Issue 4, 2015

The present paper is about rethinking and reformulating conventional assumptions concerning monetary economics. The money homogeneity and neutrality are rejected. New formulation of money market is suggested. It is demonstrated that money market is entangled with all the other markets and that the system of markets, including money, does not converge to equilibrium. Only under the gold standard some kind of self-regulation may be observed. Appropriate monetary and fiscal policies do not distort, but increase the efficiency of market forces. The introduction of internal money issued by private banking sector does not improve the situation and does not guarantee stability. Further, if we institute external value (exchange rate) of money, the basic conclusions are not altered. Flexible exchange rates require autonomous monetary policy and also rule out automatic equilibrium convergence. Prevailing floating exchange rate monetary regimes imply in addition dominance of internationally cooperative equilibrium based on mutually consistent macroeconomic policies. This implicit macroeconomic coordination precedes the international liberalization and deregulation, so, paradoxically the driving force behind globalization is the broadening of the scope of macroeconomic regulation. Finally, money uncertainty principle is introduced and connection between maximum entropy rule, economic uncertainty and money is established. The conclusions of the paper are related to certain basic Keynesian postulates about money.
JEL: E31; E40; E50; E60; F31; F60

This paper presents results of the breakthrough study that applies the methodology developed by Corrado, Hulten and Sichel in 2006 to measure investment in intangible assets in Bulgaria and the factors involved in their contributions at the level of the economy.
The study encompasses the transition and EU pre-accession period 1995-2006 and makes use of micro-level data aggregated to sector level, taking account imports and exports. We consider the following types of investment in intangible assets: computer software and computerized databases, innovative property, scientific R&D, copyright and license costs, new architectural and engineering design, brand equity and economic competences, market research and advertising as brand building, firm-specific human capital and organizational structure.
According to this nomenclature, we compute the share of these intangible assets in the GDP and make estimates of the potential adjustment of the GDP if these investments were to be taken into account. The study unfolds on the background of the profound changes taking place in the Bulgarian economy over the 1990s, including a critical mass of privatisation, fragmentation of industries, financial shocks and a massive entry of new firms and foreign investment.
JEL: O3; O52; P2

The preconditions and features of the formation of post-industrial society are defined in the article. The distinctive role of active innovation infrastructure of the country in integrating into the European community and society based on knowledge are proved. The characteristic features of the economy of post-industrial society are the increasing role of intangible resources in ensuring social reproduction, “softization” and “servization” the subjects of innovation infrastructure. The essence of economic category “innovation infrastructure“ is defined in the article. It is a dynamic self-regulating system of markets and subjects that entering these markets in certain economic relations and it provides the necessary conditions for implementation of the innovation processes. Mechanism of functioning of the constituent elements of innovation infrastructure in market economy is proposed, relationships between them are defined.
JEL: О10; O31; O32

The objective of this study is to identify the main supply-side determinants of Bulgaria’s economic growth in the period of the currency board arrangement. In order to achieve the objective of the study, the aggregate production function of the Bulgarian economy has been estimated by two methods –least squares and growth accounting.
JEL: O47

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it tries to check the hypothesis that human capital stimulates growth of the contemporary economies. Second, it estimates the effects of both secondary and tertiary education on the aggregate activity in the Bulgarian economy over the period 2000-2013. The co-integrating models with a structural break are based on the neoclassical approach to growth. The negative impact of secondary education is clearly expressed. A positive statistically significant result has not been found for tertiary education as well. Moreover, in conformity with the real patterns of development the results confirm that the main drivers of Bulgaria’s growth path аre foreign direct investments and export which keeps its crucial role for the post-crisis development. Тhe unfavorable outcome with regard to education might be explained in light of both the vertical qualification mismatch and the quality of human capital. When the latter is measured by foreign language proficiency, a stronger impact on real GDP per capita in comparison with that for the human capital’s quantity has been derived.
JEL: O40; O57; J24; C32; I20

This paper examines the asymmetric impact of monetary policy shocks on real output growth considering the role of financial stress. We carry out our examination using monthly Turkey data over 1998:M1 and 2012:M12 and apply a threshold vector autoregression model. Our investigation presents evidence that the impact of monetary policy shocks on output growth is stronger during high financial stress periods. However, it is found that there is no sign asymmetry in the real effects of monetary policy shocks.
JEL: F44; E44; E52

This article provides an econometric analysis of the effects of technology shocks, labor demand shocks, labor supply shocks and wages shocks on the labor market in Ukraine. Structural vector autoregressive error correction model is formed on macroeconomic data for 2002-2014. The presence of hysteresis in unemployment is revealed. Three common trends are defined which determine the behavior of labor productivity, employment, unemployment rate and real wages. It is shown that only technological shocks have a positive long-term impact on productivity, although in the short run positive changes can be caused by positive shocks of wages and labor supply. The unemployment rate in the long run significantly reduces due to technological shocks and demand shocks, while supply shocks lead to its growth. Technological shocks and labor demand shocks are the source of positive change in the number of employed and real wages.
JEL: С30; E24

The goal of the study is to outline opportunities for branding of agricultural products. The study discusses the difficulties in branding agricultural products, the significance of the legally protected intellectual products for branding agricultural products, the conflicts between the intellectual products, the approaches for branding agricultural products. The paper analyzes the main difficulties for branding agricultural products – big heterogeneity of the quality of the agricultural products in time and space. Determined are the intellectual products (inventions, new sorts and breeds, geographic names, brands, firm names, domain names, technologies and know-how), which are a basis for branding agricultural products. The paper states that there are many conflicts between geographic names, brands and other intellectual products. There are substantial difficulties concerning creating and establishing a brand of an agricultural product at agricultural enterprise level. In perspective, internet will be significant for branding agricultural products. The agricultural products should increase the integration with markets, processing and R&D sectors. They should also form strong structures for joint marketing, which will improve their access to intellectual products.
JEL: M39; O34; Q13