No abstract

Distance education as one of the new and perspective forms of completing higher education increases in popularity around the world. At the same time, the development of this model of education generates new problems: organization of the study process and information security. Distance learning allows solving a problem of accessibility of higher education in case of social issues, working hours, etc. Therefore, distance education is of major importance in increasing the learning efficiency.The Latvian model of distance education is passing the stage of formation and approbation in the market of educational services. However, the creation of system of distance education should not be the final step for higher education institutions as such; furthermore, this process would not be developed without students. Therefore, the objective of the present research is to find out the opinion of the students on the expediency of distance education. More than 850 students from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia and Belarus have participated in the research.Results of the research have revealed that the traditional form of education based on communication between the lecturer and the student is more demanded among the students. At present, distance learning, unfortunately, cannot be characterised by stable demand. In order to increase the demand for such model of education, public presentations and discussions should be made, and media support is also necessary.

Public projects for regional development are prepared and implemented in order to create social benefits for society of a particular region – to improve living and working conditions and/or to protect the environment. Every investment option should be evaluated and substantiated before the right investment decision is made. The valuation of public projects is complicated due to complexity of valuation of social benefits for the regional society. Expected impact of public project should effectively satisfy society needs. The methods for public projects’ evaluation should be chosen in critical approach. The aim of this methodological research is highlight the main problems of methods used for evaluation of public projects for regional development. This article provides main characteristic of public projects for regional development, reviews the methods used for evaluation of public projects for regional development, presents problematic questions of public projects’ evaluation raised in scientific literature, provides a summary of the main problems of evaluation methods used for regional development public projects.

The article analyses the problems of the determination of the fair value of a multifunctional family farm using the method of discounted cash fl ow, presents a model of determination of the fair value of a multifunctional family farm and tests it for a selected family farm. The specifi city of the cash fl ows in a multifunctional family farm is related to the cash fl ows from fi nancial support, different value drivers of the earnings before interests and tax and their calculation methodology, and the value of created public goods and externalities. Two types of discount rates are used to determine the value of a family farm: marketbased and social discount rate (SDR). It is appropriate to use the SDR to discount the cash fl ow of investment, the economic and social benefi ts whereof are distributed among present and future generations. The stages of the determination of the fair value of a farmer's farm include: value drivers' decomposition; differentiation of cash fl ow and discount rates and measuring value drivers; forecasting cash fl ow and discount rate value drivers; value drivers' composition; determination of the terminal value; and cash fl ow discounting.

The wear resistance and feasibility of applying soil rippers have been studied after surfacing for use in the clayey soil. The study illustrates laboratory and production research of standard and novel (with large grain tungsten carbide) material for manual electric arc surfacing. Hardness and wear resistance in the clayey soil have been determined. Rippers (and the components of soil cultivating machinery yield the least wear by using wear resistant materials and the comprehensive surfacing of tailing and lateral surfaces. It is shown that hard alloy tips of rippers are better suited for clayey soil, which is the toughest to cultivate. The best wear resistance in clayey soil is found in hard alloyed layers of Fe-C-Cr-Si-Mo-Nb-W and Fe-C-Mn-B alloys. The wear rate depends on the depth of cultivation and varies exponentially.

Initiators of public investment projects and representatives of target groups seek to choose the best option ensuring the greatest benefits generated to the public. Measurement of social benefits is complicated due to a multifaceted character and complexity of monetary measures as well as other quantitative and qualitative measures. The issue of social benefits' measurement is controversial and full of criticism. Consequently, discussing it is highly relevant. We propose a model for comprehensive evaluation of social benefits generated by public investment projects. This model allows choosing the best option of a project irrespective of the areas of social environment, initiators and operators, target groups, size of initial investments, locations of implementation, as well as tangibility of investments. This model was tested by employing a method of case study analysis. SAW was applied for combining different social benefit indicators into one comparable indicator and TOPSIS -for determination of general indicator variation values. The model was developed for ex-ante evaluation of social benefits generated by public investment projects. It does not cover financial outcome, operating costs, risk appraisal and issues of determining the social discount rate. JEL classification:H40, H41, H43

This paper contributes to the comprehensive approach for sustainable and balanced development of bioeconomy as a cross-cutting economic sector and focuses on the drivers of Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy. Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy development can be motivated by country’s specialization and, compared with other EU member states, strong performance in terms of recent growth in all biomass production and fully bio-based manufacturing sectors. However, Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy depends not only on the current state and trends of its subsectors, but also on the drivers that will be forcing and shaping them in the future. The authors decomposed these drivers into global, European and national. Using content analysis of the EU, OECD and European countries’ legal acts, global drivers such as depletion of natural resources, growing population, increasing environmental pressures and climate change were identified. Applying content analysis of the EU and European countries’ bioeconomy strategies and analysis of case studies of good practices in European countries and regions, the following drivers at European level were identified: common EU bioeconomy policy, strategy and action plan; assurance of biomass availability and sustainability, as well as efficient biomass value chain; the need to strengthen markets and competitiveness of the bioeconomy subsectors; the necessity of close cooperation among all stakeholders, namely politicians, business people, scientists and the public; the need of the development of new technologies and processes, especially industrial biotechnology. The research revealed that the bioeconomy development in Lithuania has been regulated and promoted through certain sectoral policies: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, environment (including waste management), scientific research, innovation and biotechnology development. In the future, the cross-sectoral links and interactions in the Lithuanian bioeconomy will increase due to the scarce biomass, applying the cascading principle in the biomass refinement, transition towards circular economy, and the development and implementation of innovations.

This article examines comovements between stock and government bond markets in the EU countries. Previous authors mostly indicated significant highly volatile comovements between the markets. In addition, it was proven in several markets that in times of