Book Description:
The increasing volume of available data, the rapid advances in telecommunications, and the interrelationships of the global markets which are becoming stronger, create new challenges for researchers and practitioners in economics and finance. At the same time, the regulatory authorities are in a continuous attempt to establish effective rules for monitoring and regulating the global markets. As a result, the decision making process in economics and finance becomes more and more complex, thus requiring new advanced and sophisticated analysis methodologies to be developed and implemented. The contents of this volume cover a wide range of topics, including among others portfolio optimization, stock market prediction and trading, auditing, investment decisions, banking management and corporate performance. (Imprint: Nova)

Table of Contents:
Preface

1. Duration Analysis of Economic Cycles: An Empirical Analysis Using Data from USA;pp. 1-10
(Polyxeni Gioti, University of Ioannina, Greece)

2. Is Central Bank Interest Rate a Policy Tool for Disinflation? Evidence from Developing Economies;pp. 11-23
(Stelios Karagiannis, Yannis Panagopoulos and Prodromos Vlamis, Centre for Planning and Economic Research, Athens, Greece and others)

3. The Optimization of the Economic Segmentation by Means of Fuzzy Algorithms;pp. 25-42
(Jaime Gil–Aluja, Ana Maria Gil–Lafuente and Anna Klimova,University of Barcelona, Spain)

4. Spatial Modeling Based on Economic, Demographic and Geographical Criteria: An Application on the Regionalization of Greece;pp. 43-58
(Kostas Rontos, Christos Tzimos and Christos Mavroudis, Aegean University, Sociology Dept., Mytilene Greece and others)

5. Trading Knowledge;pp. 59-76
(Thomas Bassetti)

6. Impact of Outlier Returns on the CAPM Model: An Investigation Using the Huber’s M Robust Estimation Method;pp. 77-88
(Alexandra Theodossiou and Panayiotis Theodossiou, Drexel University, USA and others)

7. On Modeling an Integrated Multiple Criteria Methodology for Supporting Common Stock Portfolio Construction Decisions;pp. 89-111
(Panagiotis Xidonas, Dimitrios Askounis and John Psarras, National Technical University of Athens, Greece and others)

8. Moving Average, Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms for Stock Market Prediction;pp. 113-129
(G. Atsalakis and D. Nezis, Technical University of Crete, Greece)

9. A Memetic Algorithm for the Identification of Firms Receiving Qualified Audit Reports;pp. 131-143
(Magdalene Marinaki, Yannis Marinakis and Constantin Zopounidis, Industrial Systems Control Laboratory, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, Greece and others)

10. Real Options Using Markov Chains: An Application to Production Capacity Decisions;pp. 145-159
(Dalila B.M.M. Fontes, Luis Cames, Fernando Fontes and Panos M. Pardalos,Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto, Portugal and others)

11. Investment Decisions and Capital Adjustment Costs: Estimation of a Dynamic Discrete Choice Model Using Panel Data for Greek Manufacuting Firms;pp. 161-184
(Athanasios Lapatinas, University of Ioannina and FEIR, Greece)

12. Comparative Performance Evaluation of Branches of a Large Greek Commercial Bank;pp. 185-204
(Dimitris I. Giokas and Ioannis E. Tsolas,Dept. of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and others)

13. A Comparative Financial Assessment of Producing and Marketing Cooperatives in Russia and Greece;pp. 205-220
(N. Pashkova, G. Baourakis, C. Zopounidis and D. Alexakis, Dept. of Business Economics and Management,Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Crete, Greece and others)

Index