"Лошите кредити": институционални и финансови аспекти, 1994

Author(s): Christina Vutcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Publication Year: 1994

Since the beginning of 1991 Bulgaria has been living through a period of transition from centralized totalitarian control to free market economy. Year 1990 can be said to mark the political liberation of the people with the adoption of the new Constitution. The economic liberalization, however, is a reality yet to be brought to life since private ownership is not prevalent in the economy. The prime aim of the transition is to substitute an absurd and inefficient economic system for a new one to rely on the free initiative, private ownership and competition.

1 KASIM 2015 SEÇİMLERİNDE AK PARTİ’NİN SİYASAL KAMPANYASINDA YER ALAN EKONOMİK VAATLERİN SEÇİM SONUÇLARINA YANSIMASI

Author(s): Tuba Kalçik / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 30/2016

Political parties in a democratic system, are trying to get his/her vote by convincing voters. Parties make political campaign which is a political communication activities to convince voters. Parties use election promises as an important instrument of political campaign in order to be attracted the vote of the electorate. Promises which are made to answer the main problems of the country, the electorate’s expectations and demand’s, function as an effective tool to convince. In this study, it is appeared that how the economic promises which are used in AK Party’s political campaign in 1 November general election affect the election results.

A comparative analysis of research – development and innovation activities in Romania

Author(s): Laura Asandului,Livia Baciu / Language(s): English / Issue: Spec/2010

When adopting the recommendations of the Lisbon Agenda or Strategy, the European states have decided that in order to make the European Union a space of competitiveness and greater social cohesion and a model of sustainable economic growth, research-development and innovation (RDI) must become the main pillar of the member states common policies. Consequently, the European Council recommended more investment in research and development, setting the collective EU target of raising research investment to 3% of the GDP, namely 1% from public funds and 2% from private sector. The current economic and financial crisis and the pressure it poses on resources, public or private, ]has limited to some extent the achievement of these objectives. The investments might not increase as anticipated or they might even decrease. However, several states have understood that, in times of crisis, the investment in research and innovation might bring tremendous gains in terms of new technologies, human capital and knowledge or, in other words, gains in economic competitiveness. This paper aims at providing a comparative analysis of the Romanian situation using the statistical indicators of the knowledge economy, those related to RDI financing and also to RDI results for the short period of time when financing has increased as a result of applying the objectives set out by the Lisbon Strategy. We underline the fact that without financing there is no research and innovation and without policies to support RDI the delays in development cannot be recovered. The final part of the paper provides several recommendations aiming at improving the RDI policies in Romania in accordance with post-2010 Lisbon Strategy.

A COOPERATIVE RISK MANAGEMENT APPROACH FOR LARGE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Author(s): Konrad Spang / Language(s): English / Issue: VIII/2014

Large Infrastructure projects face many risks due to their complex technical and social conditions. But who is handling a risk is often not the result of an adequate risk distribution, it is more a function of power. And even though systematic risk management should be a basic element of a professional project management, it is not normative in the execution phase and it is unusual in the design phase of these projects. Contractors often take only risks into account, which are obvious or described by the client. They often disregard risks, because it seems to be no “space” in the bid because of the market situation. Clients rarely have a systematic risk management in their projects and are not focused on a fair risk allocation, they try to allocate as much risks as possible at the contractors side. This paper presents an approach for a cooperative and integral risk management for infrastructure projects, the design and the execution phase included. Recent literature and field study results are considered. This holistic approach includes elements as the clients process responsibility, life cycle orientation, a minimizing concept, risk transparency, a risk list, cooperative risk management, risk controlling and risk reviews.

A lender of last resort on trial: Remarks on the controversy surrounding the role of the European Central Bank in the financial crisis

Author(s): Detlev Ehrig / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

The recent European debt crisis has generated a growing importance of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB was forced to take measures far beyond its traditional role to stabilize monetary markets and inflation. The ECB has adopted a new function as a lender of last resort, providing banks and governments with almost unlimited liquidity and purchasing government bondswithin Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). This new role of the ECB has been hotly debated.In Germany, the debate even reached the Constitutional Court. The article will give a survey ofthe fundamentals of a lender of last resort and of the debate referring to the arguments of the ECBand Bundesbank. It is indeed questionable whether the ECB has a mandate for its new monetaryand nolens volens fiscal role. Regardless of whether the arguments are convincing, new steps towardsnew fiscal arrangements and a banking union are needed to stabilize the euro area.

A Model Assessing Innovativeness of Administration Units Awarding Public Contracts as a Tool to Conduct Economic Policy of the State

Author(s): Arkadiusz Borowiec / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

In today's market economy factors concerning knowledge, new technologies and innovative solutions are essential for economic development. However, the Polish economy, despite its high innovation potential compared to other European Union countries, is characterized by a very low level of innovativeness. Im-plementing this potential is conditioned by an appropriate economic policy of the state and rational approach to its resources and legal solutions. One of the possi-bilities of such an action is the use of public procurement instrument through which it is possible to more effectively create demand for innovative products and services.As shown by literature studies, the achievements of the subject literature asso-ciated with the creation of demand for innovations by public administration in Poland have been very modest. This gap is recognized by the article, and it at-tempts to build a model for assessing the innovativeness of these units. Network thinking methodology was used to build the model. As a result, after the identification of factors affecting the conduct of an innovative public procurement, a network of links was established between them and examined in terms of type, intensity and duration of exposure. Building a model according to the methodology, the opinions of experts have been used along with long-term observations conducted in the course of participation in all kinds of conferences and trainings. The model was also subjected to validation in two selected units.

A model for predicting Inactivity in the European Banking Sector

Author(s): Themistokles Lazarides / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

Purpose – The paper will addresses the issue of inactivity and will try to detect its causes using econometric models. The Banking sector of Europe has been under transformation or restructuring for almost half a century. Design/methodology/approach – Probit models and descriptive statistics have been used to create a system that predicts inactivity. The data was collected from Bankscope. Findings – The results of the econometric models show that from the six groups of indicators, four have been found to be statistically important (performance, size, ownership, corporate governance). These findings are consistent with the theory. Research limitations/implications – The limitation is that Bankscope does not provide any longitudinal data regarding ownership, management structure and there are some many missing values before 2007 for some of the financial ratios and data. Originality/value – The paper's value and innovation is that it has given a systemic approach to find indicators of inactivity.

A PARADOX OF REFORMING PENSIONS IN POLAND

Author(s): Anna Zabkowicz / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Recent years see intense reforming of funded pensions sub-system in Poland. Actually, what are the policy objectives at which change in design introduced in 2013 (mandatory funding) and projected in 2014 (voluntary funding) is oriented? The article briefly reports what contemporary re-designing of the pension system at different stages was about, and reconstructs the objectives of reforming at each stage. It finds that interlocking streams of change aimed at two goals in fact which are i) relief to public finance ii) expanding pension funding by financial intermediaries. It argues that the two are in contradiction to each other, and this makes a paradox of pension reforming. The review of 2013- and 2014- design, unexpectedly enough, results in conclusion that at present reforming is focused on pension funding revitalization, which may cause a recurring distress to public finance. Thus, the article identifies one of dilemmas of institutional-order development in Poland, which can be probably also experienced in other countries where pension funding has been introduced.

A Performance Ranking of LGUs in Macedonia

Author(s): Mirjana Kraja-Sejdini / Language(s): English / Issue: 15/2016

Local government performance within public sector performance is coming back because local government is faced with the problem of increased responsibilities under tighter budgets. Therefore, the issues of managing taxpayers’ money more efficiently and effectively still remain a challenge for local government decision makers. In addition, increased social inclusion has created a need for increased accountability and transparency towards local government managers. This paper aims to facilitate decision makers as well as local government officials to offer a ranking system of local government units (LGUs/municipalities) in Macedonia by analyzing and normalizing some of the main financial indicators that make up the final annual accounts of all LGUs in Macedonia. The output of this work is a local government index showing the best and worst performing municipalities in the country. The provision of one aspect of LG government performance allows all local government stakeholders to have an overview of the budget spent as well as identify some best practices by comparatively identifying the practices of the best performing LGUs. However, the data availability has narrowed the scope of this performance ranking. We hope that this study will contribute modestly to the existing literature of the performance in the public sector and specifically in that of the local government sector. There is an increasing interest in studies related to public sector performance. However, this interest has been very little in Balkan Countries.

A Real-Business-Cycle Model with Reciprocity in Labor Relations and Fiscal Policy: The Case of Bulgaria

Author(s): VASILEV Aleksandar / Language(s): English / Issue: 03/2017

In this paper we introduce reciprocity in labor relations and government sector to investigate how well the real wage rigidity that results out of that arrangement explains business cycle fluctuations in Bulgaria. The reciprocity mechanism described in this paper follows Danthine and Kurmann (2010) and is generally consistent with micro-studies, e.g. Lozev et all. (2011) and Paskaleva (2016), while at the same time comes into contrast with models with efficiency wages of no-shirking type that emphasize the importance of aggregate labor market conditions as the main determinant in wage setting, e.g. Vasilev (2017). Rent-sharing considerations, and worker's own past wages turn out to be the most important aspects of how labor contracting happens. In contrast, aggregate economic conditions, as captured by the employment rate, are not found to be quantitatively important for wage dynamics. Overall, the model with reciprocity and fiscal policy performs well vis-a-vis data, especially along the labor market dimension, and in addition dominates the market-clearing labor market framework featured in the standard RBC model, e.g Vasilev (2009).

A View on ECHR Case law for Salary Policy in Romanian Public Sector

Author(s): Mihaela Tofan,Dan Lupu,Mihai Bogdan Petrisor / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

As the economies of other countries in Western Europe, the Romania's economy went through a very difficult period because of the international financial crisis, with GDP falling by over 18%. In the situation of no longer being able to meet its payment obligations and under the pressures of international financial organizations, the Romanian government opted for the radical measure of cutting public sector wages by 25%. Faced with this unprecedented action of country administrative power representatives, the Romanian civil servants attacked this measure in national courts and after that, in front of the ECHR. This article presents the solutions of the Romanian courts, the European jurisprudence on lowering wages and its implications for public solutions Romanian legal systems.

Ab’nġn Zayif Ekonomġk Halkasi Yunanġstan’in Ekonomġk Krġzġ Dġnecek Mġ?

Author(s): Serap Durusoy,Ömür Samgloglu / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 1/2012

The financial crisis that emerged in the USA in the second half of 2007 quickly achieved global proportions and influenced many countries including Greece. However, when the effects of the global crisis merged with the ongoing unsustainable external debt problems of Greece the effects of both crises were compounded. The inability to diagnose the Greek economy, which is without doubt the weakest link in Europe, and the resultant confusion as to its true status, has played a significant role in this development. In this context, it can be stated that both internal and external factors have a contributing role. In fact, the country‟s 2008 macro-economic indicators reflected the unsustainable status and the revenue earning channels services sector which was the locomotive of the national economy, dried up, resulting in production decreases in agriculture and the industrial sectors. Financial support was provided by the EU and the IMF in response to the crisis that was confronted. Using the financial resources provided an attempt was made to avert the situation and widening of the corporate and financial reform scopes were attempted. In pursuit of these aims; tighter controls, internalization of the grey economy, and provision of various incentives to encourage foreign investment were introduced together with the initiation of dialogues with other countries entrepreneurial corporations and institutions in order to promote the flow of resources into the country from tourism and maritime trade. The Greek crisis has resulted in the increase of discussions of the extent of the effectiveness of EU in the process and the Greek economic administration as well.

Activity-Based Costing in Health Care Organizations

Author(s): Ljilja Antic,Vesna Sekulic / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2016

The concept of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) provides informational support to the performance of key management activities in different organizations. Focused on activities and processes within the organization, this concept, using appropriate cost drivers, provides more accurate information on activity costs and costs objects. The paper analyzes the specificities of applying the traditional and improved model of activity-based costing in health organizations.

Addressing the paradox of public expenditure – economic growth nexus: an econometric approach

Author(s): B. Venkatraja / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2017

Since the introduction of economic reforms, Indian economy has been rapidly growing. Simultaneously, the government spending has also increased by multiple times. Interestingly, rapid rise in public expenditure has occurred during the era of speedy privatisation. The central issue of discussion is whether high growth is attributed to increased government spending and/or higher government spending is owing to rising economy. There are several theoretical propositions and empirical findings attempting to solve this puzzle but with no unanimity and their inferences are rather highly divided and fragmented. In this pretext, the present paper makes an effort to re-examine the direction of flow of relationship, nature of relationship and size of the relationship between government expenditure and economic growth in India in the long run through econometric modelling. In the course of investigating the nexus of relationship between economic growth and government spending, the study also aims to test whether Indian scenario validates the Wagner’s law or supports the Keynesian growth hypothesis. The underlying subject is investigated based on the data covering the economic reform period from1991-1992 to 2015-2016. Application of appropriate econometric techniques like cointegration test, estimation of Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model, Granger causality test, impulse response function and variance decomposition provide evidences of long-term relationship between growth and government spending. Results show that the size of the public sector is defined positively by the level of GDP growth in the long run and similarly, the variability in GDP is explained positively by the government expenditure. The findings of the study have evidences to support both Wagner’s law and Keynesian theory.

Addressing the Threat of Fraud and Corruption in Public Procurement: Review of State of the Art Approaches

Compendium

Author(s): Center for the Study of Democracy CSD / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2013

The present compendium of selected best practices addresses the threat of fraud and corruption from multiple perspectives, with the underlying purpose of providing practitioners from Romania and Greece with a set of state of the art approaches for addressing the threat of fraud and corruption in the complex multi-layered national public procurement systems. This publication is based on ideas presented at the international seminar EU's Financial Interests under Threat: New Approaches in Assessing the Risks from Public Procurement and EU Funds Fraud, organised on 31 October – 1 November 2013 in Sofia, with the support of the European AntiFraud Office (OLAF).

Adekwatność poziomu i struktury rezerw dewizowych Chin

Author(s): Dominik Skopiec / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

The aim of the article is to analyze the strategic aspects of the management of Chinese foreign exchange reserves in the context of dynamic reserve accumulation in this country. It is hypothesized that due to the rapid accumulation of foreign exchange reserves their level in China remains at the suboptimal level and this makes the effective management challenging and creates costs and risks for the Chinese economy. The methods applied include the analysis of statistical data concerning foreign exchange reserves and macroeconomic variables that characterize the Chinese economy as well as comparative analysis and literature study. It is found that the level of Chinese foreign exchange reserves has exceeded the traditional adequacy metrics and remains suboptimal. Bearing this in mind, the author points out that the management of Chinese foreign exchange reserves does not meet one of its primary objectives, namely ensuring adequate level of reserves. It leads to the increased costs of holding reserves since the fraction of reserves deemed as excessive is not necessary to ensure the proper fulfi llment of their functions. Moreover, the analysis of geographical, currency and investment structure of Chinese foreign exchange reserves indicates that the investment strategy remains conservative since the vast majority of reserves is invested in dollar assets, especially in US treasury securities. The aforementioned concentration leads to various costs and risks. However, the analysis suggests an ongoing change in the investment strategy with the aim of increasing reserves profi tability. The main symptoms of such a change is a rising share of equities in the Chinese foreign exchange reserves.

Against the political expectations and theoretical models: how to implement austerity and not to lose political power

Author(s): Viljar Veebel,Liina Kulu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1+2/2014

During the global financial crisis in 2008–10 Estonia symbolized a pathway of fiscal consolidation and austerity. Moreover, despite opting for austerity and all the social and political consequences of achieving fiscal consolidation, the governing coalition in Estonia succeeded also in avoiding a negative political reaction from the voters and remained in power. The current article analyses the variables that made the austerity reforms in Estonia in 2008–11 electorally successful. The economic success of Estonia has otherwise been attributed to a combination of political, institutional, and economic factors: timing; a fiscal policy that was not pro-cyclical; the availability of reserves in Estonia; and the ownership structure of the banks. The present study asks more specifically about the variables that saw the economic success in the implementation of the austerity measures accompanied by a positive electoral outcome. As it will be argued, these factors include the communication strategy chosen intentionally or otherwise by the government, the design of the austerity measures, the peculiarity of the electoral cycle, lack of political alternatives, and the performance of neighbouring countries in implementing austerity measures.

Age as a Determinant of Pensions for Insurance Periods and Old Age in Bulgaria

Author(s): Plamen Yordanov / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2014

Age is one of the qualifying conditions which entitle insured persons to receive cash benefits from insurances for old age. Nevertheless, at this stage, the practice of linking the amount of pensions to the age at which they are awarded is rather limited in pensions insurance practice. The objective of this research is to study the significance of age to the pension insurance systems of EU states and hence propose a mechanism which makes it possible to link the amount of pensions for insurance periods and age in Bulgaria to the average life expectancy afterretirement.

Aktywność gospodarcza a korelacja między podatkami i długiem sektora general government

Author(s): Wieslawa Ziólkowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Correlation differences between taxes (X) and tax receipts increased by social insurance contributions (X’) and general government sector debt (Y’) in the European Union member states have been studied at two different phases of economic development. The intensity of interdependence and the relationships between the variables analysed under different circumstances existing in individual countries turned out to be very varied. In all analyses conducted, a positive correlation coefficient was predominant. This means that the higher the tax burden the lower the tax base, lower public revenues and a higher deficit. At the same time, the lower the tax burden, the lower the deficit and debt. The results obtained in the course of the analyses performed must be interpreted with caution since the categories used in the analyses are subject to a variety of conditions. However, the results of a statistical study and a descriptive analysis allow us to conclude that the objective of the research has been achieved. Studies on its verification though must continue. 

ALLOCATING TAX REVENUE TO SUB-CENTRAL GOVERNMENT LEVELS: LESSONS FROM GERMANY AND POLAND

Author(s): Malgorzata Magdalena Hybka / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2016

Tax sharing arrangements provide considerable financial resources to sub-central government levels. This statement is true both for unitary and federal states although tax revenue sharing mechanisms differ significantly across countries. The basic aim of this article is to compare the mechanisms adopted in Germany and in Poland. It assesses the degree of tax autonomy granted to sub-central government levels in the countries analysed, overviews the principles of apportionment of joint (shared) taxes and presents statistics on tax revenue composition of sub-central government levels.