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Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

In this paper, the authors assess the responsiveness of OOP healthcare expenditure to macro-fiscal factors, as well as to tax-based, SHI, mixed systems and voluntary PHI financing. Although the relationship between OOP expenditure, macroeconomy, aggregate public and PHI financing is well documented in the existing empirical literature, little is known for the impact of several macro-fiscal drivers and the existing health financing arrangements associated with voluntary PHI on OOP expenditure.

The authors gather panel data by applying three official organizations’ databases. They elaborate static and dynamic panel data methodology to a dataset of 49 European and OECD countries from 2000 to 2015.

The authors’ findings do not indicate a considerable impact of GDP growth and general government debt as a share of GDP on OOP payments. Unemployment rate presents as a positive driver of OOP payments in all three compulsory national health systems post to the 2008 economic crisis. OOP payments are significantly influenced by countries’ fiscal capacity to increase general government expenditure to GDP in SHI and mixed health systems. Additionally, study findings present that government health financing, irrespective of the different health systems structure characteristics, and OOP healthcare payments follow different directions. Voluntary PHI financing considerably counteracts OOP payments only in tax-based health systems.

In the backdrop of a new economic crisis associated to the COVID-19 epidemic, health policy planners have to deal with the emerging unprecedented challenges in financing of health systems, especially for these economies that have to face the fiscal capacity constraints owing to the 2008 financial crisis and its severe recession.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no empirical consensus on the effects of macro-fiscal parameters, different compulsory health systems financing associated with the parallel voluntary PHI institution funding on OOP expenditure, for the majority of European and OECD settings.

This article provides an overview of the panel vector autoregressive models (VAR) used in macroeconomics and finance to study the dynamic relationships between heterogeneous assets, households, firms, sectors, and countries. We discuss what their distinctive features are, what they are used for, and how they can be derived from economic theory. We also describe how they are estimated and how shock identification is performed. We compare panel VAR models to other approaches used in the literature to estimate dynamic models involving heterogeneous units. Finally, we show how structural time variation can be dealt with.

The paper aims to review recent developments for analysis of deteriorating stiffened panels subjected to static and explosive forces.

The first part reviews numerical procedures developed for stiffened panels subjected to explosive forces. The structural idealization, the theoretical basis, and the merits of these methods are discussed. The second part reviews the probabilistic procedures developed for analysis of deteriorating stiffened panels. The third part reviews recent work developed in several finite element modelling philosophies for analysis of stiffened panels. The influence of various parameters affecting the structural performance, such as geometric and material imperfections, corrosion, residual stresses, etc. is discussed. The fourth part reviews hybrid procedures developed to provide approximate solutions for the designers. Numerical procedure is presented using combination of energy formulations and mathematical programming techniques to model the interaction between the box girder components.

Localized damage largely affects the performance of stiffened panels and must be accounted for in the design phase. Little emphasis was given in the published literature to developing simplified analytical models that can be used in practice to compute the residual strength of the stiffened panels under these types of loadings. Furthermore, analytical expressions are required to compute the reduction in the stiffness induced due to the structural or material defects. These expressions must be dependent on the type of damage. It must be noted that some of this damages is localized in nature and must be accounted for by using specialized functions to assess the structural defect accurately. Research work is required in this direction.

The paper provides useful resource material for the engineers in practice regarding recent techniques developed to assess damaged stiffened panels subject to static and explosive loadings. The paper reviews work developed over the past 20 years that can be used as a baseline for future developments.

Very limited literature dealt with the ultimate strength of damaged stiffened structure under static and explosive forces. No guidelines are available in current design codes to assess the damage in predicting the strength of deteriorating stiffened panels.

This paper aims to examine and compare the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on bank deposits in aggregate as well as at the level of conventional and Islamic banks in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The study also tests hypotheses of direct and indirect impacts of FDI flow and FDI stock on bank deposits.

Static and dynamic panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimation techniques are applied to analyze a large data set of 491 commercial banks (422 conventional banks and 69 Islamic banks) across 18 MENA countries between 1993 and 2017 (12,275 year observations).

Empirical results indicate that inflowing FDI flow and FDI stock have a significant negative direct impact on deposits of MENA banks. The results lend support for the direct channel hypothesis for the effect of FDI on bank deposits and find no evidence in support of the indirect channel hypothesis. FDI inflows affect bank deposits directly via increased FDI-related excessive competition in the banking market. Deposits from conventional banks appear to be more affected than those from Islamic banks. The variation may due to the fact that Islamic banks have fewer multinational corporations (MNC) customers than conventional banks and therefore are less sensitive to fluctuations in FDI.

From this analysis, this study concludes that foreign investments have a higher productivity than local investments in MENA region. Attracting more FDI is aimed at increasing overall national productivity through competition. However, governments would be wise to enact such a policy to maximize benefits and minimize potential harm to local industry. Furthermore, FDI policy should encourage small to medium-size banks and firms (SMEs)’ participation and linkage with multinational banks and MNCs, while upgrading research and development institutions and innovation activities to help SMEs to benefit from potential spillovers from foreign presence in the industry. In addition, the linkage and connection between SMEs and foreign firms should be strengthened and promoted by government policy.

This study is the first of its kind to examine the effect of FDI inflows on bank deposits. It also provides an in-depth quantitative analysis of the impact of FDI flow and FDI stock, separately, on bank deposits for both conventional and Islamic banks. It distinguishes between direct and indirect channels through which FDI inflows may affect bank deposits. The study analyzes 25 years of panel data for 491 banks (12,275 year observations) and uses both static and dynamic panel GMM estimation techniques to analyze the data.

This paper aims to use the approach based on the application of the law of gravity for the study of the flows of export and the effects of the RTAs.

In this paper, the authors evaluate the effects of RTAs on exports between members and non-members taking into account the Vinerian specification. The authors also try to estimate the impact of the recent economic crisis on the flows of export and the success of the RTAs. The authors use a model of static and dynamic gravity for 40 countries and six RTAs during the period 1980-2011.

Definitely the proliferation of RTAs will continue to be one of the driving forces that will constitute the political system and the global economy in the following years. It indicates a process that implies the merger of economies separated in bigger regions of free trade. Regional integration is seen as beneficial in many senses and is the major economic objectives in addition to presenting a stabilizing factor in international relations.

The gravity model is estimated using the last techniques of panel data which takes into account the endogeneity of the effects of integration and the existence of dynamic effect.

Panel data-based demand forecasting models have been widely adopted in various industrial settings over the past few decades. Despite being a highly versatile and intuitive method, in the literature, there is a lack of comprehensive review examining the strengths, the weaknesses, and the industrial applications of panel data-based demand forecasting models. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by reviewing and exploring the features of various main stream panel data-based demand forecasting models. A novel process, in the form of a flowchart, which helps practitioners to select the right panel data models for real world industrial applications, is developed. Future research directions are proposed and discussed.

It is a review paper. A systematically searched and carefully selected number of panel data-based forecasting models are examined analytically. Their features are also explored and revealed.

This paper is the first one which reviews the analytical panel data models specifically for demand forecasting applications. A novel model selection process is developed to assist decision makers to select the right panel data models for their specific demand forecasting tasks. The strengths, weaknesses, and industrial applications of different panel data-based demand forecasting models are found. Future research agenda is proposed.

This review covers most commonly used and important panel data-based models for demand forecasting. However, some hybrid models, which combine the panel data-based models with other models, are not covered.

The reviewed panel data-based demand forecasting models are applicable in the real world. The proposed model selection flowchart is implementable in practice and it helps practitioners to select the right panel data-based models for the respective industrial applications.

This paper is the first one which reviews the analytical panel data models specifically for demand forecasting applications. It is original.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Yemen War on banking services (deposits and loans) at the aggregate and at the level of conventional and Islamic banks in GCC countries. The author also tests hypotheses of direct and indirect impacts of the Yemen War on bank services.

The sample comprises a total of 70 banks (45 conventional and 25 Islamic banks) over the period 2000–2018. The static and dynamic panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimation techniques are applied.

Empirical results indicate that the Yemen War has a significant negative direct impact on deposits and loans of GCC banks. The results lend support for the direct channel hypothesis, but not for the indirect channel hypothesis. The negative direct impact is most prominent on banks in GCC countries that are directly involved in the Yemen War, although the war has an asymmetric effect on conventional and Islamic banks, the former being more vulnerable. The overall conclusion is that the Yemen War exerts an asymmetric impact on the GCC region, across both banks and countries.

These results are a warning to policymakers to be cautious when formulating a strategy for macroeconomic stability.

It is widely recognized that the Yemen War has a significant impact on the economies of the GCC countries. However, the possible impact of the war on GCC bank services has not so far been subjected to robust empirical analysis. This paper therefore seeks to fill this gap by providing an in-depth quantitative analysis of this impact. It distinguishes between direct and indirect channels through which the Yemen War may affect bank services. It is also the first to examine the asymmetric impact of the Yemen War on the GCC region, across both banks (Islamic and conventional banks) and countries (whether or not involved in the war). The study uses both static panel and dynamic panel GMM estimation techniques to analyze the data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in ASEAN countries for the period 1993-2014.

The Granger causality test and the regression estimation method with static and dynamic panel data (FE, RE, Driscoll and Kraay, D-GMM and PMG) were used. The sample includes seven ASEAN countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The results show that at least a causal relationship exists between urbanization and economic growth and urbanization positively impacts economic growth. However, the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is non-linear. The urbanization reaches a threshold after which it may impede the economic growth. The estimated threshold is 69.99 percent for the static model and 67.94 percent for the dynamic model.

The evidence from this study suggests that there is a non-linear relationship between urbanization and the economic growth. Urbanization has the potential to accelerate the economic growth, and this potential will depend on the establishment of favorable institutions and investments in appropriate public infrastructure.

The decision on the model of urbanization needs to be based on social and environmental considerations as well as market-based economic efficiency. The quality of urbanization manifests in the way that people and businesses perceive when they come to cities and their position in the labor market, urban housing, niche commodity markets, supply chain, collaborative network and physical space for the operation of the business. Most ASEAN countries have not yet reached a high level of urbanization, despite having a number of policies for promoting urbanization to contribute to the economic growth. However, policymakers should find ways to facilitate the development of urbanization that contributes to economic growth, employment growth, environmental sustainability, rather than the pursuit of speeding up the process of urbanization.

Between urbanization and economic growth at least a causal relationship exists. Urbanization positively impacts economic growth. However, the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is non-linear. The urbanization reaches a threshold after which it may impede the economic growth. The estimated threshold is 69.99 percent for the static model and 67.94 percent for the dynamic model.

This study aims to link environmental disclosure quality (EDQ) to firm performance and examine the moderating role of board independence in this relationship.

Drawing on agency theory and stakeholder theory, the authors developed and tested hypotheses using original survey data from 720 firm-year observations collected from 120 Iranian companies over six years between 2011 and 2016. In this paper, they conducted static and dynamic panel data analysis.

After correcting for endogeneity bias, the results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between EDQ and firm performance. The results also showed that board independence significantly reinforces the positive effect of EDQ on performance, and firms with more independent board members are involved environmental disclosure for improved performance. This is consistent with agency theory, which posits that a more independent board of directors can better monitor the CEO and reduce incentives for pursuing personal interests, which in turn improves performance. The results are robust after performing sensitivity tests.

This paper takes the perspective of corporate governance to empirically examine the effect of EDQ on firm performance. This study makes a contribution to the literature by showing that board independence moderates the effects of EDQ on firm performance.

The evidence supports the emphasis that recent policy statements have put on increasing the number of independent directors on corporate boards. This study offers insights to policymakers interested in enhancing the monitoring role of corporate boards.

The study adds value to the understanding of the effect of the EDQ on performance and how board independence influences this relationship, particularly in an emerging economy like Iran.