations while scoring consistently higher on measures of Internet addiction, parental bonding and psychopathology. Discriminant analysis revealed two profiles which explained the most variance in gambling behavior; the first profile that corresponded to more explained variance was the student with higher psychopathology, less prosocial behavior, higher Internet addiction score with higher frequencies of online activities and moderate levels of truancy and lower expectation of school achievement. The second profile was that of a student who reported less psychopathology, more prosocial behavior, less involvement with the Internet in general but skipped classes more and his prospects on finishing high school were even slimmer. These results will be utilized in the design of a comprehensive prevention program in an effort to combat online addictive behaviors.     

Immigrant Remittances,Stability of Employment and Relative Deprivation

This paper examines the factors affecting immigrant remittances on the basis of the experience of immigrants to Greece. In addition to factors commonly used in similar analyses, we examine two new ones: stability of employment and relative deprivation. Our results show that the stability of employment has no significant effect on the decision to remit, while relative deprivation does. Immigrants from less relatively deprived families are more likely to send money back home. As for their effects on the size of remittances, our results show that the relative deprivation variable is insignificant, while those in steady jobs remit less money than those employed in unsteady jobs. The latter finding suggests that fluctuations in migrant employment and migrant income are borne by migrants themselves, whose goal appears to be to secure a steady flow of remittances to country of origin. This type of remittance behaviour has implications for the interpretation of volatility in remittance flows to migrant–sending countries. Specifically, variation in flows may be attributable to changes in the numbers of migrants and not only to changes in the economic and employment conditions in destination countries.     

Illegal immigration and local labour markets: the case of northern Greece

"The purpose of the present study is to enhance knowledge on the impact of illegal immigrants in Greece from both Eastern European and other developing countries. Our analysis is based on direct survey information from the four regions in Greece which employ considerable numbers of illegal aliens." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

On‐The‐Job Skills and Earnings of Returned Migrants

In this paper we study the factors altering the probability of migrants to acquire additional on‐the‐job skills while abroad, and the determinants of their earnings level, using a sample of 6120 returned migrants from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Romania, and Tadjikistan. We use a two‐stage procedure to estimate a system of two equations where on‐the‐job skills and earnings are determined simultaneously. The probability of acquiring skills on‐the‐job is found to be positively affected by the level of earnings. It is also higher for migrants who are employed in the same sector (pre‐ and during migration), and for migrants with lower initial financial status. Interestingly, the probability is lower for migrants with university education. The earnings level is positively affected by acquired on‐the‐job skills, the level of education, and the duration of migration. Women have lower earnings while those (males and females) who have learned the language of the destination country have higher earnings. The country variables are statistically significant in all cases but one, indicating that there are differences in the acquisition of skills and earnings reflecting unspecified differences among the countries of origin.     

Assessment of Athens's metro passenger behaviour via a multiranked probit model

Summary. We deal with real data from a stated preference experiment which was designed to explain and predict passengers' behaviour towards three main means of transportation in the city of Athens. The resulting model formulations give rise to the so-called multiranked probit model which emerges from a series of ranking responses in a set of hypothetical scenarios, i.e. we enhance the multinomial probit model with the embodiment of a utility threshold parameter which deals realistically with ranking responses, intransitivity of indifference between alternatives or ties. Moreover, we ensure identifiable parameters for the covariance matrix of the underlying utility vectors, we include a hierarchical step that models the unit-specific utility thresholds as exchangeably distributed and, finally, we permit the use of heavy-tailed distributions for the stochastic error term. Our proposed methodology is Bayesian and the implementation tool adopted is Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. The posterior output consists of practical information such as travel characteristics (e.g. walking times and waiting times), expressed either in drachmas per hour or in minutes of in-vehicle time, and 95% credible intervals of the probability of choosing a particular mode of transportation. These are key factors in determining whether a policy has positive or negative net benefits.     

Factors determining migrant remittances: the case of Greece

"In this study we review the literature regarding the theory and the empirical evidence regarding migrants' remittance behavior, and we examine the flow and determinants of remittances from Greek migrants for the period 1961 to 1991. The main body of data is for remittances to Greece from Germany, but for some years data are available for remittances from Belgium and Sweden as well. The objective of this study is to test the significance of certain factors in terms of their effects on remittances to Greece. These factors are the migrant's income, the migrant's family income, the rate of unemployment, the rate of interest, the exchange rate, and the rate of inflation. The study attempts to see if these factors have had any effect on the volume of remittances. It also attempts to see if there are any structural changes during this period that affect migrants' propensity to remit."