Issue 5, 2015

The discussion is about a formation of an smart specialization as a core policy for contemporary economic development of Bulgaria under the accelerating global changes in the applied technologies. The main problem of this policy is defining its purpose, priorities and criteria for their determination within the specific national research and innovation promotion policy, characterizing and estimating the policies, applied in Bulgaria to promote scientific research and innovations during the first programme period 2007-2013 from the EU membership of Bulgaria as well as their effect on the innovation performance of the country. The analysis is based on the EC and national framework regulatory documents and on the results of the Operational Programme "Competitiveness" at the end of the programme period. The reliability of the conclusions is achieved by means of various methods of evaluation of the research and innovation promotion policies. It is proven, that the objectives of the current research and innovation policy have not been achieved, mainly due to the lacking scientifically verified national concept on the development of economy, as a result of a deficiency in the economic theory and the inadequate research potential. The concept and the policy has been developed in view of the smart specialization of Foray, that has become a generator of the new EU approach in generating the innovation policy during the second programme period until 2020, applied as defined in Regulation (ЕU) 1300/2013. It turned out, that the application of this programme in Bulgaria encountered barriers, that could be overcome by means of nationally based approach. Finally recommendations are defined for targeted policies to promote research and innovation policies for smart specialization for innovative development of the country as well as to update the formulation of objectives in the National Development Programme for the period 2014-2020.
JEL: O1; O38; O52

Econometric modelling of demand and supply of bank loans in Bulgaria, introduced in this scientific paper, can help not only decision makers in the public and private sector, but can also support researchers and analysts in revealing the determinants of lending, being a major factor for the economy dynamics. The bank loans’ demand and supply determinants are parameterized using the Johansen (1988) and the two-step Engle and Granger (1987) approaches to cointegration and error correction dynamic modelling. The main results reveal that the demand for loans in the long run depends mainly on the economic activity, capital inflows, deposits and loans to deposits ratio of the non-financial sector. In the short term these determinants are complemented by imports of goods and services. The supply of loans, however, in all time frames is influenced primarily by changes in banks’ liquidity, net interest income, capital adequacy and the producer prices dynamics, but in the long term consumer prices, market concentration and foreign ownership are supplementing the supply of loans’ drivers.
JEL: C32; Е32; E44; E47; E51; G01

Using vector autoregressionmodel, this study examines the adjustments of loan interest rates in Bulgaria to shocks in depositinterest rates, business climate and operating costs in the banking system, taking into account theimpact of money market interest rate in the euro area. The analysis attempts to identify potentialdifferences in the reaction of interest rates on loans extended to different sectors of borrowers, loanswith different currency denomination and credit maturity. Impulse responses of loan interest rates toshocks in the other endogenous variables imply that: (1) in the short-run, a shock in the businessclimate indicator affects only interest rates on corporate loans; (2) in the short-run, operating costs in thebanking system do not have statistically significant impact on loan interest rates; (3) a shock in theweighted average interest rate on time deposits induces statistically significant adjustment of interestrate on household loans.
JEL: E43; G21

The research results on the estimate of the changes inthe consumption level of basic food products and beverages by rural households in the period 2000-2012and the expected consumption in 2020 are presented in this study. A comparative analysis is performed of theconsumption of city and village households, with enclosed methodology for index factor analysis and theforecast approach of ARIMA modeling. Conclusions are made on the changes that have occurred in structureand content of nutritive and caloric ingredients, consumed by village inhabitants; the degree of influence ofprice indexes and the food product quantity on the consumption index in terms of value; the forecast quantitiesof food products and beverages, expected to be consumed by rural households and the structure of theircaloric content by 2020.
JEL: D12; C53

The results from a research of the total consumer’s attitudes concerning pricechanges of foods are presented here - due to reasons, which are internal and external to the process ofmarket consumer’s demand, as well as the consequences caused by these changes- on the components ofmarket demand. The dependencies are illustrated with prices of bread and bread products. The study isbased on the system of the market demand process.
JEL: D12; Q11

The commitments of Bulgaria tothe European Union bring to the fore the need to conduct economic policies that stimulate business growthand sustainability. The concept of creating shared value (CSV) builds on the ideas of the philosophyof corporate social responsibility (CSR) and represents a step forward in bringing together businessand government efforts to solve social problems. This is proved by comparing CSV and CSR andhighlighting their similarities and differences. The thesis is defended that the state could and muststimulate economic agents to create shared value, and its effect is multiplied on micro and macrolevel.
JEL: L26; M14