Why don’t Latvian pension funds diversify more internationally?

Latvian employees have to choose a pension fund for the second-pillar of the Latvian pension system. These pension funds invest about 85% in domestic assets. In this paper, we address the question why this strong home bias might exist. Firstly, we conclude that the Latvian pension law is strict on international diversification. However, not to the extent that it can fully explain the home bias. Secondly, our empirical analysis suggests that international diversification lowers investment risks for Latvian (pension) investors. Thus, it seems hard to explain the home bias of Latvian pension funds by lack of diversification benefits. Thirdly, Latvian pension fund managers might have more (private) information about Latvian companies than international companies. Therefore, they might prefer to invest more domestically to add more value for their clients. Finally, Latvian employees might have a strong preference to invest in companies they are familiar with. Since we are not aware of any research on the latter two topics, we can only speculate that currently many investment policies are suboptimal for Latvian employees saving for retirement. We expect the Latvian pension industry to develop new products that reduce risk by allowing for more diversification. In addition, we recommend Latvian employees to pay attention to the investment policy of their pension fund and think carefully about the rewards, risks, and costs that are involved.Home Bias;Emerging Markets;International Investing;Pension Funds

Exploring Russian-speaking identity from below: the case of Latvia

Recent research on the acculturation strategies of Russian speakers in Latvia has demonstrated that there is a high level of support for integration (identifying with both Latvian and Russian cultures) compared to marginalization, separation, or assimilation. However, a number of researchers have also highlighted the negative impact of top-down narratives and discourses produced by the country's politicians and journalists. These discourses, it is argued, hamper the integration process by creating incompatible identity positions between ‘Russian-speakers’ and ‘Latvians’. Accordingly, this research turns to focus group interviews with Russian speakers in Latvia in order to uncover the nuances of their identity-forming processes, their relations with the respective Russian and Latvian states, and their acculturation strategies, which are commonly overlooked in top-down accounts. Based on the analysis of the qualitative data it will be argued that there is great potential for an integrated, yet culturally distinct Latvian-Russian identity in Latvia

Sexuality and nationality: homophobic discourse and the 'national threat' in contemporary Latvia

This paper considers why attitudes towards gays and lesbians in Latvia appear to be more intolerant than in all other EU member states. The paper argues that while the legacy of communist discourses on homosexuality and the impact of post-communist transition have played a role in shaping attitudes towards sexuality and sexual minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, these factors cannot sufficiently explain the divergence among post-communist states and, in particular, do not account for Latvia’s extreme position. While acknowledging that intolerance towards non-heteronormative sexualities cannot be explained by a single factor, the paper argues that homosexuality has become particularly reviled in Latvia because it has been widely discursively constructed as a threat to the continued existence of the nation

Writers' Bloc: reading into late Soviet experience through Latvian artists' books.

Previously in the University eprints HAIRST pilot service at http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/00000364/Article 1 of 6 in an issue devoted to Scandinavian and Baltic visual cultureThis article focuses on book works by Latvian artists during the late-Soviet period, and also offers an initial discussion of the peculiarities of the Soviet publishing environment, as it existed shortly before the USSR’s annexation of Latvia at the end of World War II, and the roughly concurrent publication experiences of progressive artists in inter-bellum Latvia, the so-called First Republic. During its heyday in the 1960s and 70s the artist’s book was hailed by many practitioners in the West as the superlative democratic art form, due to the hypothetical possibility of the widespread ownership of the art object. An examination of how artist-authored books developed amid Latvian society's repeated, abrupt transitions between democracy and totalitarianism during the past century may further illuminate this concept of a democratic art medium.Postprin

Latvia's democratic resistance: a forgotten episode from the Second World War

In summer 1943 politicians representing the four main political parties of Latvia's democratic years came together to establish a movement which would both resist the German occupation and prevent the return of the Red Army. They considered the key to re-establishing Latvia as an independent democratic state was to make contact with Britain, and they hoped to do this by a combination of military and diplomatic activity. Once contact with Sweden had been established this Latvian Central Council planned to combine a diplomatic offensive abroad with an insurrection within Latvia. The diplomatic offensive was partly obstructed by the Foreign Office, but that did not prevent the Latvian Central Council working closely with the British Secret Service as it first brought out of Latvia potential members of a Government in Exile, and then began to prepare for an insurrection. Planned to coincide with the arrival of the Red Army and the withdrawal of the Germans, the military wing of the Latvian Central Council intended to seize part of the Courland coast and hold it until British or Swedish forces intervened to prevent them being crushed by the Red Army, thus forcing the Soviets to negotiate about the future status of Latvia. The plans of the Latvian Central Council relied heavily on stories circulating in Sweden that the British were indeed about to intervene in the Baltic, and it is argued here that there was more to this than mere loose talk. The dilemma of whether or not to stage an insurrection was resolved by the Germans, who arrested General Kurelis, the leader of the insurrection and the man designated the interim leader of independent Latvia. The surviving forces of the Latvian Central Council established themselves as an underground army and waited for news from Britain that the time had come to rise. When no such message had come by summer 1945, many underground groups started moves towards a national uprising; to prevent this the Latvian Central Council used its surviving organization to instruct its underground fighters not to take up arms against the Soviets but to wait on diplomacy