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V. Hadzhiev
Asymmetric Specialisation of Exports in a Liberal International Trade Environment
Summary:
Asymmetric specialisation in exports is a common feature of modern liberal trade. It is expressed by the fact that most countries export mainly raw materials and low-processed products and a small number of countries export highly processed products. The purpose of this article is to prove that asymmetric specialisation in exports did not change significantly during the operating period of the WTO by ap¬plying hierarchical cluster analysis.
The analysis found that, from 1995 to 2011, asymmetric specialisation in exports did not change substantially. It was concluded that, for both these specific years, a large group of countries fell into the first cluster (76% and 74% respectively of the total number of countries). The rest of them were evenly distributed in neighbouring clusters. It was also found that countries from the first cluster have mainly specialised in the export of raw materials and low-processed products. Based on the results, it can be concluded that asymmetric specialisation in exports is a chronic, long-term problem of liberal international trade.
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Radko Radkov, Andrey Zahariev
The Currency Board in Bulgaria: Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Results
Summary:
Via this article the authors would like to discuss the idea of the inter-section point of theoretical reflections and reported empirical results referring to the currency board in Bulgaria. To achieve the goal defined the article is structured in the following separate sections: first, clarification of the concept of a currency board in light of leading theoretical research; second, critical analysis and evaluation of the characteristics of the currency board in Bulgaria; third, justification of the authors’ answer regarding the end of the currency board in Bulgaria and its replacement with another system; fourth, econometric analysis and assessment of foreign trade sector influence on the GDP in Bulgaria under the conditions of a fixed currency exchange rate and a high percentage of foreign trade of goods and services in the structure of the GDP; fifth, a study of the currency boards influence on the economic convergence of Bulgaria in comparison with leading EU economies for the period 1998 – 2012. For the authors, Bulgaria’s path to membership in the Eurozone while keeping the currency board regime during the whole period of being in the ERM II “waiting room” is logical and has social and institutional support. The argument for this is that Estonia’s example of entering the Eurozone by preserving the currency rate at the level of the currency board is the reasonable and rational national project for developing Bulgaria’s economy and financial system.
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Petya Koralova Nozharova
THE IMPACT OF RAILROAD TRANSPORT ON BULGARIA’S REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Summary:
The article presents a study on the impact of freight railroad transport on the development of Bulgaria’s regions assessed through sectoral and econometric analyses. The analyses are based on indices such as revenues from transport activity of the licensed railway operators by regions, number of staff in the companies, development of the transport infrastructure, and migration growth rate. Most of the publications in this field address the relationship between air and/or water transport and regional development while this study focuses on improving energy-efficient and environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as freight railway transport. Its importance is corroborated through a regression analysis, which shows that the internal migration in the country depends on the development and modernization of its railway infrastructure.
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Sofia Benjakik, Badr Habba
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DUALITY AND BANK EFFICIENCY: EVIDENCE FROM AFRICAN BANKING SECTOR
Summary:
This paper investigates the relationship between CEO duality (one person serving the role of both Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the board) and bank efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The present study adds to the existing literature by employing panel data of large commercial banks of Africa from 2016-2019. The paper con¬cludes that CEO duality contributes positively to the bank efficiency of the selected commercial banks in Africa. This finding reveals that dual role has a positive and significant influence towards efficiency in commercial banks.
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Konstantin Kolev, Maya Tsoklinova
ECONOMIC INTERVENTIONISM UNDER PANDEMIC CONDITIONS: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES ON EU LEVEL
Summary:
The aim of this article is to classify 25 EU member states into homogeneous groups based on the relative shares of GDP of eight subgroups of government expenditures on economic affairs (according to the Classification of the Functions of Government - COFOG) and thus compare the extent of their governments’ intervention in economic affairs. The homogeneous groups were defined by means of a non-hierarchical cluster analysis (K-means) method using the Euclidean distance as a measure of dissimilarity. The results of the clustering of the 25 EU member states by government expenditure by economic function (according to COFOG) reveals the similarities and differences among these countries in terms of their economic interventionism. They also define which economic affairs need government intervention to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Milena Kovachevich
ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE EUROZONE AND ON THE BALKANS: A COINTEGRATION ANALYSIS
Summary:
The global financial and economic crisis of 2008 and in particular the ensuing debt crisis in the euro area in 2009 affected both the economic growth in the euro area and the economic growth in almost all Central and Eastern European countries, including, although to a lesser degree, the Balkan countries. This lower degree of interdependence between most of the Balkan economies and the Eurozone countries is exactly the reason for this study, which aims to determine whether there is a long-term relationship between the economies of the Balkan countries and the Eurozone in general through a co-integration analysis.
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Radka Nenova
Monitoring of Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Summary:
The article presents an overview of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in terms of the relationship between climate change and agriculture described in various international and national documents on prevention of climate changes. The levels and rates of change in greenhouse gas emissions by agricultural sources in Bulgaria in the period 1990 – 2012 were analysed and compared to those in the period 1961 – 1989. Based on these analyses the author has made some recommendations about future monitoring procedures.
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Mariya Pavlova, Rayna Petrova
THE EMERGING CHANGES
IN THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION AND THE ACCONTING PRACTICE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
OF TECHNOLOGY
Summary:
The implementation of new technologies in accounting brings many benefits for the future, but also carries many risks. In the current digital era, the adequate practical application of technologies in accounting can become a strategic advantage for companies. In relation to the digitalisation and the upcoming organizational changes, both in the sphere of accounting and in the companies themselves, accounting specialists are a key factor for success. This study gives a thorough overview and analysis of specialised literature in this area and a number of empirical studies. The results show that the literature mainly focuses on certain technologies, while other are actually used in practice. Differences have been identified between the accounting practices of the USA and the European countries. The authors outline three directions in which technologies help accounting teams to transition to modern accounting and effectively perform their tasks in the digital world. The conclusion is that today, specialised skills and strategic thinking of accounting specialists are particularly important and in the near future, they will not be entirely displaced by technologies.
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Borislav Borisov
Deficincies in the Implementation of SWOT Analysis
Summary:
SWOT analysis is one of the strategic analysis methods most widely employed to ‘reconcile’ advocates of introverted management concepts (organizational excellence, process management, economical pro¬duction, etc.) and extroverted approaches (marketing, strategic management for results, early warning systems, etc.). It gives prominence to both the envi¬ronment and the internal state of a subject in order to examine possible combinations of internal and external factors and generate ideas for strategic choices.
Reviewing SWOT analyses as a constituent of all current strategic documents gives grounds for the assertion that its implementation is strikingly limited in terms of methodology, which renders it impossible to draw ade-quate conclusions or identify feasible development strategies. This article supports the thesis that SWOT analysis might be far more useful when it is properly implemented and its full potential is utilised.
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P. Dimitrova
Some Aspects of the Accounting Analysis of Loans Granted
by Commercial Banks
Summary:
The accounting analysis performed in banking institutions is of key importance. It is based on information collected exclusively from current and periodic accounting reports. Based on real accounting data, it is found that there are decreased rates of positive growth in credit portfolios. Granted loans are well-secured while at the same time there is also an increase in the percentage of non-performing loans. When assessing the risk of collateral it is possible to propose the use of "above-the-moderate risk." It is considered necessary for banks to maintain information about the liquidation value of mortgages or pledged assets, rather than the market price.
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Teofana V. Dimitrova
EVALUATING THE STRATEGIC POSITION OF AN ORGANISATION THROUGH SPACE ANALYSIS
Summary:
The ability to adequately determine the position of an organisation in its external environment, i.e. in terms of other entities in the sector, is essential for strategic decision making. It helps entities integrate their resources and activities and determines the success and sustainability of the business. This paper deals with SPACE analysis, a tool for analysing the strategic position of companies and evaluating their activity, which is less familiar in marketing management theory and practice. The paper focuses on some of the advantages of the method and systematizes some of the SPACE factors which are most frequently employed to evaluate the strategic position of entities by reviewing Russian and English sources. The method is applied to evaluate the strategic position of an industrial enterprise in the sector of ‘Wine production from fresh grapes’.
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Lyudmil Krystev
PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF FINANCIAL CONTROLLING IN A COMPANY
Summary:
Financial controlling facilitates the managers of companies in making the right managerial decisions. The process of controlling includes planning, control and analysis. Planning is associated with setting goals and developing planned budgets, control – with detecting deviations from the goals, whereas analysis is associated with disclosing the reasons for these deviations. The information system occupies a central place in financial controlling. It includes a system of indicators; the leading indicator being considered as an objective. The role of information systems in controlling is to link planning activities, control and analysis. This article presents the application of the information system of financial controlling in a particular company – an insurance company operating in the sector of General Insurance.
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Yordan Neykov
Issues Facing the European Union – a SWOT Analysis
Summary:
The new realities facing the European Union at the beginning of the XXI century placed it in an unpredictable situation of crisis, geopolitical conflict and overindebtedness. These conditions slowed the pace of development and led in fact to the economic slowdown in the European Union - with modest GDP growth in 2013 and low inflation. The European Union has been facing a number of internal difficulties and many threats from the external environment. For this reason there is a need for analysis that takes into account both the internal state of the European Union and the external environment which was characterised by high complexity and dynamics in the period 2008 - 2014.
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Kamen Kamenov
Self-awareness and Behaviour within Social Structures
Summary:
The article closely reviews the structural components of self-awareness – self-observation, self-analysis, and self-control. A connection has been made between an individuals’ self-awareness, their past and future and their potential at present. The importance of the value system to an individual’s morals and conscience has been analysed, as well as the way they react in different situations. Self-awareness is also reviewed in terms of laws governing the order followed by social processes. In conclusion, a set of ten rules has been synthesized which might be helpful in the pursuit of self-control and self-analysis.
