COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF THE BALTIC COUNTRIES' INHABITANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Since the Baltic countries have joined the European Union, the value of personal satisfaction with life has fluctuated – decreased or increased – along with GDP per capita until the crisis, i.e. until 2009; afterwards, the nature of this dependency started to change across the countries. The novelty of the current research study is the analysis of the people's SWB dependence upon the economic development indicators in the Baltic countries after their accession to the EU, conducted in the context of the results of previous research studies on the topic. The research aim is to review theoretical research studies on the interrelation of people’s SBW and economic development of the country, as well as to analyse the situation in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The following research methods were applied: the monographic method and regression analysis. The findings of the research study showed that Estonia was the leader among the three Baltic countries in all the economic development indicators considered, whereas Latvia was behind in all the indicators; moreover, the level of personal satisfaction with life was the highest in Estonia, although, as the results of the regression analysis demonstrated the SWB of people in Estonia was the least dependent on the economic development indicators.

Is the UNDP Declared Human Development for Everyone Possible in Real Life?

The law of normal distribution applied to human development states that an equal level of development of countries (regions, and people) at one point in time cannot be achieved, and under any level of average development there will always be those lagging behind this level and those ahead of it. The main research issue within the framework of this article is the following: what happens beyond the average indicators of human development in real life, and is it possible to achieve the equally high level of human development for everyone? The authors answer this question with the help of diachronic and synchronic analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) in the period 1990 – 2017 with respect to compliance of the HDI variance to normal distribution. Using cluster analysis, the authors obtained the results testifying that the modern world is increasingly divided into groups of countries (“worlds”) every one of which has its own average level of human development, and the HDI of the countries within each group varies in accordance with the Gauss curve. These four “worlds“ generally coincide with the UNDP division of countries into four groups - very high human development, high human development, medium human development, low human development. The authors came to the conclusion that the human development as the dynamic process is possible. But it is impossible to achieve the same level of human development for everyone without differences in the development levels between several groups of countries (several “worlds”) and within one group of countries (one “world”)

Human-Machine Collaboration as a Factor of Labour Productivity and Efficiency

This article is aimed to give an empirical answer to the following research questions: 1) whether work as a type of activity and as a life value is losing its significance in the modern world; 2) whether human-machine collaboration (HMC) is a significant factor of labour productivity and efficiency. The authors suppose, that in the market economy labour productivity “merges“ with its efficiency – in contrast to a planned economy. Thus, it is possible to talk about “labour efficient productivity” or simply about labour productivity. The methods applied for empirical study are the following: analysis of statistics, regression analysis and correlation analysis. Eurostat and Latvia‘s statistics as well as data of the World Values Survey and data collected by the World Economic Forum and other international organsations. Results of the empirical research show that despite the increase in employment rate in the EU as a whole and in Latvia in particular, work as a type of activity and as a life value is losing its significance in the modern world. HMC empirically is measured by two indicators which show the potential of a country in HMC: digital skills of the population and ICT adoption. Results of the analysis show that HMC is a significant factor of labour productivity in the modern world, while various components of HMC have different significance in two groups of the world countries. In countries with a high potential of HMC, including Latvia, digital skills of the population is the determinant of labour productivity. In its turn, in countries with a low potential of HMC, the main factor of labour productivity is ICT adoption

Influence of existing social and economic interactions on sustainable territory development: the case of Iceland

International audienceIceland was identified as a typical country with relatively high achieved competitiveness level and at the same time negative growth capacity - so, with eroded sustainability of territory development. As a research hypothesis the authors suggest that Iceland's social and economic interactions with other "worlds-economies" are not diversified enough. The analysis of export/import and international migration flows of Iceland shows that a market-capitalist "world-economy" is an absolute leader (80-90 %) for Icelandic international trade and migration. Analysis of air logistical interconnections shows that a kind of sub-"world-economy" is formed which can be referred to as a Northern-Atlantic one. As results of regression analysis show social and economic interactions with the representatives of its own "world-economy" mainly draw Iceland’s sustainable territory development in their direction, and, as the trends of their development are negative or stagnate (USA and Spain), Iceland’s trend of sustainable territory development is also drawn after them. In its turn, rather infrequent social and economic interactions with other "worlds-economies" either do not influence significantly Iceland’s sustainable territory development (as interactions with Brazil do) or influence in the opposite way (as interactions with China do). Therefore, the practical efficiency of recommendation of Human Development Report 2013 to interact more actively with other "worlds-economies" is not so far proved in social and economic reality - at least, in the case with Iceland as a typical highly-developed capitalist country

Differentiation of internal regions in the EU countries

International audienceThe aim of the article is to study safety and sustainability of differentiation of performance of internal regions (NUTS 3) in the EU countries measured by the Sub-national Human Development Index (SHDI). The authors examine differentiation of the SHDI of internal regions in the EU countries by means of correspondence of distribution of this indicator [SHDI] of regional performance to Gauss curve, as well as by analyzing the SHDI of internal regions in the EU countries with the help of the coefficient of variation. As follows from the research, the authors proved that differentiation of regional performance in the EU over the last three decades were not chaotic but they were subjected to certain regularities: the distribution of performance of internal regions is normal, with metropolitan areas almost always being leaders of regional performance; regional differences in the area that is now the EU were increasing during the collapse of the Eastern European Socialist Bloc in the early 1990s, and they were declining later, as the regions adapted to the new conditions. So, identified regularities in performance of internal regions (NUTS 3) in the EU countries-normal distribution and spatial convergence-have been considered by the authors as safe and sustainable for further development of the whole EU and its countries

Assessing the transport development of the European Union countries

In their previous publication, the authors proposed to assess the transport development of any territory (but mainly the territories of the world’s countries) according to the following three components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory and quality of transport in a territory. The authors assessed three components of the transport development of a territory each separately, including them in further empirical analysis. In the course of the authors’ empirical research, it became necessary to improve the methodology for assessing the transport development of a territory. The purpose of this study is to develop a single tool for measuring the transport development of a territory – an index – and to test it on the example of the European Union countries. Methods used in the study: monographic method, logical analysis and synthesis of the conceptual essence of the phenomenon ‘transport development of a territory’, index method – a quantitative technique for assessing the transport development of a territory based on the minimum and maximum values. The information base of the study is the data of the Global Competitiveness Report, as well as data from GlobalEconomy.com and the World Factbook for the EU countries. As a result of the study, the authors developed a new Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI), which includes not three, but four components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory, efficiency of the transport services in a territory. These four components of the Index developed by the authors differ from the previously proposed components of the transport development of a territory. This difference is determined by the results of study carried out by researchers of the Riga Technical University (RTU), which confirm the importance of transport infrastructure in the use of a territory’s resources, as well as the results of other comparative studies on the transport infrastructure of the EU countries. Thus, the third component (quality of transport in a territory) was divided into two separate components: quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory and efficiency of the transport services in a territory, including additional indicators in the first of them. The authors tested the new Index by assessing the European Union countries and comparing them both in general transport development and separately in its different aspectspublishersversionPeer reviewe

Measuring multidimensional poverty within the resource-based approach: a case study of Latgale region, Latvia

In modern social science, the concept of multidimensional poverty is considered the most progressive approach to measuring poverty in countries of various development levels, including the developed ones. As an indicator of poverty in the EU, the multidimensional index of the risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) is used, which integrates the indicators of income poverty, material deprivation and exclusion from the labour market. The empirical basis for its calculation is the data of the survey “Statistics of income and living conditions in the EU” (EU-SILC), published by the statistical office of the European Union. Within the framework of this article, the authors tried to contribute to the theoretical and methodological basis for studying the issue of multidimensional poverty by measuring and analysing it within the framework of the resource approach using the empirical data collected by the authors in one of the peripheral regions of Latvia - Latgale, which for many years has had the lowest indicators of economic development in the country. The resource-based approach is founded on the following methodological path: resources available for the people and households can be transformed into capital as a result of its activation and capitalization that, in its turn, can give the person socially economic benefit, i.e., a resource becomes a capital. The methodology of this study involves the application of new concepts: the “resource-poor” (few resources) and the “functional-poor” (low capitalization of available resources), as well as the “resource-functional poor”, who, according to the authors, represent different target groups for the social policy, since they fundamentally differ in terms of both the causes of poverty and the approaches to supporting these groups

Resources and capital of different social classes in modern Latvia

Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia within the project “Transformation of Educational Value for Cultural and Economic Growth of Social Community (IzVeTSKKEI)” (Grant number: Izp-2020/1-0178). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Institute of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. All rights reserved.This study aims to analyze the resources and capital of modern Latvia’s social classes located close to the opposite poles of social structure. The article intends to address two research tasks: (1) checking the possibility of identifying social classes in modern Latvia; (2) searching for differences in resources and capital between the identified social classes. The study is based conceptually on the multi-criteria theory of social classes and the conception of ‘ideal types’ as well as on the theory of capital and the innovative resource-based approach. The article presents results of the survey conducted in Latvia (2019, n = 798). Research results show that ‘ideal types’ of the working class and the middle class, identified by two objective (income and education) and one subjective (self-identification) criteria, together form only 9% of modern Latvia’s society. These social classes differ among themselves not so much by the amount of resources as by the amount of capital, meaning that the working class in Latvia is less able to capitalize resources.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Terminology Consistency in Translations of Economic Texts

Maģistra darba “Terminoloģijas konsekvence ekonomikas tekstu tulkojumos” mērķis ir novērtēt terminoloģijas konsekvenci 1990. gadu, 2000. gadu un 2010. gadu ekonomikas mācību grāmatu latviešu un krievu valodā korpusa ietvaros. Empīriskās izpētes rezultāti rāda, ka terminoloģijas konsekvence ekonomikas mācību grāmatās statistiski nozīmīgi palielinājās 2010. gados salīdzinājumā ar 1990. gadiem un 2000. gadiem. Pielietojot lingvistiskās diskursanalīzes metodoloģiju, kas ietver sevī gan kvantitatīvās, gan kvalitatīvās metodes, autore secināja, ka tulkošanas pētījumi spēj noteikt sociālās asimetrijas, pamatojoties uz lingvistiskajām asimetrijām. Ņemot vērā sociāli ekonomisko metamorfožu pieredzi gan pēdējo 30 gadu laikā, gan iepriekšējos periodos, autore uzsver kritiskās domāšanas īpašo nozīmību mūsdienu ekonomikas tekstu veidošanā, tulkošanā un uztverē.The master thesis “Terminology Consistency in Translations of Economic Texts” is aimed to assess terminology consistency within the corpus of Latvian and Russian textbooks on economics of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Results of the empirical research show that terminology consistency in textbooks on economics statistically significantly increased in the 2010s compared to the 1990s and 2000s. Using the methodology of linguistic discourse analysis, which includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, the author concluded that translation studies are able to discern social asymmetries behind linguistic ones. Considering the experience of socio-economic metamorphoses both over the past 30 years and in earlier periods, the author emphasizes the special importance of critical thinking in the creation, translation and perception of modern economic texts