Issue 4, 2010

The paper examines the discussion issues and trends in the development of the GDP indicator, set in National Account System (NAS), for the more adequate presenting of the actual economic growth. The characteristic of this indicator is outlines and its methodological specifics and limitations as a statistical category are analyzed. The results of the work of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, headed by J. Stiglitz, are presented and commented. New moments in the introduced NAS'2008 are outlined. GDP is the first and most often used indicator in the international economic comparisons and the implementation of contemporary models of the economic growth. That is why at the end the paper presents the methodological specifics and challenges before it, when it is calculated on the basis of the parity of the purchase ability.
JEL: C4; C81; O47

The paper contributes to the empirical research on the micro-determinants of income inequality in Southeast European transition countries. The analysis utilizes data from a representative survey of 3,300 Bulgarian households conducted in 2007 and quantifies income differentiation effects related to certain socio-demographic characteristics. Quantile regression analysis reveals positive net effects of the degree of urbanization and the number of employed in the household as well as negative effects of the number of unemployed, children, and pensioners on the per-capita income level at all parts of the income distribution. Inequality indices decomposition by subgroups identifies the type of settlement, ethnical group, the number of children and unemployed as substantial sources of income inequality in Bulgaria.
JEL: D31; D63; I38; O15

The last years the transformation of Bulgaria into a predominantly country of origin of migrants and the establishment of Bulgarian Diasporas abroad is a phenomenon that has attracted the interest of demographers, cultural anthropologists, historians, economists and sociologists. This study is based on the following statistical and other sources and aims to show the growth and characteristics of the Bulgarian labor migration in the period after the transition to a market economy in Bulgaria. The aim of the study is to reveal also the formation of regional communities in the European countries in which Bulgarian Diasporas were formed. An attempt is made to clarify the economic, social and psychological status of the Bulgarian migrants, as well as their integration in a multicultural society. One of the main questions is to reveal how the Bulgarian Diaspora affects diversity in the host-countries. Another aspect of the analysis is to identify the role of remittances as one of the manifestations of Bulgaria's integration into the international migration process, and an additional cash flow aimed at maintaining the financing of Bulgarian households.
JEL: F22; F24

This paper investigates time series properties of the tourism revenues in Turkey over the period from 1997:01 through 2010:03. First, we determine the integration order by using different versions of Robinson tests. Second, we test if the tourism revenues show any structural changes over the sample period under consideration by using Bai and Perron multiple structural break tests. The results show that the tourism revenues follow a non-stationary long memory process when we ignore potential structural breaks. When we take structural breaks into consideration and adjust data for the breaks, we still find some evidence of non-stationary long memory behavior in tourism revenues. These results imply that shocks to tourism revenues in Turkey have a permanent effect.
JEL: C22; E0

The information and communication technology applied to business (ICTC) plays a pivotal role in the operational functioning of organizations. Hence, they determine the logistical structures and modify them to suit the customer satisfaction strategy defined by the company itself. There are emerging new organizational architectures from the perspective of economic business models that develop. Logistics, initially a supporting function, is gradually becoming organizational logistics. It is part of the optimization of complex and scattered activities through the structuring of transactions in a systemic vision.
JEL: M19

Economic map of Europe radically changes its parameters and imposes new postulates in the development of national economies, which are integral part of the common European market. Bulgaria's ambition to attract traffic of material flows in areas outside the geographical scope of the union should stand on a serious basis, which includes the construction of the areas highlighted economic use, such as logistics, industrial, office and retail space.
The purpose of this study is to make a theoretical overview of current economic use of land as a factor in achieving the objective of logistics system, and based on analysis of their status in Bulgaria to derive prospects for their development.
In this context, core areas of logistics, industrial, commercial and office uses are defined in theoretical aspect. Analysis of their status in Bulgaria is conducted on the basis of empirical data and the opportunities for their development within the country are revealed.
JEL: F19; L79; L81; O39

Standardization has a strategic importance for the organization. The number of companies that have adopted ISO 9000 increased during the last years. According to the reports in CLUB 9000, in May 2010 there were 5,556 ISO 9000 certified companies in Bulgaria. There are no empirical studies in Bulgaria that investigate which companies decide to adopt ISO 9000. Using secondary data, this study builds a profile of ISO 9000 certified companies. The results show that companies with more resources, more foreign relations, higher degree of external regulatory pressure, and operations focus on high quality, not low price, have a higher probability of certification than the companies that do not have these characteristics.
JEL: C12; L21; M1