Michalis Skourtos

• PhD
• Professor at Agricultural University of Athens

It is widely acknowledged that energy labels guide consumers towards more energy-saving appliances. However, the effectiveness of energy labelling schemes should not be taken for granted; the quality and the amount of information, as well as the way that information is displayed on energy labels may affect consumers’ choices. The paper presents the...

A number of microeconomic choice models are currently applied to demonstrate systematic biases in energy consumer behavior. The models highlight the hidden potential of energy savings from policies that target the so-called behavioral anomalies. Nevertheless, whether these patterns are repeatable or not is not clear, because the efforts to determin...

Consumers are assumed to compare the upfront costs to the discounted value of future savings in energy expenditures when deciding whether to invest in a more energy-efficient product. This assumption presupposes that consumers have the energy-related knowledge, are familiar with the concept of discounting, and use a subjective discount rate, known...

The current paper aims at enhancing the existing literature of studies discussing the parameters, which formulate the phenomenon of the energy efficiency gap in hotels. Specifically, the obtained outcomes, as resulted by the conduction of a stated preference survey are presented and discussed. The survey was carried out on a representative sample o...

Quantifying uncertainty over technologies, costs, and prices that stem from site-specific conditions, technological particularities and future projections is an important element in the investment appraisal of desalination facilities. Yet, the majority of economic assessments in the field of desalination plants, so far, use deterministic estimation...

This paper wishes to add to the rich literature of studies exploring the reasons behind the energy efficiency gap. To this direction, it presents the results of a stated preference survey conducted on a representative sample of Greek households via computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) in the context of the “Consumer Energy Efficiency Decision...

While there is a considerable debate regarding the choice of proper discount rates for assessing climate change projects and policies, only a tiny body of literature emphasizes “what to discount”. Usually, climate change economic assessments rely on tools and methods that employ strong simplifications, assuming, among others, given and fixed prefer...

Coastal areas around the world are threatened by an accelerated sea level rise (SLR), storm surges and coastal flooding related to climate change. These threats, together with the land use pattern of coastal areas, could create a dangerous mix for coastal communities and could result in major socio-economic and environmental consequences. Apart fro...

The development of adaptive policies for the management of dynamic and complex ecosystems, such as marine and coastal environments, asks for flexible and innovative tools which account for multifaceted issues, uncertainties and cope with a wide range of future conditions. To date, several tools and methods to support the design and implementation o...

Abstract Adaptive management is essential to the practical application of the Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA). Despite there are frequent assertions that adaptive management is being used, evidence on its success is still limited. Indeed, it is difficult to bring the different elements of adaptive management together in a robust way and to choose th...

This volume contains the main results of the EC FP7 “The Ocean of Tomorrow” Project CoCoNet, divided in two sections: 1) a set of guidelines to design networks of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas; 2) a smart wind chart that will allow evaluating the possibility of installing Offshore Wind Farms in both seas. The concep...

Economic valuation of marine ecosystem services is strongly anchored within the logic of Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). An inventory and critical assessment of marine valuation studies was conducted within the European Union funded Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern European Seas (PERSEUS) research project (...

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires all Member States to establish a program of measures to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine waters, which should be justified on economic grounds. So far, however, only limited efforts exist to support, from a scientific perspective, marine policy- and decisi...

This EU-funded research project brings together new scientific knowledge on how ecosystems work in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. New decision-support tools and recommendations for policy makers are also part of the project's contribution to the development of sustainable marine environment management policies.

This study tests the transferability of the nonmarket values of water conservation for domestic and environmental purposes across three south European countries and Australia applying a common choice experiment design. Different approaches are followed to test the transferability of the estimated values, aiming to minimise transfer errors for use i...

This policy report synthesises the evidence base on the costs and benefits of adaptation. It draws on the research, analysis and review of the ECONADAPT project, funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme. The key messages are summarised below. • The knowledge base on the costs and benefits of adaptation has evolved significantly in...

Adaptation and mitigation are complementary strategies for addressing the impacts of climate change, yet are often considered separately. This paper examines the literature for evidence of the interactions of adaptation and mitigation measures across the agriculture, biodiversity, coasts, forests, urban and water sectors, focusing on Europe. It fou...

The evidence is compelling that extended use and production of energy are globally responsible for the serious deterioration of physical environment and climate change. The further penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) emerges as a crucial factor contributing to the mitigation of global warming. Within this framework wind energy is expected...

By their sheer size, adaptation investments are processes addressing multiple climate impacts at the same time. Nevertheless, cross-sectoral effects of adaptation measures are rarely taken into consideration in adaptation costing and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). We explicitly address joint adaptation processes by focusing on inter- or intra-s...

The massive deployment of renewable energy sources represents a high priority for Greece in order to comply with the Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources by 2020. In this perspective, Aegean islands especially Lesvos, are endowed with a considerable potential of a portfolio of renewables, a fact that the...

Although sea-level rise (SLR) is not the only driver of coastal change, it is expected to radically alter the living conditions and prosperity of coastal communities in the decades to come. The economic assessment of sea level rise impacts and of coastal adaptation measures proves to be rather demanding due to the fact that these are complex phenom...

Non-market valuation approaches for estimating the social value of biodiversity and individual species need to enhance their policy relevance. The concept of service-providing unit (SPU) may help achieve this objective by promoting the systematic quantification of the key components of nature that provide services for human wellbeing. The present p...

Risks for the Black Sea marine environment as perceived by Ukrainian stakeholders: A fuzzy cognitive mapping application, Ocean and Coastal Management (2012), doi: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.03.006 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of...

Natural coastal processes are to a great extent modified by proximity to man-made structures. Engineered interventions, port facilities, housing and industrial infrastructure, all can increase the coastline fluctuations significantly relative to those along a long unobstructed coastline. As a consequence, coastlines are increasingly exposed to coas...

Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders...

The RUBICODE project draws on expertise from a range of disciplines to develop and integrate frameworks for assessing the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem service provision, and for rationalising biodiversity conservation in that light. With such diverse expertise and concepts involved, interested parties will not be familiar with all t...

The present paper addresses the issue of a dynamic approach to biodiversity conservation by focusing on published evidence on the dynamics of economic values and preferences for ecosystem goods and services. Empirical evidence referring to the dynamics of ecosystem values was identified as both demand-driven and supply-driven value dynamics. A surv...

Standardized methods are required to measure ecosystem services in order to value them. In this paper, we argue that the service-providing unit (SPU) concept may help achieve this objective by promoting the systematic quantification of the key components of nature that provide services (e.g., population density of a key pollinator) and linking thes...

According to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) should be used for measuring the cost and the environmental effectiveness of a measure in water quality management. The purpose of this paper is to argue that, beyond the calculation of the cost efficiency of the measures, additional information related to...

The research of investors' involvement economic prospects to resolve economic problems of big seaport at the western Black Sea of Ukraine has been performed applying SWOT analysis

This paper attempts to examine whether information from valuation studies can help the design of policies adequate to reverse and halt the generally poor state of marine and coastal ecosystems of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Economic implications of managing coastal and marine environments are thus discussed by assessing the results of diff...

The paper examines the significance of V.K. Dmitriev's theory of coin petition for the understanding of the classical prices of production. We emphasize, that without such a comprehensive treatment of the notion of competition many aspects of the logic of the reproduction of the surplus producing capitalist economy remain vague and this may lead to...

The present paper addresses the issue of burden sharing within the context of the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean. The starting point is the generally acknowledged fact that the success of multilateral environmental agreements is strongly dependent on the perceived fairness of the established rules for burden sharing. W...

Integrated coastal zone management involves an assessment of development needs and economic inequality, pressures from population growth and mass tourism as well as social and cultural conflicts. In this context, economic valuation of coastal functions that provide goods and services is an important tool. Its applications and caveats are reviewed....

This group report gives an overview of applications of and issues in integrated assessment (IA) applied in the coastal zone area in Europe. We conclude that there are various reasons why IA is sometimes not successful. For instance, integrated assessment tends to be highly specific, dialogues are seldom an integral part and environmental thresholds...

The coastal zone of the inner Thermaikos Gulf has been influenced by eutrophication during the past decades. The conditions of the catchment area-coastal zone continuum are assessed under the holistic Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework. Major socioeconomic drivers, such as industrial and agricultural development as well as urba...

The Axios R. delta and the Thermaikos Gulf coastal zone have experienced a long period of human interventions during the past 100 years. Changes in the coastal zone are evaluated under the DPSIR conceptual framework. DPSIR stands for the acronym of Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response, the components form a broad analytical framework that links s...

The Axios R. delta and the Thermaikos Gulf coastal zone have experienced a long period of human interventions during the past 100 years. Changes in the coastal zone are evaluated under the DPSIR conceptual framework. DPSIR stands for the acronym of Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response, the components form a broad analytical framework that links s...

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) provides useful information for the cost and the environmental effectiveness of alternative management options in realising a given environmental goal. The purpose of this paper is to present factors that could be considered essential for the identification of the most cost-effective combination of the measures for...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a classification of the literature concerning the application of the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to evaluate management measures for the improvement of watershed quality. This literature focuses on eutrophication from agricultural runoff and industrial activities. The knowledge of the cost-environmental...

Greece has a large number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) under construction or recently completed. However, whilst the European Union provides funds for the capital development of WWTPs, there is often a lack of funding to maintain full operation of these plants. This study examines the case of a WWTP in Thessaloniki, Greece, which is curren...

The contingent valuation method is often used for valuing environmental goods which have nonuse as well as direct-use values. However, it is often not clear how respondents to a contingent valuation survey allocate values when asked for willingness-to-pay amounts. In this paper, we investigate use and nonuse values for the Mediterranean monk seal (...

This study employs a mixed methodological approach, using questionnaire surveys of individuals and stakeholder focus groups to investigate economic values placed on a wetland surrounding Kalloni Bay on the island of Lesvos, Greece. The questionnaire survey of local people and visitors to the area included a rating exercise of four possible developm...

This paper is concerned with valuing the health risks of sun exposure due to ultra violet (UV) radiation. The study's main objective is to assess the public perception and valuation of UV health risks in countries in which the scientifically established risk levels are significantly different. Using a multi-country survey, we investigate the relati...

Although dichotomous choice (DC) contingent valuation (CV) has been recommended by the US NOAA 'blue-ribbon' panel for large-scale contingent valuation studies, useful information can still be obtained from smaller, open-ended (OE) studies, often undertaken as a precursor to a DC survey. The CV study considered here was carried out in Greece and lo...

The paper discusses the problem of indirect costs of environmental regulation as information costs and their role in the compliance of firms. After reviewing the relevant literature, a typology of indirect cost of implementation is proposed which aims at the separation of various components of the information cost. The core of the empirical study i...

This paper deals with the historical plausibility and analytical validity of what has come to be termed the corn model. The ongoing debate is firstly reviewed. It is suggested that a definite answer should be based on the logic of the material-produce comparisons. Although these do not lead invariably to a sound application of the corn model neithe...

The paper confirms public understanding of scientific evidence regarding the health risks of sunbathing. Many people value having a tan, but know that getting one is risky. Public awareness, understanding and perception of the health risks of sunbathing was investigated in low and high risk countries across Europe and in New Zealand. Measures to re...