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Nesrin Uzun
Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Housing in Bulgaria
Summary:
Negative effects of the global financial crisis is still not fully overcome in the world and the economies of individual countries continue to implement various measures to eliminate their effect. One of the most crisis-hit sectors of the economy proved to be construction and directly related to it real estate market. This article aims to make a critical analysis of the status and trends in the "construction", with an emphasis on housing during the 2008-2013 period. In order to thoroughly investigate the problem, the article will consider the state of the mortgage market in Bulgaria and opportunities for bank financing of construction enterprises (through direct funding and realisation of finished products - by financing customers in the form of housing loans) and their relation to the development of the construction sector in the country.
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Radka Vasileva
Applying the "Insurance Maximum"
in Determining the Insurer's Retention. An Example from the Bulgarian Property Insurance Market
Summary:
Reinsurance is a way for insurance companies to reduce fluctuations in their payments and to improve their financial stability. One of the problems that the risk theory in relation to reinsurance has to solve is that of the insurance maximum, i.e. the largest amount of sum insured up to which an insurance company can accept liability without worsening its financial sustainability. Through the use of data on the activity of insurers in Bulgaria, the article calculates the "insurance maximum" for individual types of property insurance. Thanks to the obtained results, it becomes possible to make a quick decision regarding the "largest amount" of the sum insured that an insurance company can take without increasing the relative average risk.
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Nikolay Stoenchev, Yana Hrischeva
Investment Appeal of Residential Real Estate Property in the City of Sofia
Summary:
The current study is focused on the residential real estate property market in the city of Sofia. It examines different options for assessment of investment return on three of the most widespread types of residential housing property – studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats – by residential district in the city of Sofia. A comparative static analysis has been performed according to housing location as well as a dynamic analysis in relation to a past period. For the groups of the most appealing locations, graphs have been plotted of investment return dynamics per month, for a one-year period, which reveal the seasonal character of the changes in the indicator examined. The most recent mass data are used, meeting the requirements for calculating reliable unifying characteristics. Major priorities and objective laws have been worked out, benefiting both theory and practice.
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Hrabrin Bashev
To the Question of Economic Study of Agrarian Contracts
Summary:
Arround the globe, a huge number of theoretical and empirical studies and publications related to agrarian contracts of various types have been made. In Bulgaria, the studies of economic contracts in general, and of agrarian contracts in particular, are incidental, with individual researchers applying "their own" definitions and methodologies, which are often contradictory, non-comprehensive and highly debatable. The article attempts to answer several important academic and practical questions: what is an economic contract, what is the difference of the economic approach compared to other (legal, sociological, etc.) approaches to the study of contracts, what is the role of economic contracts in agrarian governance, why there is such a huge variety of contracts used by agents, etc. The achievements of the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics are adapted and a holistic framework for the economic understanding and analysis of agrarian contracts and contractual relations in agriculture is presented. The system of agrarian contracts is seen as a complex, networked and multi-layered system, involving a variety of agrarian and non-agrarian Agents, who govern their relations and activities through various contractual Means (types of contracts), participating in the agrarian contractual Process, as a result of which in each particular time period in a given country, region, sub-sector, type of farming, agro-ecosystem, etc. dominates a certain contractual and governance Order. Like the economic analysis of the system of agrarian governance, the holistic analysis of the system of economic contracts is to apply an A-M-P-O approach, which includes an analysis of all its elements - Agents, Means, Process, and Order. The article offers an adequate economic definition of agrarian contracts and characterization of their place in the system of agrarian governance as bilateral or multilateral agreements related to agricultural production and services. After that, an economic characterization of the agents participating in the contractual relations is made, paying particular attention to their bounded rationality and tendency to opportunism. These two characteristics related to "human nature" are the reason for the existence of transaction costs and the need to choose an effective governing (contractual) form to increase the "rationality" of agents and protect against possible opportunism in their relationships.
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Stoyan Stoykov
Some Procedural Issues Relating to Criminal Legal Protection of Resources from EU Funds
Summary:
This article is dealing with the procedural rules for investigation of crimes affecting the EU financial system. Attacks with such a specific subject are new to our penal law. However, investigations of abuse of EU funds should not create special difficulties, as though it comes to crimes related to the subject of violations that are generic objects. Native jurisprudence in the broadest sense is a very solid practice connected with crimes chl.201 chl.212-203 and CC.
By ratifying, the Convention concerning the financial protection of the European Community is applied in Bulgaria introduced additional stock of crimes, and therefore be adopted and a number of other changes in laws and regulations (Law on financial management and control of public sector § 1 item 6, the Public Procurement Act and other).
An introduction of this additional criminal law is a fact that could raise questions about the constitutionality of the extent of this protection. For the first time in the Criminal Code used terms such as "funds belonging to the European Union" or "funds available to the Bulgarian state of the European Union.
Looking on constitutionality of protection of these funds to the EU under Article 17 paragraph 2 of the Constitution, property is divided into private and public. The composition of the crimes set out in Chapter Five of the Penal Code "Crimes against property" refers to the concept of 'foreign' - foreign property, foreign property, foreign Money and foreign values. Assets from the funds of the European Union or those granted such a Bulgarian EU country, are relevant to the subject matter of the offense in Chapter V of P Code "Crimes against property.
Interpreting Article 17 paragraph 2 of the Constitution, European Union funds are public property. Constitution as fundamental law, which set the basic principles of state social control does not provide additional protection or priority in the protection of public property to private (article 17 paragraph 2 CRB).
Such additional protection on the various property is governed by the Penal Code, which exalts the offenses of illegal encroachments on the property as a crime which protects against illegal activities the funds in this case.
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Dwight Davison, Jay Mukherjee, David Simpson, Walter E. Block
Preserving Species
Summary:
With the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Endangered Species Act it becomes necessary to review the history of this act and its impact on achieving its goals of preventing the extinction of endangered species. Many environmentalists have argued that the only way to prevent the extinction of animals, most notable Elephant populations in Africa, is through government management and ownership. However, we argue in this paper that the best solution to preserving endangered species is creating a more free market- oriented system of private property rights over animals and land use.
Our argument is two-fold, first - that without a true market with effective property rights we encounter a tragedy of the commons where there is no effective incentive among individual actors to protect endangered animals. Second is the unintended consequences of regulation by government actors that distort the incentives of individuals to protect endangered animals. By instituting a more market oriented way of governing all animals would significantly benefit by reducing the tragedy of the commons problem and the unintended consequences of government management. Using examples from the American buffalo, African elephants, fish farms, and farm animals we try to build the case for more free market-oriented policies in achieving the goal of species preservation.
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Sosthene Codjia, Walter E. Block
Economic Development Policies in West Africa: Making the Case for Free Enterprise
Summary:
Economic development in Africa and everywhere else for that matter, is furthered by capital accumulation. And this is fostered by economic freedom and private property rights which encourages the saving and investment which are the sine qua non of economic growth. The present paper attempts to make this case with regard to the African continent.
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Yasen Daskalov
Standardized Approach to Identification of Infrastructure Assets in Public Sector
Summary:
This paper presents accounting analysis of infrastructure assets as elements of fixed assets in the public sector. Infrastructure assets are significant assets for the public sector. Significant resources of the society are invested in these assets. This paper defines public sector assets and outlines major differences with the definitions in the private sector. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the regulations on infrastructure assets in the European Accounting Rules and International Public Sector Accounting Standards. The paper presents the main accounting policies applied in accounting for infrastructure assets in New Zealand, which is one of the few countries in the world that apply the full version of International Public Sector Accounting Standards. Some of the problems in accounting for infrastructure assets in Bulgaria have been systematized.
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Daniela Feschiyan
Financial Analysis of the Structure, Composition and Effective Use of Publicly Owned Real Estate
Summary:
The research presents the structure and content for a system of indicators for financial analysis of publicly owned real estate. The aim is to clarify the logic, significance, numerical values and methods of use of the proposed indicators for financial analysis and evaluation of the effective use real estate. Potential approaches of examining their comparability and compatibility with other indicators, as well as opportunities for clustering of similar performance and time tracking analysis of objects are discussed. The methodology for deriving the indicators and their meanings enables the study of the effectiveness of the functioning of publicly owned real estate. The proposed system of indicators will improve the effective decision making in the management of publicly owned real estate. Developed by the author, a system of indicators of financial analysis of municipal property was piloted in 6 municipalities in South-Eastern Europe - the Municipality of Tirana, Municipality of Bucharest, Sofia Municipality, Municipality of Athens, City of Zagreb, and Municipality of Cajetina.
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Karim Naama
Private Property in Terms of the Thinker Ibn Khaldun (1331-1406)
Summary:
Form of ownership became a real important aspect of modern economic system, one of the most influential forces determining the further course of development of our planet. It affects all areas of public life, including economic, political, social, culture, ecology and others.
In the face of private ownership, some experts see a serious threat to the economic system and other means for the future progress of the global economy. The positive impact of private ownership is associated with the effect of competition to which it inevitably leads and negative effects - in potential conflict.