Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Oeconomica

Notes on the Efficiency of Spring Balance Weighing Designs with Correlated Errors for An Even Number of Objects

Małgorzata Graczyk — 2023-02-23

In this paper, some issues regarding the efficiency of spring balance weighing designs for a selected class are presented. We give some conditions determining the relations between the parameters of such designs and construction examples.

The Use of Taxonomic Analysis in the Assessment of Immigrants Integration in the European Union

Katarzyna Beata Cymbranowicz — 2023-05-05

In recent years, as a result of numerous crises, including mainly the so‑called refugee and migration crisis in 2015–2016 and the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Ukrainian borders in 2021–2022, the scale and structure of migration processes in Europe, including in the Member States of the European Union, has changed significantly. It is worth emphasizing that from the very beginning this process attracted the attention of the media, which made the issues of migration, including the issues of integration and integration policy towards immigrants, the subject of discussions and disputes at various spaces. Given the above the article discusses the problem of the integration of immigrants residing in the territory of the Member States of the European Union. This phenomenon is subject to a taxonomic analysis, in which the subjective scope is limited to the Member States of the European Union and the time scope is limited to the last decade (2011–2021). The aim of the article is to answer the question to what extent the immigrant integration policy is integrative, ie. ‘open’. In order to achieve such research goal the results of research conducted by the European Commission in cooperation with Eurostat and the Migration Policy Group were used, and it was possible to carry out comparable statistical analyzes. The obtained results reflected the spatial approach to the similarity of the Member States of the European Union in terms of their ‘openness’ to immigrants in the last 10 years and the changes that took place during that time as a result of crisis situations caused by uncontrolled migratory movements to Europe.

Pension Adequacy Networks across Europe

Alicja Jajko-Siwek — 2023-05-05

Europe’s population is ageing. This is associated with increasing challenges for pension systems and the need to search for solutions that will allow countries to generate adequate pension benefits. The aim of the article is to present a complex network typology of adequate pension benefits in European countries. Social networks have been used as a research method. The study has taken into account the network typology resulting from pension factors such as seniority, the retirement age, the number of children, and the duration of education, separately for women and men. The correlation between networks has also been checked. The most unusual network is for the number of children among retired people. The networks for seniority and for the retirement age are the most similar to each other among all the factors examined. The obtained results show that pension systems constructed in the same way have similar patterns of the level of pension factors. Gender does not appear to differentiate connection patterns for the examined variables.

The Application of Artificial Intelligence Models in Commercial Banks − Opportunities and Threats

Adam Chwila — 2023-06-14

One of the main sectors that makes heavy use of the development of advanced computational methods is the banking sector. The goals of our research are as follows: 1) to compare scientific and regulatory approaches to defining artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), 2) to propose AI and ML definitions for regulatory purposes that allow us to clearly state if a given method is AI/ML or not, 3) to compare the complex quantitative methods applied in banking in terms of complexity and interpretability in order to provide a clear classification of methods to the interested parties (practitioners and management), 4) to propose a possible approach towards the further development of quantitative methods in the areas of required strict interpretability. Our literature review focuses on the definitions of AI/ML applied by scientists and regulators, as well as the proposals of application of complex quantitative solutions in different banking domains. We propose practical definitions of AI and ML based on the current state of the art and requirements of clarity in the banking industry (a very limited risk appetite regarding regulations non‑compliance) and compare quantitative methods applied in different banking domains. For regulatory purposes, we propose general and inclusive definitions of AI and ML which allow for a clear classification of specific methods. In the case of strict requirements towards the interpretability of applied methods, we propose a gradual and controlled increase in the complexity of existing solutions. Therefore, we propose the differentiation of quantitative methods in terms of interpretability and complexity. We also think that the definitions of AI/ML in further regulations should make it possible to clearly say whether particular approaches are AI/ML. Our research is directed to policymakers, practitioners, and executives related to the banking sector.