The world is changing rapidly. The global economic crisis has called into question the political decisions that have been made by all countries for decades and has led to a re-formulation of tools and aims. Adjustments to the new situation are necessary and entail considerable economic and social costs. The Balkan and Black Sea area is an important reference point for the European and global economy. Accordingly, the study of the economic development in the area is of great interest, engaging politicians and scientists alike. Under this framework, the matter of the relation between the area’s countries and the E.U., the role of the banking system and the importance of the primary sector of the economy as an important developmental factor for the countries’ economies are of great importance.​

The world is changing rapidly. The global economic crisis has called into question the political decisions that have been made by all countries for decades and has led to a re-formulation of tools and aims. Adjustments to the new situation are necessary and entail considerable economic and social costs. The Balkan and Black Sea area is an important reference point for the European and global economy. Accordingly, the study of the economic development in the area is of great interest, engaging politicians and scientists alike. Under this framework, the matter of the relation between the area’s countries and the E.U., the role of the banking system and the importance of the primary sector of the economy as an important developmental factor for the countries’ economies are of great importance.​

Implementation of technology into social and economic developments have provided key strengths in improving competitiveness and meeting the demands of modern society for life and the economy; including adapting to green development as a means to confront the economic crisis. E-Innovation for Sustainable Development of Rural Resources During Global Economic Crisis brings together a multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge on the application of electronic and mobile innovations towards the sustainable development of the economy. Providing an opportunity to identify effective e-innovation and successful practices, this book is essential for researchers, students, rural developers, and academics in the fields of economics, sustainable development, informatics, and the environment.

This book addresses contemporary and modern topics around business growth and economic development in Southeastern Europe. It covers a wide range of business issues focusing on the adoption of new technologies, finance of SMEs, place marketing, value co-creation, contribution to economic growth, and internationalization. Moverover, it sheds new light on the micro- and macroeconomic developments and monetary policy issues in the Eastern European and Balkan countries. This book is a useful tool for scholars in economics and finance interested in the further economic development of the Balkans and Eastern European countries as well as to professionals in the business, financial and insurance sectors.

The importance of experimental economics and econometric methods increases with each passing day as data quality and software performance develops. New econometric models are developed by diverging from earlier cliché econometric models with the emergence of specialized fields of study. This book, which is expected to be an extensive and useful reference by bringing together some of the latest developments in the field of econometrics, also contains quantitative examples and problem sets. We thank all the authors who contributed to this book with their studies that provide extensive and accessible explanations of the existing econometric methods.

The economies of the European countries are still in recession, the development process is at a standstill, companies are facing financial difficulties, and the EU’s monetary policy is tight and focused on lowering inflation. The fiscal problems and high debt levels of the northern European countries are of great importance, and they are the consequences of both the European economy’s structural characteristics and the EU’s policies. The economic area of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Black Sea countries is also vital, due to its special economic characteristics. The effects of the economic crisis on this particular area are catalytic, while the prospects for recovery are doubtful. The present book deals with the key aspects of the economic crisis in Europe, especially focusing on southeast Europe and the Balkans. The consequences of the crisis in these countries are analyzed and suggestions for how to address the crisis are outlined.

Economic Modeling Using Artificial Intelligence Methods examines the application of artificial intelligence methods to model economic data. Traditionally, economic modeling has been modeled in the linear domain where the principles of superposition are valid. The application of artificial intelligence for economic modeling allows for a flexible multi-order non-linear modeling. In addition, game theory has largely been applied in economic modeling. However, the inherent limitation of game theory when dealing with many player games encourages the use of multi-agent systems for modeling economic phenomena. The artificial intelligence techniques used to model economic data include: multi-layer perceptron neural networks radial basis functions support vector machines rough sets genetic algorithm particle swarm optimization simulated annealing multi-agent system incremental learning fuzzy networks Signal processing techniques are explored to analyze economic data, and these techniques are the time domain methods, time-frequency domain methods and fractals dimension approaches. Interesting economic problems such as causality versus correlation, simulating the stock market, modeling and controling inflation, option pricing, modeling economic growth as well as portfolio optimization are examined. The relationship between economic dependency and interstate conflict is explored, and knowledge on how economics is useful to foster peace – and vice versa – is investigated. Economic Modeling Using Artificial Intelligence Methods deals with the issue of causality in the non-linear domain and applies the automatic relevance determination, the evidence framework, Bayesian approach and Granger causality to understand causality and correlation. Economic Modeling Using Artificial Intelligence Methods makes an important contribution to the area of econometrics, and is a valuable source of reference for graduate students, researchers and financial practitioners.