All the employees face the challenge of finding the right work–life balance. The ability of employees to deal with the successful combining of work, family responsibilities, and personal life is crucial for both employers and family members of employees. During the COVID-19 emergency situation, many people around the world were forced to work remotely. Initially, there were observed some certain expectations about the possibility of working from home as a positive factor that will promote work–life balance. However, over time, negative tendencies were also revealed, as employees were only one call or message away from the employer, and uncertainty and leisure time with family often created more stress. As many organizations and individuals were not ready for this sudden change, many mistakes were made, which further raised the issue of work–life balance. The aim of the research was to evaluate the flexibility of reconciling work and private life of Latvian employees in various socio-demographic groups during the COVID-19 emergency situation in spring 2020, to investigate how family life influenced employees’ ability to perform work duties, to find out if employees had any additional housework responsibilities and how their workload changed concerning housework amount during the COVID-19 emergency situation. The research is based on the data obtained in the survey of the Latvian employed population, which was conducted within the framework of the Latvian National Research Programme Project “CoLife” in the second half of 2020. As a result, the hypothesis of the research that all groups of employees experienced work–life balance difficulties during the COVID-19 emergency situation has been partially confirmed, i.e., women in the 18–44 age group and respondents with minor children in the household more likely faced difficulties of work–life balance. The scientific research methods that were used in the research are the monographic method, content analysis, survey, data processing with SPSS to determine the mutual independence of the data from the questionnaires.

The issue of attracting investments is one of the key issues in modern society. The global experience shows that sustainable economic development and growth are determined by the volume and structure of investments. Therefore, the study into the investment environment where the investment activity happens -the investment climate, is becoming increasingly relevant. The prerequisites for the study into the investment climate have been formed since the Keynesian economic theory; studies into the investment climate have become widely spread in modern economic theories. Starting with the Keynesian economic theory and until modern theories of investments, the factors that influence the investment climate can be divided into two groups: investment potential and investment security of the region. According to the outcomes of the

The aim of the article is to study safety and sustainability of differentiation of performance of internal regions (NUTS 3) in the EU countries measured by the Sub-national Human Development Index (SHDI). The authors examine differentiation of the SHDI of internal regions in the EU countries by means of correspondence of distribution of this indicator [SHDI] of regional performance to Gauss curve, as well as by analyzing the SHDI of internal regions in the EU countries with the help of the coefficient of variation. As follows from the research, the authors proved that differentiation of regional performance in the EU over the last three decades were not chaotic but they were subjected to certain regularities: the distribution of performance of internal regions is normal, with metropolitan areas almost always being leaders of regional performance; regional differences in the area that is now the EU were increasing during the collapse of the Eastern European Socialist Bloc in the early 1990s, and they were declining later, as the regions adapted to the new conditions. So, identified regularities in performance of internal regions (NUTS 3) in the EU countriesnormal distribution and spatial convergencehave been considered by the authors as safe and sustainable for further development of the whole EU and its countries.

No abstract