Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The discussion about the impact of financial development on economic growth is still relevant for economists. However, in recent years, after the financial crises of the first decade of the 21st century, there has arisen certain scepticism about the positive impact of the growing financial sector on economic growth rates. Moreover, specific cases of negative consequences of such a connection or its absence have become known. The 2008-2010 crises, certainly, played an important role in rethinking the nature of the impact of the financial sector on the real sector in the economy, which led to new arguments in favour of a relatively more cautious approach to stimulating the financial sector, given the potential negative effects on the country’s socio-economic security. The aim of the research is to determine the nature of the relationship between financial development and economic growth and its direction in Latvia in the period 1995–2017.

The article discusses the problems of state regulation of tariffs for gas transportation services through gas distribution networks, which minimize losses and the need to create reasonable verifiable principles for establishing tariffs. The absence in the spheres of natural monopolies of effective competitive mechanisms poses a challenge for the state to create a special system for regulating their activities, which includes legal and organizational components. In each industry where natural monopolies operate, there are some pricing features that are reflected in the legal regulation. This article focuses on the structure of contractual relations in the field of gas supply during the transportation and sale of gas, which allows you to clearly demonstrate the reflection of the regulatory framework reflecting the state’s requirements to keep a separate record of products (services) and costs of its production by an organization engaged in the extraction, transportation and sale of natural gas.

The relevance of this article is based on the aim to fulfil the lack of understanding of public perception on nuclear energy in Lithuania. The results of the empirical survey (public poll carried out in 2013) are used to explain the public perception of nuclear energy and its contextual aspects (safety, economic benefit, possible new challenges, personal knowledge). To show the distribution of the attitude among the public cluster analysis was performed through which respondents were divided into two groups. The 1st cluster represents that part of the public which is well educated, actively working and actively contributing to the state economy. Meanwhile the 2nd is less educated, less active economically and more dependent on social security programs part of the public. The cluster analysis reveals small, but statistically significant differences in attitude between the clusters.

The concept of national security is defined as purposeful action, which is subdued to the interests of state wellbeing and inner order. State agencies and organizations are granted the rights to fulfill such kind of activities. At the same time the definition of national safety does not involve quality of life of state’s inhabitants, environment protection interests and stability of political processes in the state. The idea of national security is overlooked only from the military force alert’s view not taking into account such social phenomena as crime level in the country. The concept of national safety of Latvia is researched through the economic and demographic processes making final conclusions based on statistics.

This paper is devoted to tracing contemporary perceptions of energy security. Energy security, as a concept started its evolution from a point, where it was identified with secure oil provision for countries, which did not possess energetic resources and were increasingly dependent on oil imports. Gradually, the concept of energy security started to be repeatedly used in the scientific papers, popular press and media and even colloquial language. Energy security has become an argument in making political decisions. Nevertheless, despite the exaggerated attention to energy security, still there is no unanimous agreement on what the concept of energy security means, what facets it embraces and, consequently, how it could be measured and controlled. The paper aims to distinguish the main perceptions of energy security and foresee plausible implications of one or another approach adopted.