Latvijos Savivaldybių rinkimų palyginimas su kitomis Europos šalimis

Latvijos Savivaldybių rinkimų palyginimas su kitomis Europos šalimis. On 1 June, 2013 local elections in 119 local councils took place in Latvia. The elections of 2013 were first after completion of the administrative territorial reform in Latvia, average voter turnout was 46%, lowest since Independence restoration in Latvia. Just before the elections Minister of Regional Development and Local Government initiated debates over t he structure of councils and put forth a proposal to reduce the number of councillors in local councils. Some small changes in local government elections were made and the issue stays on a political agenda. The paper deals with local government election practices in…

Integrating business start-up indicators in the flexicurity concept to cover the alternative forms of employment

The flexicurity concept created in the Netherlands and Denmark in the early 1990s has become the main stepping-stone in improving the performance of labour markets across the European Union Member States. The European Commission has therefore taken a leading role on broader flexicurity concept development and creation of the data analysis methodology. However, the analysis proposed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on flexicurity indicators in 2010 only partly includes business start-ups as a flexible form of employment. This research starts the discussion on whether additional indicators should be integrated in the flexicurity analysis, because of the rising need for employm…

Homocysteine and MTHFR C677T polymorphism in children and adolescents with psychotic and mood disorders

High level of homocysteine (Hcy) is risk factor of schizophrenia and mood disorders.The aim was to detect a serum level of Hcy, examine the associations between the level of Hcy, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene C677T polymorphism and clinical properties for patients with schizophrenia, mood disorders and in a control group.There were 88 patients with schizophrenia, 28 with affective disorders and 94 from the control group. The Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) was performed to study anxiety, the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) to study depression and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to study severity of schizophrenia. The level of Hcy was stated by isocratic high-pe…

Mobile Phone Data Statistics as Proxy Indicator for Regional Economic Activity Assessment

The mobile data analysis is an authoritative source of information for problems solving in the fields of human activity recognition, population dynamics, tourism, transport planning, traffics measuring, public administration and other activities and could be the source for valuable information as a proxy indicator. One of the obstacles to user data from mobile operators is compliance to the General Data Protection Regulation, so the development of data analytics approach that protects personal data without a necessity to identify mobility of particular persons was developed, that still provides economically relevant data. In the present research, the method for the economic activity assessm…

Assessment of Socio-Economic Status Relevance for Latvian Electoral Participation

In many countries, there is increasing concern about the decrease in the level of electoral participation in all types of elections. The situation in Latvia is not an exception. Despite the fact that the first scientific studies of electoral participation analysis date back to the 1940s–1950s, it is still relevant today to understand and explain the factors that affect the citizen’s choice (not) to participate in elections. The goal of this chapter was to find the factors that influence participation in elections in Latvia, and indirectly how it may affect local government and urban governance processes in the country. Using data from two elections in Latvia—local elections in 2013 and elec…

Mobile phone data statistics as a dynamic proxy indicator in assessing regional economic activity and human commuting patterns

Pattern Identification by Factor Analysis for Regions with Similar Economic Activity Based on Mobile Communication Data

The study analyses the regions’ economic activity in Latvia using Latvia Mobile Telephone (LMT) mobile communication data from July 2015 to January 2017. The call activity and a number of unique phone users by 119 Latvia counties and biggest cities were analysed in two steps: at first method of principal components was used to explain the variance in the data and then exploratory factor analysis was applied. Three factors were identified that describe 87.5% of the total variance of the aggregated daily data. The first factor is related more to the regions with higher economic activity, the second and third factors capture, respectively, lowers call activity during weekdays and are related t…

Returns To Education During And After The Economic Crisis: Evidence From Latvia 2006–2012

We employ EU-SILC micro data for Latvia to study how returns to education changed during the economic crisis of 2008–2009 and afterwards. We found that returns to education increased significantly during the crisis and decreased slightly during the subsequent economic recovery. The counter-cyclical effect was evident in nearly all population groups. After the crisis, education became more associated than before with a longer working week and a higher employment probability. Furthermore, we show that returns to education in Latvia are generally higher in the capital city and its suburbs than outside the capital city region, as well as for citizens of Latvia than for resident non-citizens and…