Държавните разходи за социално подпомагане в противодействие на бедността в България
Social Assistance Expenditures in Reducing the Number of People at Risk of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Bulgaria

Author(s): Kornelia Filipova
Subject(s): Economy, Public Finances, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Е-литера Софт ЕООД
Keywords: Poverty; Social Exclusion; Social Expenditures;
Summary/Abstract: The book is devoted to the problems of social assistance expenditures on reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion in Bulgaria. It is based on an assessment of current trends in social assistance provision against the main policy challenges in the country compared with the international experience in Central and Eastern Europe. It reviews the recent literature on poverty and considers some different conditions of social benefits spending like: education, health, labor market, housing, etc. In the empirical analysis, it has been proved that the determinants that have the strongest impact on the risk of poverty in Bulgaria include the share of long-term unemployed and education expenditures. Moreover, a moderate to significant relationship has been established for the indicators of economic development and standard of living, represented by GDP per capita, number of primary school graduates, and total income from regular transfers from other households. The remaining independent variables (total wage income, self-employment income, property income and health care expenditure) have a rather local impact on individual areas in the country. These findings suggest that increasing social assistance budgets are not a major stimulus for the social integration of the able-bodied population among the vulnerable, but must be accompanied by essentially other policy measures to combat poverty.

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