Greece

A palynological investigation of a Holocene profile from Lake Voulkaria, western Greece, was carried out as a contribution to the environmental history of the coastal area of northwestern Acarnania and the Classical city of Palairos. It shows that deciduous oaks dominated the natural vegetation of the area throughout the Holocene. Until ca. 7000 B.C. Pistacia occurred abundantly, while other evergreen woody taxa were rare. At ca. 6300 B.C. an expansion of Carpinus orientalis/Ostrya can be observed. Around ca. 5300 B.C.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys diverged from the standard Eurobarometer measures and queried respondents on the following major areas of focus: (1) discrimination, (2) radioactive waste, and (3) purchasing in the European Union (EU). For the first major focus, discrimination, respondents were queried about how widespread various types of discrimination were, how common they were compared with five years ago, if in the past year they had personally felt discriminated against or witnessed discrimination, and the existence of multiple discrimination.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys diverged from the Standard Eurobarometer measures and queried respondents on the following major areas of focus: (1) European Union policy and decision-making, (2) corruption, (3) civil justice, (4) e-communications, (5) agriculture, and (6) environmental protection.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys queried respondents on standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with their present life, whether they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed political matters, what their country's goals should be in the next 10 to 15 years, and how they viewed the need for societal change.

The Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on the health, socio-economic status, and social and family networks of older adults (aged 50 years and over) throughout Europe. Designed to provide a full picture of the aging process, SHARE collects data on a range of topics including health conditions, physical and cognitive functioning, mental health, life satisfaction, employment, income, education, social networks, and social support mechanisms.

This annual survey, fielded June to December 2004, was conducted in over 50 countries to solicit public opinion on social and political issues. Respondents were asked what they thought was the most important goal for the world as a whole, whether they trusted people from their ethnic group more than people from other ethnic groups, if they heard about various global institutions, and their thoughts of these institutions. They were also asked for their overall opinion of various countries.

This annual survey, fielded November 2003 to January 2004, was conducted in over 50 countries to solicit public opinion on social and political issues. Respondents were asked about the safety and economic prosperity of their country, the economic prosperity of their own family, whether they expected that the world would be safer for the next generation, and whether the next generation would be more economically prosperous. Views were also sought on international security, environmental security, national security, and economic security.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a biennial multi-country social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior patterns of its diverse populations. Covering over 30 nations, the first round of the ESS was fielded in 2002-2003, the second round in 2004-2005, the third round in 2006-2007, and the fourth round in 2008-2009.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys queried respondents on standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with their present life, whether they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed political matters, what their country's goals should be, and how they viewed the need for societal change.

Fiscal adjustments have been examined from different perspectives in the literature. However, the conceptual approaches to the analysis of budget consolidations vary substantially. Therefore different approaches to the analysis of fiscal adjustments are discussed in a first step. It is shown that the choices regarding the underlying concepts lead to specific research designs and influence the appropriate empirical method. In a second step, the determinants of budget consolidations are examined empirically in four different research designs for 23 industrialized countries in the 1990s.