Issue 4, 2021

In an effort to fill the existing gap regarding the definition of the competitiveness of agricultural holdings and the ways to measure it, the present research applies a holistic approach in the assessment of the competitiveness of agricultural holdings in Bulgaria as a whole, as well as in terms of their different specialization. Despite its importance and the continuing debates on the topic, there is still no consensus on what the competitiveness of farms is; how to measure the competitiveness of different organizations in agriculture; what the absolute and comparative competitiveness of different types of farms is; which are the critical factors for increasing the competitiveness at the current stage of development, etc. The multicriteria assessment found that although the level of competitiveness of Bulgarian farms is overall good, more than a third of all farms in the country show a low level of competitiveness. This can largely be attributed to their low adaptive potential and economic efficiency. The most competitive farms are those specializing in the beekeeping sector, followed by field crops, mixed livestock and mixed crop production, while farms specializing in grazing livestock are the least competitive. The proposed approach should be improved and applied more widely and periodically, increasing its accuracy and representativeness. The latter requires close cooperation with producer organizations, the National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) and other stakeholders, as well as improvements to the agricultural information collection system in the country.
JEL: Q1; Q11; Q12; Q13; Q14; Q15; Q17; Q18

The bioeconomy is seen by the EU as an important part of the idea of achieving sustainable development that is carbon neutral and is accompanied by technological modernization and resource efficiency. For that reason, the European Commission has formed a strategy for its development, with the separate Member States having each adopted their own documentary approach towards it. The aim of the present article is to examine the resilience of the bioeconomy to the emergence of a health risk (COVID-19) by tracking the changes in production in some of its sectors. The methodology includes a case study of the bioeconomic peculiarities of two EU Member States – Bulgaria and Lithuania. The level of resilience is tested through a comparison of quantitative data. Contrary to the expectations of a slow recovery of the national economies, the main branches of the food industry show stabilitz. They can rely on their ability to meet the demand for reorientation of the participants in the agri-food chain towards local goods, which provides an opportunity for the implementation of sustainable development practices.
JEL: O10; O13; O52; O57

The paper reconstructs the views of the first professional Bulgarian post-liberation economists. The primary source of this information is the “Industry” journal, which was published in the Danube port-town of Svishtov over the period from 1887 to 1890 by several teachers at the local School of Commerce. The authors’ thesis is that the papers in the “Industry” journal carry the main characteristics of classical economic liberalism. However, the early history of economic thought in Bulgaria is characterized by some important nuances and specifics. Among them should be noted: a lack of original theoretical contributions, eclecticism, an orientation towards solving the specific problems of economic backwardness and limited knowledge of the theoretical innovations in economic thought around the world at the time.
JEL: B12; B31

The short-term survival of companies depends directly on their ability to meet their current liabilities. The purpose of the article is to investigate which factors have a significant impact on the ability of companies to cover their current liabilities with the cash flow from their operating activities. The survey is based on data on 100 small and medium-sized non-financial enterprises from different sectors of the economy for the period 2014-2016. The results of the multiple regression analysis show a statistically significant positive impact on the ratio cash flow from operating activities/current liabilities of the following factors: net working capital/total assets; ROA; equity/total debt; percentage of change in receivables, and a negative impact of the factors: short-term assets/total assets and number of employees in the company.
JEL: G30; G32; G33

Mancur Olson (1932-1998) became famous with one great idea: the failure of collective action. Since interest groups provide their members with public (collective) goods with corresponding externalities, he assumed that free riding as a rational individual strategy would be a ubiquitous problem hampering the realization of efficient collective action in the provision of such goods. This remarkable idea – the application of methodological individualism and the assumption of rational individual behavior in the analysis of interest groups, provided a fertile ground for theory building in all social sciences, most notably in political science. In the field of economics, Olson’s ideas contributed to the establishment of the Public Choice Theory and became a prerequisite for fundamental research in experimental economics – on public goods, voluntary contribution mechanisms and games such as the prisoner dilemma. The present paper briefly discusses his two best-known books.
JEL: B21; B31; D71; H41