Dimitris Ballas
Biographic Data
| ID | 271734 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dimitris Ballas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dimitris |
| FAMILY NAME | Ballas |
| SIGNATURE | BALLAS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4955-850X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 178 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
SimIceland: Towards a Spatial Microsimulation Approach for Exploring ‘Green’ Citizenship Attitudes in Island Contexts
Islands and island communities are often perceived as homogenous in mainstream discourse. While many islands share characteristics, such as smallness or isolation, these are experienced differently across and within island contexts and intersect with spatial, socio-cultural, political, and economic landscapes. The concept of islandness is developed to both understand shared island characteristics and their differences across places, communities, …
Simulating household energy behavior diffusion using spatial microsimulation and econometric models
Analyzing household energy behaviors from a spatial perspective is crucial for both policymakers and network operators. However, conducting spatial analysis at a fine scale presents significant challenges, primarily due to data scarcity. This article demonstrates the potential of integrating spatial microsimulation and spatial econometric models to address this issue. Specifically, we construct a static spatial microsimulation model to create a s…
Exploring the Geography of Subjective Happiness in Europe During the Years of the Economic Crisis: A Multilevel Modelling Approach
This article builds on the efforts by geographers and regional scientists aimed at adding a geographical dimension to the analysis and understanding of happiness and well-being. In particular, the article explores the changes in observed subjective wellbeing measures of residents in countries and regions that were mostly hit by the severe economic crisis and austerity measures. To that end, we present a multilevel modelling approach to the analys…
Urbanity, Neighbourhood Characteristics and Perceived Quality of Life (QoL): Analysis of Individual and Contextual Determinants for Perceived QoL in 3300 Postal Code Areas in Finland
This analysis examines the geography of subjective wellbeing within a single country via a novel dataset consisting of more than 26,000 respondents embedded in 3100 postal code areas in Finland. We include a detailed indicator on the level of urbanity of the respondent's location derived from a 250 × 250 m GIS grid, contextual measures of the postal code area's socioeconomic status as well as proximity to the nearest urban locality and capital ci…
Neighbourhoods and oral health: Agent-based modelling of tooth decay
Conspiracism on social media: An agenda melding of group-mediated deceptions
This study examines students’ social media interactions in relation to their subcultural explorations of a conspiratorial nature. A sample of 476 students from four European universities participated in a survey about conspiracy theories in social media group discussions. In the survey, we examined various social and media factors in relation to students’ beliefs in conspiracy theories. The results of this exploratory study reveal that students t…
Spatial segregation and migration in the city of Athens: Investigating the evolution of urban socio‐spatial immigrant structures
Migration has long had an impact on spatial segregation within the metropolitan area of Athens. This process has also been affected by local economic restructuring mechanisms, which, in recent years, have evolved within the context of the 2008 economic crisis. This study attempts to shed light on the evolution of the spatial segregation of immigrants within the metropolitan area of Athens, during a period of a rapid urban transformation, using da…
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: A human cartographic perspective
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: a human cartographic perspective. Regional Studies. This paper presents a human cartographic approach to the analysis of the impact of austerity and the economic crisis across Europe’s regions. It reflects on past insights and debates on the analysis and mapping of poverty and wealth, and of the effects of austerity in particular. It then presents a wide range of car…
Evaluating the Performance of Iterative Proportional Fitting for Spatial Microsimulation: New Tests for an Established Technique
Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF), also known as biproportional fitting, 'raking' or the RAS algorithm, is an established procedure used in a variety of applications across the social sciences. Primary amongst these for urban modelling has been its use in static spatial microsimulation to generate small area microdata – individual level data allocated to administrative zones. The technique is mature, widely used and relatively straight-forward…
The Social Atlas of Europe
This is the first human geography social atlas of Europe to consider the European economy, culture, history and human and physical geography as a single land mass and a more unified European people. It provides an accessible overview of Europe and a human geography contribution to debates about a wide range of topics.
Social Atlas of Europe
Identity and Culture
The effects of socioeconomic incongruity in the neighbourhood on social support, self-esteem and mental health in England
Income Inequalities in Japan and the UK: A Comparative Study of Two Island Economies
This article builds on recent work entitled The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett suggesting that Japan is one of the most harmonious affluent countries in the world, whereas the United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most unequal and hence disharmonious. In particular, the article revisits The Spirit Level evidence according to which Japan is a more equitable society in terms of income than any other industrialised country, but espec…
Mortality inequalities: Scotland versus England and Wales
A spatial microsimulation approach for the analysis of commuter patterns: From individual to regional levels
What makes a ‘happy city’
Measuring and analysing the factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) in cities and regions has long been the subject of theoretical and empirical work in a wide range of fields. More recently there have been an increasing number of studies involving traditional so-called objective indicators of QoL as well as more subjective measures of well-being, drawing on the emerging new science of happiness. This article presents an overview of studies…
Happy People or Happy Places? A Multilevel Modeling Approach to the Analysis of Happiness and Well-Being
This article aims to add a regional science perspective and a geographical dimension to our understanding of substantive questions regarding self-reported happiness and well-being through the specification and use of multilevel models. Multilevel models are used with data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Census of UK population to assess the nature and extent of variations in happiness and well-being to determine the relative impor…
A comparative classification of labour market characteristics of British and Greek small islands
There is a growing interest in island economies within Europe. In the European Union (EU) this has led to enhanced Cohesion Policy support for islands, along with a number of other regions facing geographical challenges. Because of major problems with data, comparative research on islands across different EU member states has been of limited extent. This paper explores the use of national data sets to undertake comparative cross-country analysis …
Are poor mothers and their infants healthier in richer areas? The protective effect of area socio-economic density
The trial is challenging, both in terms of recruitment, and motivating behaviour change. The presentation will elaborate on the recruitment experience into a trial evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in ethnic minority populations
Examining access to GP services in rural Ireland using microsimulation analysis
This paper analyses the effect accessibility has on General Practitioner (GP) utilisation rates at the sub‐national level for Ireland. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to estimate whether there is an urban–rural differential in GP utilisation rates. We do this by simulating micro‐level healthcare data. Using this synthetic data, simple logit models are employed to estimate the likelihood that individuals in different jurisdictions will atte…
Building a Spatial Microsimulation-Based Planning Support System for Local Policy Making
This paper presents a spatial microsimulation modelling and predictive policy analysis system called Micro-MaPPAS, a Planning Support System (PSS) constructed for a local strategic partnership in a large metropolitan area of the UK. The innovative feature of this system is the use of spatial microsimulation techniques for the enhancement of local policy decision making in connection with the neighbourhood renewal strategy. The paper addresses the…
Post-Suburban Europe
The term 'edge city' describes the rapid growth of urban centres at the edge of established cities. Widely discussed in the US, very little has been written about European edge cities. This book gives
Post-Suburban Europe: Planning and Politics at the Margins of Europe's Capital Cities
Kifissia: Playground of the Athenians?
In ‘How Eden lost it’s garden’, Mike Davis (1996) recounts the destruction of southern California’s natural landscape in the inexorable expansion of Los Angeles — a destruction that saw mountains and the Los Angeles river both built on and water drawn by aqueduct from the San Bernadino mountains to supply an ever growing population. At first glance, the parallels to be drawn with the expansion of Athens and the place of Kifissia within the greate…
What makes a ‘happy city’
Measuring and analysing the factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) in cities and regions has long been the subject of theoretical and empirical work in a wide range of fields. More recently there have been an increasing number of studies involving traditional so-called objective indicators of QoL as well as more subjective measures of well-being, drawing on the emerging new science of happiness. This article presents an overview of studies…
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: A human cartographic perspective
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: a human cartographic perspective. Regional Studies. This paper presents a human cartographic approach to the analysis of the impact of austerity and the economic crisis across Europe’s regions. It reflects on past insights and debates on the analysis and mapping of poverty and wealth, and of the effects of austerity in particular. It then presents a wide range of car…
Spatial segregation and migration in the city of Athens: Investigating the evolution of urban socio‐spatial immigrant structures
Migration has long had an impact on spatial segregation within the metropolitan area of Athens. This process has also been affected by local economic restructuring mechanisms, which, in recent years, have evolved within the context of the 2008 economic crisis. This study attempts to shed light on the evolution of the spatial segregation of immigrants within the metropolitan area of Athens, during a period of a rapid urban transformation, using da…
Business at the margins? Business interests in edge urban politics
The issue of the organization, role and influence of business interests in urban politics at the edge of major cities is one that is overdue for investigation. This article provides an initial and empirically oriented investigation of the organization, role and influence of business interests in edge urban politics in Europe. We present findings from five members of a European network of self-styled 'edge cities'. Following the now extensive deba…
A spatial microsimulation approach for the analysis of commuter patterns: From individual to regional levels
SimBritain: A spatial microsimulation approach to population dynamics
In this paper we present an account of a 3‐year research project that is aimed at dynamically simulating urban and regional populations in Britain. In the context of this project we are using data from the 1991 UK Census Small Area Statistics (SAS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), in order to dynamically simulate the entire population of Britain into 2021 at the small area level. This paper discusses the structure, aims and objectiv…
Building a dynamic spatial microsimulation model for Ireland
Microsimulation describes economic and social events by modelling the behaviour of individual agents. These models have proved useful in evaluating the impact of policy changes at the micro-level. Spatial microsimulation models contain geographical information and allow for a regional or local approach to policy analysis. This paper builds on previous work on urban systems by employing similar modelling techniques for the analysis of rural areas.…
Exploring the Geography of Subjective Happiness in Europe During the Years of the Economic Crisis: A Multilevel Modelling Approach
This article builds on the efforts by geographers and regional scientists aimed at adding a geographical dimension to the analysis and understanding of happiness and well-being. In particular, the article explores the changes in observed subjective wellbeing measures of residents in countries and regions that were mostly hit by the severe economic crisis and austerity measures. To that end, we present a multilevel modelling approach to the analys…
Urbanity, Neighbourhood Characteristics and Perceived Quality of Life (QoL): Analysis of Individual and Contextual Determinants for Perceived QoL in 3300 Postal Code Areas in Finland
This analysis examines the geography of subjective wellbeing within a single country via a novel dataset consisting of more than 26,000 respondents embedded in 3100 postal code areas in Finland. We include a detailed indicator on the level of urbanity of the respondent's location derived from a 250 × 250 m GIS grid, contextual measures of the postal code area's socioeconomic status as well as proximity to the nearest urban locality and capital ci…
Simulating trends in poverty and income inequality on the basis of 1991 and 2001 census data: A tale of two cities
How much does the 2001 census tell us about the changes in people's life in British cities and regions since 1991? This paper attempts to answer this question by telling the stories of two British northern cities: Leeds and Sheffield. In particular, the paper investigates and compares socio‐economic change in these cities on the basis of actual 1991 and 2001 census data as well as estimated non‐census data. A static spatial microsimulation model …
Spatial microsimulation for rural policy analysis in Ireland: The implications of CAP reforms for the national spatial strategy
The effects of socioeconomic incongruity in the neighbourhood on social support, self-esteem and mental health in England
Mortality inequalities: Scotland versus England and Wales
Conspiracism on social media: An agenda melding of group-mediated deceptions
This study examines students’ social media interactions in relation to their subcultural explorations of a conspiratorial nature. A sample of 476 students from four European universities participated in a survey about conspiracy theories in social media group discussions. In the survey, we examined various social and media factors in relation to students’ beliefs in conspiracy theories. The results of this exploratory study reveal that students t…
A comparative classification of labour market characteristics of British and Greek small islands
There is a growing interest in island economies within Europe. In the European Union (EU) this has led to enhanced Cohesion Policy support for islands, along with a number of other regions facing geographical challenges. Because of major problems with data, comparative research on islands across different EU member states has been of limited extent. This paper explores the use of national data sets to undertake comparative cross-country analysis …
Are poor mothers and their infants healthier in richer areas? The protective effect of area socio-economic density
The trial is challenging, both in terms of recruitment, and motivating behaviour change. The presentation will elaborate on the recruitment experience into a trial evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in ethnic minority populations
Simulating trends in poverty and income inequality on the basis of 1991 and 2001 census data: A tale of two cities
How much does the 2001 census tell us about the changes in people's life in British cities and regions since 1991? This paper attempts to answer this question by telling the stories of two British northern cities: Leeds and Sheffield. In particular, the paper investigates and compares socio‐economic change in these cities on the basis of actual 1991 and 2001 census data as well as estimated non‐census data. A static spatial microsimulation model …
SimBritain: A spatial microsimulation approach to population dynamics
In this paper we present an account of a 3‐year research project that is aimed at dynamically simulating urban and regional populations in Britain. In the context of this project we are using data from the 1991 UK Census Small Area Statistics (SAS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), in order to dynamically simulate the entire population of Britain into 2021 at the small area level. This paper discusses the structure, aims and objectiv…
Building a dynamic spatial microsimulation model for Ireland
Microsimulation describes economic and social events by modelling the behaviour of individual agents. These models have proved useful in evaluating the impact of policy changes at the micro-level. Spatial microsimulation models contain geographical information and allow for a regional or local approach to policy analysis. This paper builds on previous work on urban systems by employing similar modelling techniques for the analysis of rural areas.…
Post-Suburban Europe
The term 'edge city' describes the rapid growth of urban centres at the edge of established cities. Widely discussed in the US, very little has been written about European edge cities. This book gives
Post-Suburban Europe: Planning and Politics at the Margins of Europe's Capital Cities
Kifissia: Playground of the Athenians?
In ‘How Eden lost it’s garden’, Mike Davis (1996) recounts the destruction of southern California’s natural landscape in the inexorable expansion of Los Angeles — a destruction that saw mountains and the Los Angeles river both built on and water drawn by aqueduct from the San Bernadino mountains to supply an ever growing population. At first glance, the parallels to be drawn with the expansion of Athens and the place of Kifissia within the greate…
Spatial microsimulation for rural policy analysis in Ireland: The implications of CAP reforms for the national spatial strategy
Business at the margins? Business interests in edge urban politics
The issue of the organization, role and influence of business interests in urban politics at the edge of major cities is one that is overdue for investigation. This article provides an initial and empirically oriented investigation of the organization, role and influence of business interests in edge urban politics in Europe. We present findings from five members of a European network of self-styled 'edge cities'. Following the now extensive deba…
Building a Spatial Microsimulation-Based Planning Support System for Local Policy Making
This paper presents a spatial microsimulation modelling and predictive policy analysis system called Micro-MaPPAS, a Planning Support System (PSS) constructed for a local strategic partnership in a large metropolitan area of the UK. The innovative feature of this system is the use of spatial microsimulation techniques for the enhancement of local policy decision making in connection with the neighbourhood renewal strategy. The paper addresses the…
Examining access to GP services in rural Ireland using microsimulation analysis
This paper analyses the effect accessibility has on General Practitioner (GP) utilisation rates at the sub‐national level for Ireland. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to estimate whether there is an urban–rural differential in GP utilisation rates. We do this by simulating micro‐level healthcare data. Using this synthetic data, simple logit models are employed to estimate the likelihood that individuals in different jurisdictions will atte…
Are poor mothers and their infants healthier in richer areas? The protective effect of area socio-economic density
The trial is challenging, both in terms of recruitment, and motivating behaviour change. The presentation will elaborate on the recruitment experience into a trial evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in ethnic minority populations
Happy People or Happy Places? A Multilevel Modeling Approach to the Analysis of Happiness and Well-Being
This article aims to add a regional science perspective and a geographical dimension to our understanding of substantive questions regarding self-reported happiness and well-being through the specification and use of multilevel models. Multilevel models are used with data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Census of UK population to assess the nature and extent of variations in happiness and well-being to determine the relative impor…
A comparative classification of labour market characteristics of British and Greek small islands
There is a growing interest in island economies within Europe. In the European Union (EU) this has led to enhanced Cohesion Policy support for islands, along with a number of other regions facing geographical challenges. Because of major problems with data, comparative research on islands across different EU member states has been of limited extent. This paper explores the use of national data sets to undertake comparative cross-country analysis …
Income Inequalities in Japan and the UK: A Comparative Study of Two Island Economies
This article builds on recent work entitled The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett suggesting that Japan is one of the most harmonious affluent countries in the world, whereas the United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most unequal and hence disharmonious. In particular, the article revisits The Spirit Level evidence according to which Japan is a more equitable society in terms of income than any other industrialised country, but espec…
Mortality inequalities: Scotland versus England and Wales
A spatial microsimulation approach for the analysis of commuter patterns: From individual to regional levels
What makes a ‘happy city’
Measuring and analysing the factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) in cities and regions has long been the subject of theoretical and empirical work in a wide range of fields. More recently there have been an increasing number of studies involving traditional so-called objective indicators of QoL as well as more subjective measures of well-being, drawing on the emerging new science of happiness. This article presents an overview of studies…
The Social Atlas of Europe
This is the first human geography social atlas of Europe to consider the European economy, culture, history and human and physical geography as a single land mass and a more unified European people. It provides an accessible overview of Europe and a human geography contribution to debates about a wide range of topics.
Social Atlas of Europe
Identity and Culture
The effects of socioeconomic incongruity in the neighbourhood on social support, self-esteem and mental health in England
Evaluating the Performance of Iterative Proportional Fitting for Spatial Microsimulation: New Tests for an Established Technique
Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF), also known as biproportional fitting, 'raking' or the RAS algorithm, is an established procedure used in a variety of applications across the social sciences. Primary amongst these for urban modelling has been its use in static spatial microsimulation to generate small area microdata – individual level data allocated to administrative zones. The technique is mature, widely used and relatively straight-forward…
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: A human cartographic perspective
Analysing the regional geography of poverty, austerity and inequality in Europe: a human cartographic perspective. Regional Studies. This paper presents a human cartographic approach to the analysis of the impact of austerity and the economic crisis across Europe’s regions. It reflects on past insights and debates on the analysis and mapping of poverty and wealth, and of the effects of austerity in particular. It then presents a wide range of car…
Spatial segregation and migration in the city of Athens: Investigating the evolution of urban socio‐spatial immigrant structures
Migration has long had an impact on spatial segregation within the metropolitan area of Athens. This process has also been affected by local economic restructuring mechanisms, which, in recent years, have evolved within the context of the 2008 economic crisis. This study attempts to shed light on the evolution of the spatial segregation of immigrants within the metropolitan area of Athens, during a period of a rapid urban transformation, using da…
Conspiracism on social media: An agenda melding of group-mediated deceptions
This study examines students’ social media interactions in relation to their subcultural explorations of a conspiratorial nature. A sample of 476 students from four European universities participated in a survey about conspiracy theories in social media group discussions. In the survey, we examined various social and media factors in relation to students’ beliefs in conspiracy theories. The results of this exploratory study reveal that students t…
Geography (22 works) · Economics (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Engineering (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Population (11 works) · Regional science (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · demographic modeling and climate adaptation (10 works) · Microsimulation (10 works)