German banks’ behavior in the low interest rate environment

Using data from a quantitative survey of German banks at three points in time (2015, 2017 and 2019), we analyze the impact of changes in the interest rate level on banks’ net interest income and the countermeasures they take. A decline in the interest rate level has a more negative impact on net interest income, the longer the decline lasts and the lower the interest rate level is. This impact softens with increasing risk of changes in the present value of banking books. We do not find that banks generally increase their risks following a drop in income. However, poorly capitalized banks subsequently increase the credit risk of their bond portfolio. After a fall in operational income, banks increase their fee and commission income and reduce their costs. In addition, banks tend to extend their mortgage lending after a drop in their interest income.

Does the Exchange Rate and Its Volatility Matter for International Trade in Ethiopia?

This study was carried out to investigate the impact of the Ethiopian exchange rate and its volatility on international trade. Trade openness was used as a proxy for international trade in the study. The study’s general objective was to investigate how international trade responds to exchange rate levels and volatility. The study relied solely on secondary time-series data spanning the years 1992 to 2019. The Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) model was used in the study to investigate the long-term relationship between exchange rate level, volatility, and international trade performance. An error correction model was used to estimate the variables in the short term. To conduct the regression analysis, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and inflation were used as control variables. The finding of the study implies that: in the short term, the exchange rate level was found to negatively and significantly influence international trade. However, exchange rate volatility positively and significantly affects international trade both in the short and in the long term. In addition, gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, and inflation have a positive effect on international trade both in the short term and long term. This finding lends support to the J-curve effects, which suggest an initial loss in the short term followed by a dramatic gain in the long term. However, the findings of this study suggest that there is no significant gain from international trade to justify currency depreciation in Ethiopia.

ANALISIS MENGUKUR TINGKAT KEPENTINGAN DAN KEPUASAN NASABAH PT. BANK MANDIRI CABANG PALANGKA RAYA

There are quite similar reasons for debtors in selecting bank to the reasons inkeeping funds. It is not merely concerning interest rate and facilities, service is also animportant factor. This factor is greatly important regarding business activity between onebank and others can be said to be the same. The different thing is a matter of services.This research is located in Mandiri Bank Palangka Raya Branch. This researchaims to (1) determine and analyze the level of conformity of interest level of serviceelements according to customers on the performance that has been conducted by MandiriBank Palangka Raya Branch (2) to determine customers’ satisfaction on the services thathave been given so that it can assist the Mandiri Bank performance to achieve betterquality improvement through determination of main priority.The samples are 100 customers of Mandiri Bank Palangka Raya Branch as therespondents using accidental sampling technique, the analysis used is customers’Importance-Performance analysis. This analysis uses Cartesians Diagram divided intofour quadrants. In this research, there are some main considerations by Mandiri BankPalangka Raya Branch namely (a) Teller attention to the customers, employeewillingness to service the customers (b) Waiting time in the queue (c) existence ofMandiri ATM machine (d) Interest rate level given by the bank.

Research on the Mechanical Performance of Carbon Nanofiber Reinforced Concrete under Impact Load Based on Fractal Theory

The research is focused on the dynamic compressive strength, impact toughness and the distribution law of fragmentation size for the plain concrete and the carbon nanofiber reinforced concrete with four fiber volume contents (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.5%) under impact load by using the Φ100 mm split-Hopkinson pressure bar. Based on the fractal theory and considering the micropore structure characteristics of the specimen, the impact of the strain rate and the dosage of carbon nanofibers on the dynamic mechanical performance of concrete is analyzed. According to the results, both the dynamic compressive strength and the impact toughness increase continuously with the improvement of the strain rate level at the same dosage of fiber, showing strong strain rate strengthening effect; at the same strain rate level, the impact toughness increases gradually with the increase in the fiber dosage, while the dynamic compressive strength tends to increase at first and then decrease; the distribution of the fragmentation size of concrete is a fractal in statistical sense, in general, the higher the strain rate level, the higher the number of fragments, the lower the size, and the larger the fractal dimension; the optimal dosage of carbon nanofibers to improve the dynamic compressive strength of concrete is 0.3%, and the pore structure characteristics of carbon nanofiber reinforced concrete exhibit obvious fractal features.

Age-related changes in sound onset and offset intensity coding in auditory cortical fields A1 and CL of rhesus macaques

Inhibition plays a key role in shaping sensory processing in the central auditory system and has been implicated in sculpting receptive field properties such as sound intensity coding and also in shaping temporal patterns of neuronal firing such as onset- or offset-evoked responses. There is substantial evidence supporting a decrease in inhibition throughout the ascending auditory pathway in geriatric animals. We therefore examined intensity coding of onset (ON) and offset (OFF) responses in auditory cortex of aged and young monkeys. A large proportion of cells in the primary auditory cortex (A1) and the caudolateral field (CL) displayed nonmonotonic rate-level functions for OFF responses in addition to nonmonotonic coding of ON responses. Aging differentially affected ON and OFF responses; the magnitude of effects was generally greater for ON responses. In addition to higher firing rates, neurons in old monkeys exhibited a significant increase in the proportion of monotonic rate-level functions and had higher best intensities than those in young monkeys. OFF responses in young monkeys displayed a range of intensity coding relationships with ON responses of the same cells, ranging from highly similar to highly dissimilar. Dissimilarity in ON/OFF coding was greater in CL and was reduced with aging, which was largely explained by a preferential decrease in the percentage of cells with nonmonotonic coding of ON and OFF responses. The changes we observed are consistent with previously demonstrated alterations in inhibition in the ascending auditory pathway of primates and could be involved in age-related deficits in the temporal processing of sounds. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Aging has a major impact on intensity coding of neurons in auditory cortex of rhesus macaques. Neural responses to sound onset and offset were affected to different extents, and their rate-level functions became more mutually similar, which could be accounted for by the loss of nonmonotonic intensity coding in geriatric monkeys. These findings were consistent with weakened inhibition in the central auditory system and could contribute to auditory processing deficits in elderly subjects.

What model for the target rate

The Federal Reserve target rate has a lower bound. Changes to the target rate occur with discrete increments. Using out-of-sample forecasts of the target rate, we evaluate models incorporating these two realistic non-linear features. Incorporating these features mitigates in-sample over-fitting and improves out-of-sample forecast accuracy of the target rate level and volatility. A model with these features performs better relative to the linear models because (i) it produces stronger responses of forecasts to inflation and unemployment and a weaker response to lagged target rate, and because (ii) it yields very different forecast distributions when the target rate is close to the lower bound.

Efficiency of Using the Transport Services Potential in Ukrainian Regions: The Role of the «Shadow» Component

The author of article suggests a method to evaluate the efficiency of using the transport services potential taking into consideration the share of services estimated in gross added value and output present in a region, employment level, investment supply, international competitiveness, the structure of taxes paid, and the shadow rate of business activity. Positive dynamics of the integrated efficiency value in using the transport services potential has been determined in the majority of the Ukrainian regions in the years 2013-2018. A sensitivity coefficient has been estimated for every variable in the integrated efficiency value in using the transport services potential. Substantial sensitivity of the integrated value to changes in the shadow rate level in transportation services is typical for the majority of the Ukrainian regions. On grouping the Ukrainian regions on the basis of sensitivity coefficient of the integrated value to changes in the shadow rate level in transportation services in 2018, the author has identified the regions with high, medium and low sensitivity and described the peculiarities of such groups according to their main features. The main causes of raising the efficiency of using the transport services potential have been determined, namely: unshadowing of enterprises activity; increasing the share of profitable enterprises in the total number of enterprises providing transportation services; increasing the share of the personal income tax in the total of taxes paid by enterprises; employment level. A number of measures have been suggested to raise the efficiency of using the transport services potential, to decrease the amount of “shadow” business, to increase business profitability, and to reduce informal employment