Vilma Deltuvaitė

Investigation of Relationship between Financial and Economic Development in the EU Countries

Abstract The relationship between financial and economic development in the EU countries was investigated in this article. Summarizing the results of this study it can be stated that a positive statistically significant monotonic relationship between economic and financial development in the EU countries exists. However, the analysis results on the relationship between financial and economic development in different clusters of EU countries are mixed and there is no clear consensus on the relation between financial and economic development in different clusters.

Investigation of Stock Market Integration in the Baltic Countries

Abstract Recent rapid development of the Baltic stock markets raises the question about stock market integration level in these countries. Some empirical aspects of the Baltic stock market integration have been analysed in the scientific literature, however, a comprehensive analysis on the Baltic stock market integration level is still missing. The aim of the paper is to assess the regional integration level of the Baltic stock markets. The research object is stock markets in the Baltic countries. The following research and statistical methods have been applied in this study: the systemic and comparative analysis of the scientific literature, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, dynamic conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model, Granger causality test, generalized impulse response analysis, Johansen cointegration test, autoregressive distributed lag model and error correction model. The main findings of this empirical study are (a) all three Baltic stock markets are closely related markets, (b) however, the Latvian stock market is more isolated at the regional level comparing to other two Baltic stock markets (c) whereas Estonian and Lithuanian stock markets are more interrelated.

CEECs’ Financial Integration: Global or Regional? Evidence from Sovereign Bond Markets☆

Abstract This paper investigates the degree of global versus regional financial integration in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs’) sovereign bond markets during the period 2000–2015. We examine global and regional integration in the sovereign bond markets in CEECs’ by employing the Johansen cointegration test. Summarizing the results of this empirical study it can be stated that the level of global and regional integration of the CEECs’ sovereign bond markets is very low while the most interrelated are CEECs’ sovereign bond markets and the strongest interrelation of sovereign bond markets is observed among countries those are economic related and within CEECs’ group.

Investigation of Global Integration of the Central and Eastern European Countries Sovereign Bond Markets

Abstract The global integration of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs’) sovereign bond markets was investigated in this paper. Summarizing the results of this study it can be stated that the global and regional integration of the CEECs sovereign bond markets is stronger in terms of sovereign bond CDS spreads volatilities comparing the sovereign bond CDS spreads changes and regional integration of CEECs bond markets is higher than global integration.

Are the Central and Eastern European Countries More Vulnerability to the External Shocks

Due to the higher degree of economic openness, the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) are more exposed to the external shocks that can be transmitted through international trade channel. The CEECs are one of the most open economies worldwide those have undergone different types of shocks and structural changes during the last two decades. This raise a question: are the CEECs more sensitive to the external shocks compared to most developed countries worldwide? The main findings are that the CEECs with higher share of final domestic consumption and export are more vulnerable to the domestic and global shocks. The CEECs with higher share of gross value added by agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing, manufacturing, wholesale, retail trade, restaurants and hotels, transport, storage, and communications are more sensitive to different shocks, while these economic activities are focused on domestic market. Higher concentration and diversification of import portfolio of the CEECs affect higher volatility of real GDP. In other words, in the CEECs where import is concentrated on several products and similarity of the import structure between a given CEEC and the rest of the world is lower, volatility of real GDP is higher. In conclusion, the empirical results provide substantial evidence that the CEECs are more vulnerability to the domestic and external shocks.

Shocks Transmission Through Real Channel: The Case of the Central and Eastern European Countries

While the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) are among the world’s most open economies, this group of countries is very vulnerable to the external shocks that can be transmitted through real channel. Besides, most of the scientists focus on the transmission of shocks to the real economy in the USA, China, and other largest world economies. For this reason this empirical study focuses on macroeconomic shocks transmission through real channel in the CEECs countries. The empirical results show a strong effect of real GDP shock in main export partners on the real GDP in the CEECs countries and this effect is almost the same strong as the GDP shock in the domestic countries. The empirical results suggest that real exports flows of the CEECs react to the external shocks in the main export countries stronger compared to GDP. The empirical results confirm that the CEECs are very sensitive to shocks in main export partners; however, the effect is not very long lasting suggesting that CEECs adjust to the external macroeconomic changes.

Competitiveness Creation and Maintenance Experience in Lithuania and Foreign Countries

The analysis of the competitiveness experience in Lithuania and foreign countries has been performed focusing on four main directions of such analysis (see Fig. 6.1). The analysis of the competitiveness experience in foreign countries will reveal the common global trends and solutions of competitiveness creation and maintenance as well as competitiveness improvement solutions in global postal sector. The analysis of the competitiveness experience in Lithuania will disclose the common trends of competitiveness creation and maintenance and postal service competitiveness creation and maintenance in the country.

Concept of Competitiveness and Methodological Principles of Competition Assessment

Recently due to the competition, which is getting more intense in the regional markets and in the global market as well, the concept of competitiveness has attracted special attention of scientists and economists. The concept of competitiveness is used in the political and scientific societies; that is why it gets a lot of meanings. Let us have a look at the variations of the concept of competitiveness throughout the history. For example, such famous representatives of the theory of classical economics as Smith and Ricardo define competitiveness as the use of competitive advantages for the purpose to increase the capacity of production, which is different subject to the country or the branch of the production due to the different technologies, which are used in the production, work-sharing and specialisation. Smith in his theory of absolute advantage emphasised that the production with the lowest expenditures provides competitive advantages in international trade. According to Smith the level of the development of the countries’ economies and the differences in capacity depend on work-sharing and the benefit, which is provided due to specialisation, i.e. the investments in the capital (developing of machinery) and trade (expansion of the markets) determine the specialisation of the countries, capacity and growth in production. Due to growing production the labour becomes more specialised, which stimulates the more intensive growth in production in the country. Smith maintained that if a country can produce the same amount of the product with the lower expenditures (the labour), it has the competitive advantage compared with another country; that is why the first country exports the products and the second country imports. So, the appearance of international trade is caused by the differences in the capacities of the production. Ricardo maintained that the countries can get the profit from international trade if they specialise in the production, where they have competitive advantages (the output of the employees and others).

Competition in Postal, Courier and Financial Services Industries

Postal services, i.e. the clearance, sorting, transportation and delivery of postal items, still remain an important part of the country’s economic and social development. In addition to being some of the oldest and most widespread means of communication, they are also rapidly and extensively changing services. The postal services sector covers several change drivers. Changing demand, i.e. the declining demand for letter-post items, the growing demand for postal parcels; organisational changes, automation and new technologies; and the increasing use of electronic means, is considered the most significant change driver in the postal services sector. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned changes, new postal services are constantly being developed both internationally and nationally.

Legal Regulation of Competition in Postal, Courier and Financial Services Industries

Postal services, as services of general economic interest, continue to have a central role in an effective and dynamic single European market and are vital to the wider economy. However, the role of postal services has changed as electronic communication services change traditional patterns of communication and business across Europe.