Regulatory Competition and Multi-national Banking

This paper focuses on the consequences of cross-border banking and entry of multi-national banks (MNBs) for banking supervision and regulation. When a MNB expands internationally with subsidiaries, the MNB operates under the legislation of several countries - both the home country and the host countries. Although these countries have agreed upon minimum standards and supervisory principles, such as in the EU directives or the Basle Accords, substantial degrees of freedom are still left to the national regulators. An important issue is whether the decentralized approach to regulation of MNBs creates inefficiencies and financial instability. We show that lack of international coordination of regulation towards MNB-subsidiaries works to lower capital adequacy requirements. In equilibrium, however, regulators respond by increasing the incentives to improve asset quality, making the probability of banking failure insensitive to the decentralized nature of banking regulation. Ownership of the MNB is shown to be of importance for the outcome of regulatory competition. Finally, considering branch-organized MNBs, we derive comparative results with respect to regulatory policy and MNBs‘ preferred form of representation.banking regulation, multi-national banks, common-agency

Modelling of Slurry Transport in Horizontal Openhole Gravel Packing

Master's thesis in Petroleum engineeringThe objective of this work is to study slurry transport in horizontal openhole gravel packing and to investigate the process of sedimentation, both inside work string and for alpha wave. An attempt to quantify the amount of gravel deposited in the work string is made, since control of the gravel consumption is vital for the outcome of the operation, and uncontrolled sedimentation can cause unnecessary confusion during the packing process. A practical and straightforward method to quantify the gravel deposition in horizontal section of the work string is presented. Sedimentation is strongly affected by internal pipe diameter and pump rate, and these parameters should be carefully evaluated through operational planning. The utilization of the presented model could aid in designing the slurry transport, by selecting the ideal pump rate and work string specifications. Modelling for typical pipe sizes shows a lower limit for the pump rate where sedimentation arises. Alpha wave design is a key factor for successful gravel packing, and the models typically used are either based on small-scale experiments or not specifically developed for gravel packing. Gruesbeck et al., Penberthy et al. and Oroskar and Turian models were used in this thesis to find the critical flow velocity. Estimating the actual flow velocity above alpha dune was performed using Gruesbeck et al. pressure drop balance and a proposed method for describing the flow rate split between the annuli. This allowed finding the corresponding alpha dune gravel fill for the distinct models. The true volumetric gravel fill percent was found based on data from the actual field case and compared to the modelled. Gruesbeck et al. showed the best fit. Oroskar and Turian model was not developed for gravel packing purpose, and results showed that it may not be suitable for the eccentric annular configuration encountered. Modelling of flow velocity was done using friction loss based on wall roughness, and it is believed to represent the overall friction, rather than characterize the borehole wall. Results from the work string modelling suggest that the phenomenon of bed surface friction needs to be investigated further for alpha wave. It is a considerable contributor to the frictional pressure loss, especially for higher gravel fill percentages. Using borehole wall roughness to calculate friction factor might not give the best representation of the reality. To verify the flow rate split and investigate the bed friction influence, a full-scale experiment involving true diameters of screens and washpipe should be conducted, and a proposal for this is given in the thesis

Is Embedding Entailed in Consumer Valuation of Food Safety Characteristics?

Consumers’ preferences for food safety characteristics are investigated with particular focus on existence of an embedding effect. Embedding exists if consumer valuation of food safety is insensitive to scope. Two choice experiments have been conducted valuing food safety in respectively minced pork and chicken breasts, exemplified by avoiding human risks of Salmonella infections and strengthening the restrictions of using antibiotics in the pork production and in terms of avoiding human risks of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections respectively. The results showed no indications of an embedding effect between the food safety characteristics, in neither of the cases.Valuation, Choice Experiment, Market Goods, Food Safety, Embedding., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Vurdering af det økonomiske potentiale for anvendelsen af økologisk græsprotein i foder til økologiske slagtesvin.

Scenarieanalyser over økonomien i økologisk slagtesvineproduktion ved fodring med forskellige andele græsprotein og ved forskellige græspriser og en break even økonomi for bioraffineringen

Attending to the reasons for attribute non-attendance in Choice Experiments

This paper focuses on behavioural reasons underlying stated attribute non-attendance. In order to identify and incorporate procedures for dealing with heterogeneous attribute processing strategies, we ask respondents follow-up questions regarding their reasons for ignoring attributes. Based on these statements, we conclude that the standard way of assigning a zero impact of ignored attributes on the likelihood is inappropriate. We find that some respondents act in accordance with the passive bounded rationality assumption since they ignore an attribute simply because it does not affect their utility. Excluding these genuine zero preferences, as the standard approach essentially does, might bias results. Other respondents claim to have ignored attributes to simplify choices. However, we find that these respondents have actually not completely ignored attributes. We argue along the rationally adaptive behavioural model that preferences are indeed elicited in these cases, and we show how using a scaling approach can appropriately weight these observations in the econometric model. Finally, we find that some respondents ignore attributes for protest-like reasons which essentially convey no information about preferences. We suggest that using the standard approach combined with weighting procedures and recoding of non-attendance statements conditional on the specific reasons for non-attendance could be more appropriate than the current standard way of taking stated non-attendance into account.choice experiment, attribute non-attendance, passive bounded rationality, rationally adaptive behaviour, error component logit model

On the Stability and Performance of Remote DOE Laser Cutting

AbstractWhen considering remote laser cutting, the literature often discusses two methods: remote fusion cutting (RFC) and remote ablation cutting. It has previously been hypothesised that remote cutting can be conducted by modifying the intensity profile of the laser beam by means of a diffractive optical element. In this study, the effect of travel speed, focus offset and angle of incidence on the stability of remote cutting with a customized beam pattern was investigated. The study is based on a set of remote cutting experiments conducted on a 3kW single mode fiber laser in 0.5mm stainless steel. The study showed that remote cutting is obtainable with speeds ranging from 800mm/min-1600mm/min by using an average laser power of 630W. Furthermore, the experimental results showed that the cutting stability remained high for a larger range of incident angles

Integrating cultural and biological perspectives on long-term human-walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) interactions across the North Atlantic

The hunting of marine mammals as a source of subsistence, trade, and commercial revenue has formed an important part of human cultures across the North Atlantic. One important prey species has been the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus), sought after for meat, skin, blubber, ivory, and bone. Unfortunately, biological studies of current walrus populations and studies across the humanities and social sciences into past use and hunting of walruses, have been poorly integrated. Disciplinary boundaries have left a gap in understanding the reciprocal effects of human-walrus interactions. Emerging interdisciplinary methods offer new opportunities to write the historical ecology of Atlantic walruses. The integration of methods such as ancient DNA, isotopes, past population modelling, zooarchaeological assemblages, and ethnographic interviews can now be used to answer previously intractable questions. For example, how has walrus hunting shaped and been influenced by changes in human settlement and trade, what have been the cumulative impacts on walrus populations, the extent of anthropogenic selective pressures or the effect of changing hunting regimes on particular populations of walruses? New, collaborative research approaches applied to the wealth of Arctic archaeological faunal remains already housed in museum collections offer a unique chance to explore the past dynamics of human-animal interactions