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8The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of application or replacement of radiators 9 with low-temperature radiant panels. This paper shows the comparison results of operations of 4 10 space heating systems: the low-temperature radiant panel system without any additional thermal 11 insulation of external walls (PH-WOI), the low-temperature radiant panel system with additional 12 thermal insulation of external walls (PH-WI), the radiator system without any additional thermal 13 insulation of external walls (the classical heating system) (RH-WOI), and the radiator system with 14 additional thermal insulation of external walls (RH-WI). The operation of each system is simulated 15 by software EnergyPlus. The investigation shows that the PH-WI gives the best results. The RH- 16WOI has the largest energy consumption, and the largest pollutant emission. However, the PH-WI 17 requires the highest investment. 18 Nomenclature 20 A = area of heat emitters, m 2 21 E = energy, J/year 22 f = specific cost, €/m 2 23 42 el = electricity, 43 i = number of zone, 44 in = inlet, 45 ng = natural gas, 46 o = outside, 47 sys = system, 48 TOT = total, 49 w = water, 50 Abbreviations 51 PH-WOI = panel heating system without additional thermal insulation 52 PH-WI = panel heating system with additional thermal insulation 53 RH-WOI = radiator heating system without additional thermal insulation 54 RH-WI = radiator heating system with additional thermal insulation 55 SHGC = solar heat gain coefficient 56 UFAD = underfloor air distribution 57 58 65 In the literature, there are many papers dealing with investigations of the low temperature radiant 66 systems and their comparison with other heating systems regarding energy consumption and 67 obtained thermal comfort. Chen [1] compares the thermal comfort and the energy consumption 68 among a ceiling radiant heating system, a radiator heating system and a warm air heating system by 69 using airflow program Phoenics-84 and air-conditioning load program Accuracy. Haddad et al. [2] 70 compares the performance of a forced-air and a radiant floor residential heating system connected to 71 solar collectors. Raftery et al. [3] compares the performance of a joint underfloor air distribution 72 (UFAD) and radiant hydronic system with a typical only UFAD system. Imanari et al. [4] compares 73 a ceiling panel heating system in conjunction with an air-conditioning system and a conventional 74 air-conditioning system in term of thermal comfort, energy efficiency and cost efficiency. Stetiu [5] 75shows that using a radiant cooling system instead of a traditional all-air system in office space could 76 save on average 30% of the energy consumption. Nobody compared the radiant wall heating 77 system with other heating systems in terms of energy, economy, and environmental influence. 78The basic aim of this paper is to compare the radiant wall heating system with the radiator heating 79 system in terms of energy, economy, and environmental influence. During this research, the 80 operations of f...

This paper investigates the influence of gender diversity in the boardroom of Croatian banks on their performance. Specifically, we deal with both management and supervisory boards. Moreover, based on critical mass theory, the authors try to find out what constitutes critical mass. Using a static panel analysis on a sample of all commercial banks that operated in the period 2002-2014, three models were estimated with return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM) as dependent variables. Board structure variables include gender of the chairperson, size of the board, share of women on the board and four dummy variables constructed on critical mass theory, specifically uniform group, skewed group, tilted group and balanced group. Other controls employed in the model include capital adequacy, the growth rate of assets at the bank level, ownership, age and a crisis dummy. The main finding is that when a critical mass of 20%-40% of women on the management board has been reached, bank performance improves.

Background: Financial stability or soundness of insurance companies has gained importance over the years, especially after the financial crisis of 2008. Various stakeholders such as policy makers, regulators, the insured, etc. are interested in keeping the insurance sector stable since it contributes to overall financial stability.Objectives: The authors explore the determinants of insurers’ soundness in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis covers life, non-life and composite insurers that operated in Croatia, Hungary, and Poland in the period 2013 – 2017.Methods/Approach: A set of insurer – specific, industry – specific and macroeconomic variables are taken into consideration for having a potential influence on soundness measured by the Z-score. The variables include the size based on total assets, the share of premium ceded to reinsurance, claims growth, gross written premium growth, the premium to surplus ratio, market shares held by the five largest insurers, the share of gross written premium in the gross domestic product (GDP) and the GDP per capita growth.Results: The findings reveal that soundness of Croatian insurers is positively influenced by the size of an insurer. Both in Hungary and Poland reinsurance plays an important factor positively affecting soundness.Conclusions: Each of the insurance markets covered by the analysis reveals its characteristics and offers guidelines on factors influencing financial stability.