Ekonomika

The aim of this paper is to discuss existing consumption culture approaches and to analyse various consumption patterns determined by national, ethnic and religious differences. The current consumer culture is usually approached from two major positions: consumption homogeneity and consumption heterogeneity. Although globalisation has penetrated a number of areas in the modern world, one can see that consumption patterns have not become universal. The differences exist not just among the countries, but in some cases even within countries. The migration and population trends make these differences even higher. Even though the tendency of using the same products could be noticed all over the world, the reasons for consumption are different due to various national, religious or ethnical values. Paper type: general review.

Consumption culture in the presence of globalisation: the influence of religion, nation and ethnicity on consumption patterns  1.02 MB

Jau parsisiuntė: 19

Evaluation of investment projects is a complex multilateral process which also entails a great responsibility as its results form a basis for adopting investment decisions. These decisions, to a large extent, depend on the reliability and justification of the evaluation results: therefore, the process must be based on clear logic, acceptable assumptions and the duly selected methods that have been tested in practice. The paper contains an overview of the main principles of investment projects’ evaluation and a detailed analysis of the main requirements for the model architecture and its evaluation process.
The authors propose a model for evaluating the economic efficiency of investment projects that has been described in detail and tested in practice. The model consists of a coherent evaluation scheme made of three phases and detailed algorithms of internal procedures. Such an architecture of the model enables a comprehensive analysis of investment projects of different types and a validation of the objectivity of evaluation results.

Model for Evaluating the Economic Efficiency of Investment Projects: Architecture and Main Aspects of Application.  1.93 MB

Jau parsisiuntė: 25

The present paper addresses the issue of the interaction of a range of macroeconomic indices upon the liquidity of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian capital markets, and includes a survey of the factors having an effect upon the processes. The analysis of the liquidity in the markets concerned in the period from 2001 to 2010 was performed with reference to indicators based on trading volumes in these markets. The correlation analysis performed for the purpose of the present paper showed that changes in a number of macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, unemployment levels, trade and service balance, also the FDI flows, produced the most tangible impact upon the liquidity of the Baltic capital markets.

Ona Norkaitytė. The impact of macroeconomic indices upon the liquidity of the Baltic capital markets  1.21 MB

Jau parsisiuntė: 20

This article deals with the influence of the international financial crisis on the Lithuanian interbank market interest rates. Specifically, VILIBOR–EURIBOR spread dynamics over the period from the beginning of 2005 until the end of 2010 is analysed. The objective of the study was to estimate and describe the main factors affecting the VILIBOR spread. Methods used in the study include a systemic analysis of related studies, historical data analysis and statistical testing.
Several episodes of increased market volatility could be clearly identified during the period, under study and the volatility of the data series as well as changes in their statistical properties and interdependence make the statistical analysis of the relationship very complicated. Statistically robust results could be achieved only after introducing several restrictions. The EURIBOR, RIGIBOR and Lithuanian CDS indexes have been found to explain more than 40 percent of the largest VILIBOR spread changes.

The VILIBOR–EURIBOR spread dynamics during the recent financial crisis  1.29 MB

Jau parsisiuntė: 38

The article examines price setting in Lithuania, based on the ad hoc survey “On Price and Wage Setting” of the Bank of Lithuania. The study extends the survey data analysis presented in Virbickas (2009). The article points to the incidence of both time-dependent and state-dependent price reviewing policies used by the firms under study, though the price reviewing practices appear to be somewhat tilted to the state-dependent pricing. Analysis provides evidence on the reasons for the upward and downward stickiness of prices. Delayed price adjustment is found to be related to the price adjustment rather than the price reviewing stage. The most momentous explanations for not adjusting prices upwards or downwards rest on the cost-based pricing and the explicit contracts. The study finds an asymmetric influence of some of the price factors. In particular, the cost factors are found to be decisive in invoking a price increase rather than a price decrease.

Price setting in Lithuania: more evidence from the survey of firms  1.19 MB

Jau parsisiuntė: 19

Macroeconomic theory says that taxes play a repressing role in an economy. Introduction of new forms of taxation, the increase of tax rates and augmentation of tax income of the Government puts a downturn risk on consumption and therefore on economic growth. Knowing that, governments of different countries start to competing among themselves by lowering corporate tax rates and trying to boost economic growth by using foreign investments. On the other hand governments are pushed to lower personal tax rates in order to satisfy their electorate. It has been strongly believed that countries with lower tax rates have better prospects for the future growth. However, small tax income is limiting governmental spending and might cause serious imbalances in the economy. As the Irish example shows, smaller taxes cannot guarantee a sustainable growth of the economy. Thus, the relationship between taxation and economic development needs rethinking.
This study aimed to test the efficiency of taxation in terms of sustainable economic development and to discuss the factors that are the most important here.
A comparative analysis of EU countries was used in the research. The results suggest that the harmfully small tax rates could have violated the sustainability of some European economies.

Taxation and economic sustainability  849.48 KB

Jau parsisiuntė: 22

The growth of the modern knowledge-based economy is becoming less dependent on tangible assets and, respectively, hinges more on the intangibles which are defined as human capital (HC). Despite the great number of scientific works dedicated to the HC phenomenon, the interest in this field had its “ups and downs” which caused changes not only in the notional concept itself, but also in the approach to its importance in value creation by measuring the returns of its investments. The purpose of the article is to analyse the evolution of these approaches. The nature of the article is both theoretical and analytical; it is based on quite an abundant list of scientific publications by Lithuanian and foreign authors. Adequate research methods were used in the study, such as a systematic analysis of scientific literature, logical comparative analysis and generalization. The originality of the study is ingrained in the fact that it reveals changes in the concept of human capital since its rise in the late 1960s until the most recent ideas which were formed and are still under development in the 2010s.

The role of human capital in value creation: theoretical insights  585.49 KB

Jau parsisiuntė: 20

The experience gained during the transition decade and five years of the EU membership by Lithuania could be an insightful contribution to an economic policy debate on managing the transition period driven by the global rebalancing of supply and demand.
The purpose of the paper is to define the growth enhancing policy measures that have proven efficient during the transition reform period and could be relevant under the new global setting.
Findings. Regulated markets set better conditions for the growth of economy than do self-regulated markets, while the most important problem of economic strategy is to evaluate the degree of impact of each determinant on growth and to set their combination favourable for a long-term growth. The growth-enhancing public policy should be aimed to increase the total factor productivity and to ensure competitiveness in global markets.
Policy makers have to focus on facilitating an environment conducive to establishing new SMEs in new sectors of economy, instead of focusing on restructuring the old sectors. Restructuring some loss-making industries takes some time, but the efficiency of investments could be ensured if cost reduction is prioritized and leads to an increase in the total factor productivity.

Transition towards New Global Setting in Lithuania  711.04 KB

Jau parsisiuntė: 19

The gist of this article is the idea that the orthodox theory of economic crisis unduly reduces its subject to business crisis and that it is the outcome of the narrowness and limitedness of the individualistic economic approach to the problem, employed mostly by neoliberals and libertarians. As individualists (the individualistic camp) explicitly or implicitly identify economy with market, their perception of an economic crisis is reduced to business crisis, crisis of the production of private goods. However, the concept of economy is broader than that of the market; thus, an economic crisis cannot be reduced to a business crisis. In addition, the theory of economic crisis could be enriched by the concept of anti-economy, which does not fit the individualistic economic paradigm. Therefore, a correction of the theory of economic crisis is needed, and this correction should be done in a holistic cognitive framework. Holism opens the possibility (which doesn’t automatically guarantee cognitive success) to look at the economic crisis through a wider lens, to perceive it as a whole. The shift from individualistic reductionism to holism allows us to see a correlation between cognitive crisis and crisis in real economy, and to introduce the concept of systemic crisis.

Antieconomy, Economy Crisis and Crisis of Economics  492.85 KB

Jau parsisiuntė: 29

It was long before the current economic crisis has triggered a new wave of criticism towards the very foundation of capitalism – the market system, that a discontent with deepening divergence between the pure economic theory and the agenda the economic policy has been dealing with was proliferating. Aattempts of refining the paradigm or its replacement with a new one were undertaken. The objective of the study was to review the main failures and incapacities the neoclassical economic theory is experiencing and to identify the possible trait components most appealing for modification and refining. The vast and unstoppable waste of resources (labour, but not only) by the modern market system, negation of the permanent and necessary presence of state in the economy as an integral economic agent, distortion of goals of economic activity by limiting them by the quantitative maximization of produce – these are the main traits of failure of the current theoretical model in satisfying requirements for a better understanding of modern economy. They are also the arguments for the criticism of its paradigm.
The analytical method was used to penetrate the current discussion and other data in order to disclose the paradigmatic content of the theoretical perception of modern economy. The results of the whole study are new in terms of the fulfilled attempt to systemize criticisms of market system failures and to point out the possible components of its paradigm, which pretend to be modified. The conclusion is drawn that the paradigm of mainstream economics has no alternatives, but the growing mismatch between the realities of modern economic life and presumptions and the conclusions of the neoclassical model of economy asks for its revision or modification.

Is there a perspective for a new paradigm in economics?  325.02 KB

Jau parsisiuntė: 18