Issue 1, 2011

The paper presents the development of the European integration process in higher education for a period starting with the beginning of the idea for the launch of the Bologna process (1999) till its end with the launch of the European Higher Education Area (March 2010). The basic problems of the integration process in this field of integration have been analyzed, as well as the institutional structure of the European Higher Education Area, the European solutions of the problems of quality assurance in higher education, as well as a comparative analysis of the institutional structure and the higher education quality assessment criteria in Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Greece.
JEL: F15; I28; I23

The paper discusses the issue of the participation of elderly people on the labour market. Study and assessment of the situation in Bulgaria in this aspect are made. Some important problems and conclusions are drawn. On this basis and in accordance with the European lines, main directions for enhancing the so-called "active ageing" in the country are outlined.
JEL: J08; J21

The objective of the study is to evaluate the investment activity of the pension funds in Bulgaria. The subject of the study is the pension funds as institutional investors functioning on capital cover principle. On this basis the study examines in details: 1) the concept "interaction frame" between corporate governance and institutional investors; 2) normative order of the investment activity of the pension funds in Bulgaria, including legally regulated quantity limitation for them; 3) analysis of the dynamics of the investment portfolio of the pension funds in the country; 4) the status of the institutional investors (particularly the pension funds), in order to outline their potential for participation in the corporate ownership. The currency of the problems is added by the fact that the traditional understanding of the shareholding ownership evolves due mostly to the gradual change of the status of the investors (mostly the institutional investors).
JEL: G11; G23; G31

The study attempts to give a theoretical ground of the competitiveness of economy and retail sector, monetary incomes per capita, foreign trade exchange and import as drivers of contemporary trade business. The main alternatives how to optimize the retail trade in Bulgaria are pointed out, in accordance with the analysis, as well as specified measures with practical and applied focus, by which the future development of commercial business in the country will provide a proactive response to the processes of consumer markets in Europe and globally.
JEL: L81; L10

The study makes a theoretical-applied analysis of the state and the main problems concerning the commercial trade in Bulgaria and European Union. The author studies some of the main factors, which according to him have a determining impact on the development of the commercial trade - introducing internet in the country and number of internet users; broadband access; computer use by the population and households; use of internet and ICT in Bulgarian enterprises; level of computer and internet literacy and digital inequality; online payment systems for individuals and the business. Based on the profound analysis of the state and realities in EU, the main reasons for the serious delay of Bulgaria are presented. The author formulates many concrete suggestions and recommendations, which can raise the interest of the people in online purchases and show the obvious advantages they provide. The study also suggests the main principle conditions that should be followed when building systems for electronic business and commerce in SME.
JEL: C8; C63; C81; C88

This paper examines whether the foreign trade deficit of Turkey is sustainable or not by using three-regime threshold autoregressive unit root test of Kapetanious and Shin (2006). Three models are estimated including linear OLS, two-regime self-exciting threshold autoregressive and three-regime self-exciting threshold autoregressive models. The three-regime threshold autoregressive model is chosen as appropriate model for foreign trade deficit of Turkey by employing sup-Wald test. The finding results of the three-regime threshold autoregressive unit root test indicate that Turkey's foreign trade deficit is not sustainable.
JEL: C22; F10

The paper empirically examines the relationship between trade openness and the level of democracy in Pakistan using annual time-series data for the period 1947-2009. The analysis shows that trade openness positively affects democracy in Pakistan. The results are robust to controlling for other democracy determining variables and various model specifications. The results also show that the effect of trade openness on democracy increases with the increase of the economic development. Other control variables, i.e. political constraints, human capital, government expenditures, physical capital, inflation and urbanization significantly affect democracy in the theoretically expected directions.
JEL: C22; F14; H11