In the period March 1 - 16, 2004, Vitosha Research conducted a national representative survey of the "hidden economy" in the country, covering 1080 respondents aged 18 and over. The survey employed the method of the face-to-face interview.
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The current document presents the methodology for calculation of the Hidden Economy Indexes in Bulgaria among the population and the business, as well as the results of the surveys for the period 2002-2015. Hidden economy surveys in Bulgaria have been carried out by the Center for the Study of Democracy and the market and social research agency Vitosha Research since 2002. Based on data from these surveys, a system of synthetic measurements in the form of composite indices for assessment of the hidden economy was developed. The reason for choosing these particular indicators was to reduce the multiple aspects of the hidden economy phenomenon to a manageable number of illustrative and easy to interpret the indices. The survey questions and sub-indexes, which form the Business Hidden Economy Index and the Index of the Hidden Economic Activity of the Population, are presented in the document. The authors underline the difference between the terms official economy (legal and reported), informal economy (legal, yet unreported), illegal (black) economy (illegal and unreported) and undeclared (gray) economy (legal, formally registered, yet unreported). The last three form the composite term hidden economy.
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Although it is connected to its environment by a thousand strands, Hungarian folk culture is unique. Although every culture can be equally valuable, it is impossible not to notice this unique quality that has manifested in the remote and recent past, and which is obvious even today. We are a people who came from the East; our environment doesn’t understand our language. We have met the unexpected challenges well at times and very badly at other times. Meanwhile, we have always tried to live in accordance with our own values; this quality has been decisively important in Hungarian folk culture. “Magyar” culture has almost always tried to adopt from others quickly. While it is an open and adaptable culture, it has always remained itself. It is a mystery, however, not only to the outside world but also to itself. Although it is on the whole a unifi ed culture, it has always had to contend with innumerable internal differences and confl icts.
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Write about everyday life? All right, but whose? A man’s? A woman’s? A small child’s? Where? In the villages, in the small towns, in Budapest? And what about Monday or Saturday? Winter or summer? Since this is an impossible task, I will arbitrarily choose a bourgeois family, not overly wealthy (for simplicity’s sake, my own), which can be considered average in many respects. I describe how this family lived in Budapest in the 20th century: well at times, and not so well at others, but always in accordance with certain unwritt en rules. And since these rules still stand, at least in part, to this day (where would we be without them?), it won’t hurt to share them with those who have diff erent customs, or who are trying to survive without rules.
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Keywords: transfer pricing; tax haven; multinational society; globalization; tax evasion and fraud
Each enterprise in the private sector aims to increase financial return, which is achieved by obtaining a the higher net profit by increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. In this endeavor, compliance with tax obligations occupy a very important role because handling taxes may lead to an increase in revenue and / or a reduction of spending, and this action is called tax optimization. In the case of multinational companies, the main tool that can be used to lower the tax burden and increasing, sometimes in sizeable benefits in net, is the transfer prices or the prices they registered entities in the group transactions between them, along with another instrument with great impact, ie tax havens. Tax evasion, designating evading payment obligations of a company according to the national tax system, may be legal in the sense that tax optimization does not violate the rules, but exploiting loopholes that are in them. But when legal tax rules are violated, we deal with tax fraud, which will be subject to punitive measures by public authorities as it affects the whole population.
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Keywords: participatory budgeting; local government; good practices; civil society; NGOs;
The objectives of the proposed study refer, on the one hand, to the analysis of the impact of the concept of participatory budgeting in the activity of the local administration in Romania and, on the other hand they refer to the way this concept intervenes in the life of the local communities and the way an active civil society can influence the action of the local administration in Romania. The research methods used to elaborate this study are: the observation of the phenomenon and the way it is reflected in the online space, the comparative analysis of the participatory budgeting models used by some local administrations in Romania, as well as some good international practices in the field, such as the analysis of the programmatic documents of the local administrations studied. The results and implications of the study aim at increasing the awareness of the local communities in general as well as that of the non-governmental organizations in particular regarding the advantages of the civil society involvement in the construction and the execution of local budgets, both in terms of increasing the quality of life but also in terms of diminishing the phenomenon of corruption in the local government.
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Keywords: Housing; Local Government; Real Estate Market
The authors discuss the issue of the housing standard and methods of its measurement. The housing standard is a problem in most countries in Europe and its level is still unsatisfactory. We discuss the problem of changes in the housing standard in a selected city in Poland. Particular attention has been paid to the standard of municipal real estate. We have made an attempt to evaluate the housing standard using self-constructed indicators.
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Keywords: consumer protection; debt; Insolvency;
The legal framework that acknowledges personal insolvency in Romania has finally been adopted on 18 June 2015, after more than 25 years of hardships for the consumers, and only took effect, after many delays, on 1 January 2018. This paper aims to present what is meant to be a procedure that protects the consumers that contracted obligations and by no means of their fault are not able to cover their debts. Furthermore, of great importance is the analysis of the particularities of the Romanian procedure by comparing to similar procedures of other jurisdictions.
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Keywords: green growth; eco-innovation; strategies; models
"Green" growth is at the heart of innovative intelligence specialization strategies. Eco-innovation is crucial to tackling the challenges of resource scarcity, air, water and soil pollution or water efficiency. Reducing inputs, waste, and releases of harmful substances along the value chain, and promoting the reuse, recycling and substitution of resources, limits the negative impact on the environment, creates opportunities for growth and jobs and at the same time increases the competi-tiveness of the economy. Innovation can play an important role in the transition to resource efficiency. Innovation, and especially eco-innovation, helps develop the new technologies, processes, products, services and business models needed to change our patterns of production and consumption.
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Keywords: Brand; Social Media; Internet; Marketing
In this research paper we will try to present the situation in marketing and in economy in general through research and analyses of the current trends in society in order to assist the companies which nowadays face numerous challenges. We live in an era where people’s lives take place in the social media, on one hand, and on the other hand the companies and brands, which are in focus in this research paper, are facing huge competition pressure. From these reasons, we reckon it is inevitable to use contemporary, marketing methods, i.e. one to have thorough data on the product and the brand as the most important elements through which one makes the marketing strategy. Taking into consideration the fact that products and brands do not exist in isolation, but in an environment with various types of influence, it is clear that they have to adapt to the environment itself, and in today’s terms that certainly means development of an online component. An online component might be developed through numerous marketing and other tools, from which we believe the most important ones are the social media regarding their social significance. In this research paper they will be analyzed in order to emphasise the possibilities they offer and the risks they entail, and the very fact that they can turn into a key for success as long as they are given strategic importance and use.
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Keywords: Queen Margaret College; settlement movement; female students; social work; Glasgow
This communiqué relates the history of the Queen Margaret College Settlement in Glasgow from the end of the Victorian period. It places this initiative undertaken by early women graduates within the wider university settlement movement, showing how women adapted to the social work involved in a project designed to encourage the moral and material betterment of slum dwellers.
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Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI); warehouse robotics; self-driving cars; un-manned aerial vehicles (UAV); 3D printing
In today's fast-paced technological world more consumers prefer to shop online and take full advantage of the growing e-commerce industry. The time becomes a scarce resource, so consumers look for a way to get the goods they needed as quickly as they could and in the most convenient place. In order to meet customer needs, e-merchants use the services of courier companies, which face challenges of constantly adapting to new information technologies. The article looks at interesting innovative solutions in the global courier services market, including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, warehouse robotics, drone transportation, 3D printing and more. With the help of these innovations, a number of logistical problems affecting shippers and their customers can be solved.In today‘s fast-paced technological world more consumers prefer to shop online and take full advantage of the growing e-commerce industry. The time becomes a scarce resource, so consumers look for a way to get the goods they needed as quickly as they could and in the most convenient place. In order to meet customer needs, e-merchants use the services of courier companies, which face challenges of constantly adapting to new information technologies. The article looks at interesting innovative solutions in the global courier services market, including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, warehouse robotics, drone transportation, 3D printing and more. With the help of these innovations, a number of logistical problems affecting shippers and their customers can be solved.
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Keywords: Economic Growth; North Macedonian Economy; EU Integration Process; Export Competitiveness
We investigate the performance of North Macedonian economy in terms of its capacity for acceleration of the real convergence process toward the EU living standards. The holistic growth diagnostic approach is used in order to analyze the country’s growth performance by investigating the current growth model and to identify the main source and the most binding constraint. The results show that the average growth rate of North Macedonian economy in the last two decades is relatively lower than the other countries in the region, which delayed the process of convergence of the country to the level of living standards of the EU Member States. One of the reasons is the lower economic integration of a country with the advanced EU countries in terms of trade integration (the export demand from EU and other countries) and financial integration (FDI inflows and the foreign capital share in the domestic banking sector). There have been expectations that the accession of the country into NATO and its integration in the EU processes will automatically increase the FDI inflows and the trade integration of the country. However, this claim has not been supported by any objective evidence. It is true that the EU and NATO accession may contribute to the acceleration of the country’s development process, but how that process will impact the national economy to a large extent depends on its government capacity to implement structural reforms, its ability to strengthen its institutional capacity, and its ability to design economic and industrial policies most conducive to improve its export competitiveness as a fundamental factor for sustainable economic growth for a small open economy.
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Keywords: lifestyle hotels; design; customer perceptions
Hotel design is one of the few tangible elements, that clients could see and assess before making an (online) purchase, therefore it is important to study its impact on the target clients. The current study aims to explore how customers perceive the design of lifestyle hotels, whether it creates additional value for the customer and which of its elements are most noticed and appreciated. The findings showed customers tend to appreciate most the comfort and the room interior design, with greater dominance of younger and female respondents to reflect that trend. Although not classified as a prime factor, hotel exterior and interior appearance proved its importance for the target clients of the lifestyle hotel segment.
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Keywords: Rural tourism; Vernacular architecture and design; Heritage preservation; Rural regeneration; Sustainable development
Rural tourism takes place in the rural environment. It is inextricably linked to the vernacular architecture and design, and the cultural lifestyle of villages. Rural tourism is often used as a tool to help develop different regions. Rural tourism could offer a possible solution to some of the problems associated with heritage degradation, lost economic oppotunities and population decline. The Sibiu area stands out with a special vernacular architecture and preserves exceptional cultural value, aspects not recognized as a development factor and therefore not properly managed. The purpose of this paper is to try to clarify whether tourism strategies can solve rural regeneration in the Sibiu area.
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Keywords: innovation; social innovation; public sector
The article addresses the topic of innovation strategies and mechanisms used in the Romanian public sector in order to optimize the innovation process within the country, and, at the same time, it focuses on the European Union strategies and mechanisms implemented on a national level. The purpose of this article is to present a framework on the modalities of innovation in the public sector, focusing on innovation strategies, but also on the mechanisms used to achieve the proposed goal. This article is based on the research of scientific papers focusing on innovation, especially on the public sector. The importance of using innovation strategies and mechanisms on a national level needs to be understood because it is through innovation that the demands of the citizens of a state can be met.
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Keywords: investigation; tactics; procedures; forensics; evidence
When a crime is committed that is likely to damage state or private property, a criminal investigation is used, one of the important objectives of which is a search. By search, we mean a criminal procedural act carried out by investigators for the purpose of discovering the truth by uncovering elements of a criminal nature that are favorable to the prosecution of the person who has acquired the status of defendant. Following the ex officio referral to the criminal prosecution authorities or following a referral via the 112 emergency service of a crime against property, the State acquires the status of investigator in solving the reported crime. According to the Civil Code, the right to property is guaranteed, so the violation of this right by malicious persons, by committing offences against property, brings the investigating authorities from both sides into the same sphere of action. They have an obligation to investigate whether there are grounds for bringing the defendant to trial by taking evidence from the scene of the crime and from other places where the defendant is believed to have hidden important evidence in the case. I mention this point in relation to important evidence in the case file because the search itself is aimed at finding evidence that ultimately leads to the conviction of the defendant, such as objects, money, etc. It should be noted that we should not confuse the search with the investigation on the spot, which are two distinct aspects. The on-the-spot investigation involves finding evidence leading to the real suspect. In terms of a search, it is understood that the criminal investigation authorities already have a suspect, and the investigation is carried out at the places where the suspect has spent his day-to-day activities from the beginning of his crime until the time he is apprehended by the authorities. This investigation is therefore called a search. Procedurally, the search starts with the suspect’s home, where he is believed to have spent most of his time, and then to other places where the suspect is believed to have carried out various activities. The most common places where investigators carry out searches are the homes and/or residences of persons close to the suspect or the home/residence of a stranger with whom the suspect has had new contact immediately after the crime was committed. Thus, from an etymological point of view, the notion of evidence comes from Latin and means "to prove," and the word "probation" means proof. Therefore, this article will cover topics such as the importance of the search and the collection of objects and documents, criminal procedural regulations, the classification of searches from a forensic tactical point of view, the preparation of the search, the specifics of probation work and its role in the trial phase and the procedure of probation.
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Keywords: IBME; University Mathematics; students with identified needs; University students; tools in the learning process; learning difficulties;
In this chapter we will focus on students with identified needs and try to analyse the differences they may display when participating in inquiry-based mathematics education. Students in universities are diverse by their characteristics and it is difficult to comply with all their needs individually and on demand. Therefore, we will follow the social model of disability and its main idea emphasising the responsibility of educational institutions as the key factor in creating an inclusive learning environment (see Section 4.2). According to our own perspective as explained in Section 4.3 it is much easier to be prepared in advance to try to satisfy all the possible students' needs, preferences and requirements. In Section 4.6, we will introduce readers to the principles of Universal Design, a methodology to follow if one wants to create an inclusive learning environment that reaches the needs of as many learners as possible. However, it is necessary to know the specific needs of each student, and therefore the categorisation of the needs should rather help to and appropriate support, methods, forms and tools in the learning process" (Ceresnova, 2018, p. 16). Such typology of students with identified needs will be introduced in Section 4.4 and followed by a detailed study of students' differences when they undertake an inquiry within university mathematics courses (Section 4.5).
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