List of Publications

Macroeconomic Conditions and the Social Status of Bulgarian Scientists

A b s t r a c t

This is a multimedia presentation to a conference on this subject.

The interrelationship and the interdependence between macroeconomic conditions and science are emphasised as a starting point.

The author argues on the fundamental issue of confusion of ends with means of economic policy, imposed by the IMF on Bulgaria and the other CEECs during transition. The macroframework of the Government contains GDP growth, inflation, exchange rate, current account and budget deficit. These are means and not goals of economic policy and economic development.

The framework should contain the goals of economic policy to start with. The focal point of the policy must be the improvement of quality of life of the human beings: increasing their income, improving employment opportunities, improving access to healthcare, education and science, their personal and property security, environment protection, etc. The human being is missing from the macroframework of the Bulgarian government during the last 15 years.

The author presents quantitative dimensions of the goals and means of economic policy of Bulgaria for 2005-2007. The low competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy is also shown using various indicators. This is one of the major hurdles for successful economic and social development/

The conclusions of the presentation are: First, under present economic conditions improvement of the social status of Bulgarian scientists is not feasible over the next few years. Second, successful economic development of Bulgaria is not possible without fast development of science and related improvement of the social status of scientists.

List of Publications