Assessment of the Deadweight Loss Arising from the Information Asymmetry in The Banking Market

Market failures lead to the deadweight (welfare) loss for the society. Assessment of the deadweight loss started with so called the Harberger Triangles, where Harberger offered a clear and persuasive derivation of the triangle method of analyzing the deadweight loss and applied the method to estimate deadweight losses due to income taxes in the United States. Harberger’s approach is based on the deviation of market equilibrium measured in terms of price and quantity. When analyzing the information asymmetry as one of the market failures authors have identified in the literature variables for “price” and “quantity”. Research hypothesis is that there is the deadweight loss arising from the information asymmetry in euro area. Research then presents the approach how to calculate the deadweight loss arising from the information asymmetry using the following variables: “price” – interest rates (loans). quantity” – exposure of loans on banks’ balance sheets. Research methods used: literature analysis, regression analysis, mathematical analysis tools (integrals)

USED SMEAR OILS IN LATVIA

Used motor oil reprocessing is offered also for Latvian conditions. The benefits from it consists in preventing of environment pollution by metal oxides and unknown toxic substances in flue gases, evolving from, or due to possible catalytic synthesis during the waste oil incineration, if the latter was disposed as before. The main such pollutants from Latvian waste oils are sulphur dioxide, Zn, P, Pb, Cr, Ni and Mo oxides, as well believed to be also heavy aromatic hydrocarbons. Besides, the reprocessing completely lifts up the subsoil water pollution danger in case o f waste oil occasional spillage.The used motor oil reprocessing by its recovery, vacuum distillation and marketing is proved to be economically profitable, if the world crude oil prices are not lower than 25 USD/bbl, and may serve as an additional resource for a local lube oil manufacturing for Latvia, as well as a way of diminishing of fresh lube oil imports.The main obstacles for the enterprise under consideration to be overcomed are believed to be the psychological inertia of oil users to dispose their wastes in a proper way and also the insufficient oil collection infrastructure in the country

CREDITWORTHINESS OF MACHINE BUILDING ENTERPRISES

The previous research showed that the Latvian machine building enterprises experienced regular liquidity problems at the end of each year. Therefore to ensure their development the constant access to bank credits is a necessity. For that reason the analysis and evaluation of machine building enterprises creditworthiness was performed

SOLVENCY OF MACHINE BUILDING ENTERPRISES

Machine building as a competative exporting industry plays an important role in the Latvian national open market economy. The further development of machine building is possible under the conditions of the stable solvency. Therefore, it is crucial to perform the solvency analysis of the industry enterprises and give its evaluation

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS OF MICRO, SMALL, MEDIUM AND LARGE COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES IN LATGALE

In the conditions of crisis the government began to stimulate the formation of micro commercial enterprises. As the result the number of micro enterprises in Latgale remained at the pre-crisis level, whereas the number of small, medium and large enterprises decreased. Balanced development of the national economy presumes development of enterprises of all size, which mainly depends on their financial condition. The study aims at investigating the financial condition of micro and small as well as medium and large enterprises to find out the possibilities of their future development taking into account their capacities to raise their own capital and attract capital from outside including bank loans, thus diminishing Latgale’s lagging behind the Latvian average level

Inactivation of Plasmodium falciparum in whole blood by riboflavin plus irradiation.

BACKGROUND: Malaria parasites are frequently transmitted by unscreened blood transfusions in Africa. Pathogen reduction methods in whole blood would thus greatly improve blood safety. We aimed to determine the efficacy of riboflavin plus irradiation for treatment of whole blood infected with Plasmodium falciparum. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Blood was inoculated with 10(4) or 10(5) parasites/mL and riboflavin treated with or without ultraviolet (UV) irradiation (40-160 J/mL red blood cells [mL(RBCs)]). Parasite genome integrity was assessed by quantitative amplification inhibition assays, and P. falciparum viability was monitored in vitro. RESULTS: Riboflavin alone did not affect parasite genome integrity or parasite viability. Application of UV after riboflavin treatment disrupted parasite genome integrity, reducing polymerase-dependent amplification by up to 2 logs (99%). At 80 J/mL(RBCs), riboflavin plus irradiation prevented recovery of viable parasites in vitro for 2 weeks, whereas untreated controls typically recovered to approximately 2% parasitemia after 4 days of in vitro culture. Exposure of blood to 160 J/mL(RBCs) was not associated with significant hemolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Riboflavin plus irradiation treatment of whole blood damages parasite genomes and drastically reduces P. falciparum viability in vitro. In the absence of suitable malaria screening assays, parasite inactivation should be investigated for prevention of transfusion-transmitted malaria in highly endemic areas

Investigating intra-host and intra-herd sequence diversity of foot-and-mouth disease virus

Due to the poor-fidelity of the enzymes involved in RNA genome replication, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus samples comprise of unique polymorphic populations. In this study, deep sequencing was utilised to characterise the diversity of FMD virus (FMDV) populations in 6 infected cattle present on a single farm during the series of outbreaks in the UK in 2007. A novel RT–PCR method was developed to amplify a 7.6 kb nucleotide fragment encompassing the polyprotein coding region of the FMDV genome. Illumina sequencing of each sample identified the fine polymorphic structures at each nucleotide position, from consensus level changes to variants present at a 0.24% frequency. These data were used to investigate population dynamics of FMDV at both herd and host levels, evaluate the impact of host on the viral swarm structure and to identify transmission links with viruses recovered from other farms in the same series of outbreaks. In 7 samples, from 6 different animals, a total of 5 consensus level variants were identified, in addition to 104 sub-consensus variants of which 22 were shared between 2 or more animals. Further analysis revealed differences in swarm structures from samples derived from the same animal suggesting the presence of distinct viral populations evolving independently at different lesion sites within the same infected animal

Legal framework for secured corporate bonds in Latvia: proposal for a new regulation introducing the concept of a collateral agent

Access to finance is considered as one of the key factors to successful financial market development. European companies face problems with corporate funding which is treated as one of the main barriers to corporate growth and innovation capacity. Corporate bonds represent an alternative source of funding, contributing to a reduction of dependency on more traditional bank financing. Despite the present growth of the corporate bond market in Latvia, the current legal environment for collateralization of the corporate bond in Latvia remains comparatively inflexible for the changes ongoing. The goal of this thesis is to provide a theoretical background for the procedure of issuance of secured corporate bonds in Latvia, to identify the key missing elements for favourable collateralization environment, and to produce recommendations to reform the legal and regulatory framework for the introduction of the concept of a collateral agent in Latvia