Strategies for improving energy efficiency in public buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The energy efficiency represents a global and multi-faceted issue. It is especially important for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the former socialist and semi-developed country belonging to the Balkan’s region of the Southeastern Europe (SE). Buildings in the WBs, including BiH, represent about 50 percent of the aggregate energy consumption. Estimated energy savings are projected to be between 20 and 40 percent. The research problem addressed in this paper focuses on the introduction of the existing or the improvement of the present strategies dealing with the energy efficiency. The inclusion and operation of funds addressing energy efficiency is of paramount importance. In that context the creation of statewide agency is deemed to be crucial to be responsible for the administration of the assistance of the European Union (EU) and the management of national energy efficiency action plan (NEEAP). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis represents a simple tool to address numerous elements in tackling of this issue. Unfortunately, it cannot identify the totality of all-important external factors relating to the status of energy efficiency. Introduction of the energy management system (EMS) is another avenue worth exploring

Energy efficiency financing strategies and obstacles for residential public buildings in the Balkan region

The energy efficiency represents an international and multi-faceted phenomenon. It is especially important in the countries belonging to the Balkan’s region of the Southeastern Europe (SE). The research problem addressed in this paper focuses on the improvements in the inherent energy inefficiency by the means of quality financing of investment arrangements. This paper utilizes detailed literature review of multi-faceted sources, journal articles, private and government publications. Furthermore, the obstacles to attracting viable sources of private financing shall also be researched and addressed. Semi- developed and still developing Balkan countries have been experiencing severe lack of diversified financial instruments. The financial risks, energy poverty and low incomes, lack of appropriate understanding of the market and the absence of the appropriate regulatory framework have been identified as the major obstacles to attracting viable private financing. There are several issues impacting the attraction of private financing arrangements. These barriers could be summed up as the lack of appropriate regulatory framework, deficiencies in the proper market understanding, inherent presence of energy poverty and low incomes, multitude of financial risks, lack of skilled human resources, the presence of the so-called split incentives and fragmentation issues in common decision-making process. The so-called multiple benefits approach (MBA) to energy efficiency investments tend to widen the energy efficiency perspectives beyond the traditional measures of reducing energy demand and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. This approach looks into multiple spheres by assessing multitude of different benefits to stakeholders. In conclusion, the big disparity in size and variety or financial supporting instruments between the EU members and non-member states must be addressed and reduced

FROM DEFECTIVE TO EFFECTIVE BiH DEVELOPMENT POLICY

After 21 post-war years Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) found itself in a “middle income trap”. It is not classified into low income countries because workers and citizens do not accept low wages and low standard of living, nor does it ft into high income countries because those workers do not produce sophisticated products that ensure competitiveness, export and the basis for high wages and the standard of living. The development vision of BiH is to become a high income country. However, the state has neither suitable strategy nor policy. This paper represents a detailed research of multifaceted secondary sources (i.e. journal articles, government publications, internet sources, etc.), conducted in a cross-sectional time manner. By utilizing secondary sources of data we conducted our own calculations based on data from the World Bank, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We hold that key sectors which would provide return to pre-crisis GDP growth rate of 6-7 percent per year, should be: financial system, diaspora and digitalization of industry (with the introduction of suitable strategies and policies), each of which would contribute to GDP growth of two percent per year. The key agents of change should be the leaders of value chains (large-scale companies), cities-regions, gazelle companies (fast growing small and medium size companies) and micro digital companies

What drives the profitability of the banking sector? An Empirical evidence from Bosnia &Herzegovina

This paper empirically examines the relationship between the key banks' specific variables of regression models in determination of bank profitability in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). For the purposes of econometric modeling, quarterly indicators of the banking sector based on country's aggregate data over the period 2000q1 to 2014q2, including one macroeconomic indicator (GDP growth rate) were employed. The key findings of this research showed that there was a positive and statistically significant relationship between (ROAA), the three of explanatory variables (LATA, TLTD and CRR) and a negative and statistically significant relationship with CEF and CAR. The results of our study have shown that higher bank's profitability measured by ROAA was possible if the banks increase the employment of capital, effectively manage operating costs, increase the share of deposits in financing loans, and improve non lending operation. More specifically, ROAE was significantly influenced by only two variables: cost efficiency and management of credit risk. Our findings of Model 2 and statistically insignificant relationships of six explanatory variables with ROAE can be explained by the consequences of global financial crisis. This influenced the profitability since more economic factors were affected abnormally during analyzed periods. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 deals with the literature review; Section 3 contains an explanation of the data and methodology and Section 4 deals with empirical findings. The findings and discussion presented in previous sections of this paper end with conclusions in section 5

Humor styles across 28 countries

Responses to a measure of the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-enhancing, and self-defeating from the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), 48–75, 2003) were collected from individuals (N = 8361) in 28 countries encompassing 21 different languages. The purpose of this global collaboration was to examine both differences and similarities of humor styles across nations at the descriptive level. Across the countries, typically the highest scores were for the affiliative humor style. When each humor style was examined, some country samples demonstrated differences in mean scores. For example, the samples from Hungary, Indonesia, South Africa, and Serbia had high self-enhancing scores and Japan scored the lowest. In contrast to mean differences, almost all of the countries demonstrated positive inter-scale correlations, similar sex differences, and similar correlations with age, suggesting more similarities than differences. As discussed, some of the samples had low internal consistency values and poorly fitting factor structures for the humor style scales, suggesting that those results should be interpreted with caution.</p

Loneliness and vertical and horizontal collectivism and individualism: A multinational study

This paper investigates how horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism predict self-report loneliness in addition to the variance accounted for by age and sex in 28 countries (N = 8,345). Horizontal and vertical aspects of individualism and collectivism had small but significant contributions to predicting loneliness. Horizontal-collectivism (for 19 country samples) and, to a lesser extent, horizontal-individualism (for seven country samples), significantly predicted lower loneliness scores. Vertical-individualism (for 16 country samples), and to a lesser extent, vertical-collectivism (for six country samples), predicted feeling more loneliness among our participants. Adjusted R2 values suggested that between 0.6% and 27.7% of self-report loneliness was predicted. These results suggest that those who value egalitarian social relations also tend to report being less lonely whereas those who value individuality and competitiveness endorse the loneliness items more. These results are of importance to those investigating and helping lonely individuals by appreciating the influence of perceived culture

The fear of COVID-19 scale: Its structure and measurement invariance across 48 countries

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countries (N = 14,558). The findings indicate that the FCV-19S has a somewhat problematic structure, yet the one-factor solution is replicable across cultural contexts and could be used in studies that compare people who vary on gender and educational level. The validity of the scale is supported by a consistent pattern of positive correlations with perceived stress and general anxiety. However, given the unclear structure of the FCV-19S, we recommend using latent factor scores, instead of raw scores, especially in cross-cultural comparisons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)