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An analysis has been made of the dynamics of Bulgaria’s foreign trade exchange of commodities for the period 1988 -2006. Based on this analysis, assessments and estimations have been made in regards to:- Bulgaria’s foreign trade exchange of commodities, both in total and by regional communities and countries;- The lost markets dating back of some 4o years history due to Bulgaria’s membership in COMECON;- The results of the free trade agreements after 1992;- The effectiveness of the Bulgarian export structure.Following presented assessments and estimations, conclusions are being drown on the substantial causes for the condition of the foreign trade exchange of commodities in the regarded period and some recommendations are made as well.
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The main aim of the paper is to analyse the structural dynamics in the EU economy. It is based on one macroeconomic variable – GDP, calculated using the methodology employed by the World Bank. The research covers the years 1995–2014. The 28 member states that belonged to the EU at the end of the period are treated as the structural elements of the European economy. A new measure for decomposing structural changes is used in the analysis. It takes into account changes in the values of the structural components, which is called the „size” of the structure (as opposed to „shape”, which concerns only the share of components). The decomposition measure makes it possible to evaluate changes in the importance of individual countries in the European economy, and the sign of a measure shows whether an increase or decrease has been observed. The sum of absolute values of decomposition measure comes out to one for each pair of time units compared. GDP grew – more or less – in all of the countries during the period analysed, but the rates of growth differed (by country and time period), which produced changes in its structure.
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Motivation: The current legal regulations in United States of America and corporate governance stands in the name of such values as freedom and profit. Unfortunately, as presented in the article it is only freedom and profit for corporations.Aim: The primary purpose of the article is to present what role is played by rationalizations and dispositions in the process of law formation and interpretations on the basis of examples from the corporate law of United States of America. Such rationalizations and our particular dispositions allow corporations to function without much control.Results: The starting point of the article concerns the environmental disaster that happened at the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and was caused by the actions of British Petroleum, a company basing its code of conduct on values such as freedom and profit. Such values understood in one particular way, which help to profit the corporations such as British Petroleum, are the basis for rationalizations and dispositions supporting particular corporate decisions. What is more corporate law legitimizes and supports such rationalizations and strengthens mentioned dispositions by fallowing and reproducing them in court decisions.
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The principal function of integrated reporting is the reporting of value and this phenomenon seems the most philosophical part of the International <IR> Framework. This paper discusses what the value concept refers to in the Framework: Value to investors, value to society or value to present and future generations? In this sense, we try to answer this question by highlighting the dynamics of capital formations according to interrelations between capitals and demonstrating the value creation process in the short, medium, and longer term. We show that (1) „profit” is the result of short term value creation, which indicates the „value to value chain stakeholders”, (2) „expected fair value of equity” represents the „value to investors” and (3) „longer term value” represents the „value to society” according to the International <IR> Framework. Additionally, we touch on the inadequacies of the current Framework and suggest future research opportunities within the scope of value creation reporting. To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide a detailed framework on the dynamics of capitals usage and it attempts to show the intersection of accounting and finance in terms of value creation reporting.
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The need for a new industrial policy is felt both at European and Bulgarian level. Recent theory recommends that such policy should follow “soft” and horizontal measures that enhance collaboration between government, industry and cluster-level private organizations and focus on creating a competitive environment. This understanding is contrary to old-fashioned industrial policy involving subsidies to specific sectors, bail-out of uncompetitive firms and sectors, tariff and non-tariff barriers aiming at import substitution. This article analyzes the degree at which Bulgaria is prepared to implement the new industrial policy and in particular, how the country might fit into a common European policy. The analysis and data provided point to the fact that there is a misunderstanding of the “soft” and horizontal measures, distorting the concept of a new industrial policy. The arguments in the paper also suggest that in sectors defined as priorities in Europe, our country considerably lags behind, therefore, Bulgaria is at a lower stage of preparedness for implementation of a “new” industrial policy as a whole.
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The paper deals with the relevance of teaching economics in post-communist Bulgaria. The period of development of Bulgaria since 1990 is divided by the author into two sub periods. The author argues that during the first one – the transition from plan to market, the teaching of economics in Bulgaria lacked relevance, because the transition economy is different from the market economy. During the second period – the post transition, the problem about the relevance of university economics courses appears again, as a result of some shortcomings of modern economics. The criticism of economics and of teaching economics in the light of the last global crisis is revealed. A conclusion is made, that at present a process of reform of the economics curriculum has started worldwide and Bulgarian teachers need to be an active part of it.
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The need for a new industrial policy is felt both at European and Bulgarian level. Recent theory recommends that such policy should follow “soft” and horizontal measures that enhance collaboration between government, industry and cluster-level private organizations and focus on creating a competitive environment. This understanding is contrary to old-fashioned industrial policy involving subsidies to specific sectors, bail-out of uncompetitive firms and sectors, tariff and non-tariff barriers aiming at import substitution. This article analyzes the degree at which Bulgaria is prepared to implement the new industrial policy and in particular, how the country might fit into a common European policy. The analysis and data provided point to the fact that there is a misunderstanding of the “soft” and horizontal measures, distorting the concept of a new industrial policy. The arguments in the paper also suggest that in sectors defined as priorities in Europe, our country considerably lags behind, therefore, Bulgaria is at a lower stage of preparedness for implementation of a “new” industrial policy as a whole.
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Research background: Geographical proximity, common historical roots and collaboration within the Nordic Council cause the Nordic countries to be often wrongly treated as monoliths. However, in reality, Nordic regions differ in terms of broadly defined social and economic development. Issues concerning the standard of living are one of the priorities of the Helsinki Treaty signed by Nordic countries. Purpose of the article: The main goal of this paper is to analyze the existence of the social convergence in the Nordic NUTS-3 regions over the 2000-2015 period. The social convergence refers to a reduction in the dispersion of the standard of living across regions. The results of this analysis may be helpful in evaluating the efficiency of the activities under third and fourth Nordic Strategy for Sustainable Development. Methods: The spatial taxonomic measure of development proposed by Pietrzak was used as the standard of living approximation. Inclusion of spatial relationships in the construction of taxonomic measure of development is justified as regions are not isolated in space and can be affected by other units. The existence of beta-, sigma- and gamma convergence was tested for global spatial aggregate measure and as well for sub-groups of determinants forming the standard of living. Findings & Value added: The analysis showed that the regions with the highest standard of living are those situated on the west coast of Norway. Regions with the lowest standard of living were the ones located in central Finland. However, the most important part of this research was to investigate the existence of beta-, sigma- and gamma- social convergence. The results show that there is no convergence for global standard of living measure. However, the convergence occurs in groups of determinants of education and health care.
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Research background: A literature review on innovativeness and institutions pointing to their correlation and the possibility of their joint examination. Purpose of the article: This paper attempts to devise a measurement method for a creative economy, where as a result of feedback between institutions, human capital and technology conditions facilitating the development of creativity are created. Methods: An empirical meta-analysis of indicators characterising innovativeness and institutional environment was carried out, following the hypothesis that at least in part they contain common information on creative economy. Findings & Value added: The new synthetic index, a creative economy index (CEI), was constructed. The study was conducted for a group of 34 economies of the European Union and its associated states for the period of 2005–2014.
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The roles of market interest rates in consumption smoothing have been fairly examined; their effects on consumption volatility however in various country groups have received limited attention. This study aims to estimate the effects of these rates on consumption volatility based on data from developed and developing country samples. The General Method of Moments (GMM) and the Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimation techniques employed, due to the endogeneity property of the specified model, yield interesting results. Lending rates reduced consumption volatility in developed countries while saving rates did not worsen it. The rates had no effect in developing countries and mixed effects in the whole sample. The rates are relatively lower in developed countries and this partially explains why consumption volatility is lower in developed economies than in developing counterparts. As a result, the developing countries need to implement policies to reduce interest rates as a means of reducing consumption volatility and thus enhance consumption smoothing and maximise their welfare.
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The aim of the paper is to present challenges generated by globalization in modern supply chains. First, authors point to the fact that, today, companies cannot successfully fulfill the requirements of customers and increase global competitiveness without establishing close relationships with key suppliers and without better coordination of internal and external flows of materials. Then, the focus shifts to the importance of harmonizing relations with suppliers and distributors to increase the company’s supply chain resilience to global environmental impacts. The final part presents responsibility of production managers, procurement managers, and other professionals to implement strategies that would enable the development of flexible and cost-efficient supply chains, more resistant to environmental changes.
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The article focuses on an increasing importance of economic history as a part of general methodology used by economists in their efforts to understand a more and more instable global economy. It shortly reviews both the evolution of economy and economic history as disciplines with their own identities and then looks at different theoretical approaches to methodological debate between supporters of cliometrics or „New Economic History” and advocates of more traditional schools of economy and, it also attempts to identify a few errors of neoclassical economics. The discussion starts from the idea that economists require, at least, a basic knowledge of economic history as it contributes to a better understanding of the context under which the contemporary economic transformations and events take place.
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The article examines the aggregate results of the innovation activity in the economy of Bulgaria. Innovation has become the cornerstone of modern economy, reflecting the increasing importance of technology in the production function, and playing an important role in developing competitive advantages of the national economy. In this article, the aggregate innovation performance of the Bulgarian economy is evaluated, based on expert international reports and analyses. To determine some of the causes for the unsatisfactory performance, a structural analysis of the expenditure on research and development activities aims to determine certain specifics of the Bulgarian model.
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Since the beginning of 1990s there has been observed the practice of adopting a system of international economic indexes, by means of which there is made an attempt at the comprehensive measurement of a number of major characteristics of the market development of individual countries. In the study there is made an attempt at outlining and analyzing the steady practice of the last two decades of development and affirmation of the system of global economic indexes as an objective foundation for the assessment of the competitiveness of the individual market economies and their market advantages. There is advanced the proposition that the global indexes are an objective and reliable indicator of the complex valuation of the dynamics and efficiency of the present-day market economies and that the national policy ought to take into consideration the positioningof the respective country and the changes which occur in it with the passage of time. The analysis is done on the basis of four indexes selected by the author - the global competitiveness index, the human development index, the index of economic freedom and the corruption perceptions index, which - in view of their high rate of aggregation and comprehensiveness - can be identified as basic for the system. The emphasis of the analysis falls on the positioning - both of the developed market economies, occupying the leading positions in the global rankings, and of the group of transitional market economies - part of which is also the Bulgarian economy.
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This paper aims to identify the significant determinants of income inequality in developed and developing countries. The empirical analysis of the panel of 147 countries over the period from 1980 to 2010 shows that for developed countries, the significant determinant of income inequality is public spending on education, and for developing countries, the significant determinants are public spending on education, affordability of financial resources, and infrastructural development. Furthermore, no significant evidence supporting the existence of Kuznets’ curve is found.
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In the study there is offered an approach to the comprehensive analysis of the positions of EU member states on the leading goals and generalized priorities of the strategy Europe 2020. It is approbated with the help of data on the indicators of common European growth in the opening year of the strategy - 2010. On the basis of a specially developed structural scheme of priorities, the goals and indicators of the strategy and of the used generalizing measurements of its individual aggregation levels, there is carried out a comprehensive analysis of the positions of countries at the start of Europe 2020. There are formulated generalizing conclusions on how much individual countries contribute to the formation on the basis of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the EU, which of them are leading and which ones are lagging far behind on the path to the realization of European strategic priorities.
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All-pervasive internationalisation and globalisation are especially manifested in small open national economies such as Croatia. Upon joining the European Union, Croatian economy will integrate even more strongly with other business entities in the common market. This is why Croatian economy does not have an alternative that could substitute exports, i.e., sale of goods and services in the international market required for successful growth. The purpose of this paper is to analyse trends and features of the international trade in goods of the Republic of Croatia in the period 2001 - 2011. The results of the analysis indicate that export of goods has a very small positive influence on GDP growth in the Republic of Croatia when compared to selected surrounding countries. The paper examines, interalia, the scale of international trade in goods, import dependency, export growth potential, as well as the extent of openness towards and involvement of the Republic of Croatia in the international trade in goods. The results lead to the conclusion that to facilitate growth and development of Croatian economy, from the viewpoint of international economy, it is important to develop an industrial policy at the national level which would enable efficient increase in industrial goods exports thus covering the dominant imports by exports. The paper highlights the need for a thorough change in the national economic strategy as well as the need to develop an export-oriented national economy through involvement in European and global economic trends.
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The underlying assumption of this paper is the need for and growing importance of internationalisation and globalisation of the retail trade. As a matter of fact, the internationalisation of the retail trade is becoming more and more important for economic development due to the growing importance of retail trade in vertical marketing systems and entire value chains. This is a new approach to the analysis of the role of retail trade in international management and economic development. Considering the trend of expansion of retail trade chains into other countries, the question arises how retail trade can affect economic development of countries to which these chains are spreading. This is an interesting question especially to the Republic of Croatia and other transition countries.
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Objective: The objective of this paper is to present differences in Poland’s bilateral trade balances in gross terms and in value added terms in 1995-2011, as well as an explanation of such differences.Research Design & Methods: It was decided to explain why Poland’s bilateral trade balances in gross terms and value added terms differ. The calculations were made using the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), based on the input-output approach.Findings: In the years 1995-2011, Poland’s trade with the majority of the countries was characterised by widening gaps between balances in gross terms and those in VA terms. The decomposition of bilateral trade balances by VA content demonstrated that the differences in the value of trade balances in gross terms and in VA terms had been mostly determined by two components: ‘multilateral VA net exports to third countries via partner’ and ‘foreign VA in net exports from other countries than partner’.Implications & Recommendations: To appraise benefits from Poland’s bilateral trade better it is recommended to use the decomposition of trade balances by value added content.Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in the decomposition of Poland’s bilateral trade balances by value added content. Such a decomposition allows to identify factors driving Poland’s bilateral net exports.
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