The determinants of non-life insurance consumption: A VECM analysis in Central and South-Eastern Europe

This study examines the determinant of non-life insurance consumption in 14 countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe between 1995 and 2010 within a vector error correction model (VECM). We use non-life insurance penetration as a measure for non-life insurance consumption. Empirical results provide evidence that the number of dwellings and number of passenger cars positively and significantly influence non-life insurance consumption in the long run, while the existence of the rule of law and EU membership are significant in the short run

Utjecaj makroekonomskih i financijskih čimbenika na bankarstvo u sjeni u novim državama članicama EU-a

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of macroeconomic and financial determinants of the shadow banking dynamics in the selected 11 new EU member states using yearly data from 1999-2018. We apply three methods: fixed effects model, the difference-GMM and the system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments). Empirical results provide evidence that the most important factors are the developments in the financial sectors (insurance and pension sectors), banking sector, money market rate, as well as the general economic growth. We also found that global financial crisis has a negative impact on the shadow banking growth. From the results we may conclude that traditional banks, insurance sector and pension funds are complementary with shadow banking. This results was opening new issues for macroprudential policy, bearing in mind the Basel III norms. Namely, one of the main goals of Basel 3 is to reduce procyclicality of bank lending, and the rise of shadow banking may have an impact on both capital-based regulation and income-based limits.Cilj ovog rada je ispitati kako različite varijable iz makroekonomskog i financijskog okruženja utječu na dinamiku bankarskog sektora u sjeni u odabranih 11 novih država članica EU-a koristeći godišnje podatke za razdoblje 1999-2018. Primjenjuju se tri alternativne tehnike procjene: model s fiksnim efektima, metoda procjene GMM razlika i GMM sustava. Empirijski rezultati dokazuju da su najvažniji čimbenici razvoja u financijskom sektoru (sektoru osiguranja i mirovinskom sektoru), bankarskom sektoru, te stopi na tržištu novca kao i opći ekonomski rast. Također je utvrđeno da globalna financijska kriza negativno utječe na rast bankarstva u sjeni. Dobiveni rezultati ukazuju na to da je bankarski sustav u sjeni komplementaran, ne samo tradicionalnim bankama, već i ostatku financijskog sustava, te otvara nova pitanja makrobonitetne politike imajući u vidu Basel III norme. Naime, jedan od glavnih ciljeva Basela III je smanjiti procikličnost bankarskog kreditiranja, a porast bankarstva u sjeni može utjecati kako na regulaciju koja se temelji na kapitalu tako i na ograničenja temeljena na dohotku

Novel Cold-formed Steel Elements for Seismic Applications

Novel cold-formed steel (CFS) elements are investigated in this paper for seismic resistant multi-storey moment frames. Premature local buckling and low out-of-plane stiffness are known as the main structural deficiencies of CFS sections with thin-walled elements. These lead to low energy dissipation capacity of the structures made up of CFS sections as the main load bearing members in seismic events. In order to improve the energy dissipation capacity of CFS members, an innovative CFS beam section with curved flanges is developed by numerical FE analysis and experimental work. A web bolted through plate CFS beam-column connection is used to limit out-of-plane actions in transferring the beam forces to column faces. This type of connection, however, produces premature web buckling and needs to be strengthened by a combination of vertical and horizontal out-of-plane stiffeners. Six beam-column connection assemblies including different stiffener configurations were tested. It is shown that the ductility factor and the moment strength are increased by up to ~75% and ~35% respectively relative to the specimen without stiffener. Correspondingly, activation of connection slip leads to a highly stable hysteretic behaviour and a significant increase (up to ~240%) in the hysteretic energy dissipation capacity

Pore space and brittle damage evolution in concrete

AbstractA novel lattice model is proposed for linking experimentally measured porosity of concrete to damage evolution and the emergent macroscopic behaviour. Pore sizes are resolved by X-ray CT and distributed at lattice bonds. The mechanical behaviour of bonds is elastic-brittle with failure criterion dependent on local forces and pore sizes. Bond failures provide the only non-linear effect on the macroscopic response. Results are compared to several experimental load cases. They show good agreement of stress–strain response at lower stress levels and expected differences at peak stresses. The framework allows for future development of models with plasticity and time-dependent effects

Bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of non-performing loans in the Republic of Macedonia: Comparative analysis of enterprise and household NPLs

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of all non-performing loans (NPLs) to enterprises and households in the Republic of Macedonia. The analysis is performed for the whole banking sector for the period 2003Q4 to 2014Q4, by applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Modelling Approach (ARDL), the co-integration model implementing quarterly time series. The results of the research indicate that the profitability of banks, the growth of loans to enterprises and to households respectively, as well as the growth of GDP, all have a negative impact, while banks’solvency and unemployment have a positive impact on the rise of non-performing loans in both models. In addition, regarding enterprises, we found that the exchange rate has a positive and statistically significant impact on the level of NPLs, while inflation has a negative and statistically significant impact on the increase in non-per- forming loans to households. The main contribution of this paper is that the results obtained by econometric analysis may be used for forecasting non-performing loans several years in the future, as well as for stress-testing both the entire banking system and the individual banks operating in the Republic of Macedonia

Briefing: UK Ministry of Defence Force Protection Engineering Programme

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory sponsored, QinetiQ-led Force Protection Engineering Research Programme has two main strands, applied and underpinning research. The underpinning strand is led by Blastech Ltd. One focus of this research is into the response of geomaterials to threat loading. The programme on locally won fill is split into four main characterisation strands: high-stress (GPa) static pressure–volume; medium-rate pressure–volume (split Hopkinson bar); high-rate (flyer plate) pressure–volume; and unifying modelling research at the University of Sheffield, which has focused on developing a high-quality dataset for locally won fill in low and medium strain rates. With the test apparatus at Sheffield well-controlled tests can be conducted at both high strain rate and pseudo-static rates up to stress levels of 1 GPa. The University of Cambridge has focused on using one-dimensional shock experiments to examine high-rate pressure–volume relationships. Both establishments are examining the effect of moisture content and starting density on emergent rate effects. Blastech Ltd has been undertaking carefully controlled fragment impact experiments, within the dataspace developed by the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge. The data from experiments are unified by the QinetiQ-led modelling team, to predict material behaviour and to derive a scalable locally won fill model for use in any situation

A practical method for optimum seismic design of friction wall dampers

Friction control systems have been widely used as one of the efficient and cost effective solutions to control structural damage during strong earthquakes. However, the height-wise distribution of slip loads can significantly affect the seismic performance of the strengthened frames. In this study, a practical design methodology is developed for more efficient design of friction wall dampers by performing extensive nonlinear dynamic analyses on 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20-story RC frames subjected to seven spectrum-compatible design earthquakes and five different slip load distribution patterns. The results show that a uniform cumulative distribution can provide considerably higher energy dissipation capacity than the commonly used uniform slip load pattern. It is also proved that for a set of design earthquakes, there is an optimum range for slip loads that is a function of number of stories. Based on the results of this study, an empirical equation is proposed to calculate a more efficient slip load distribution of friction wall dampers for practical applications. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated through several design examples

Self-adaptive approach for optimisation of passive control systems for seismic resistant buildings

The concept of passive control of the seismic response of structures was introduced to improve the performance of structures by increasing their energy dissipation and reduce or eliminate damage in the structural elements. The key task in the design of passive systems is to determine the forces in the control devices (yield/slip or post-tensioning) at each floor, that will result in best performance (e.g. minimum inter-storey drift). This can be achieved by large parametric studies in which both the maximum control force (e.g. at ground level) and the distribution of forces along the height of the structure are varied. Alternatively, optimum forces in the devices can be achieved by semi-active control, where the structure self-adapts to the earthquake. Both solutions are expensive: the first requires hundreds of non-linear response simulations in the design stage; the second needs a system of sensors, controllers and electromechanical devices. Presented here is a new Self Adaptive Optimisation Approach (SAOA) in which the self-optimisation of a semi-active system is used in the design stage and the resulting distribution of control forces is adopted as a passive system. The new approach was evaluated through comparing the simulated dynamic responses of two relatively simple benchmark structures (braced and post-tensioned) with three sets of control forces: (1) passive system with forces obtained in parametric study, (2) semi-active system with self-adapting control forces, and (3) passive system with SAOA-optimized forces. The results show good performance of the SAOA systems, indicating that SAOA offers a simple and effective solution that can replace the existing optimisation approaches for the design of passively controlled earthquake resistant structures. This study presents a novel idea of using the semi-active control as a tool for optimising a passive control system. The passive control systems can be further improved by a larger study in which the semi-active control algorithms are also optimised