The objective of this paper was to estimate the inflation-unemployment nexus and the opportunities for inflation-unemployment trade-off in Bulgaria. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression of annual time series data for the period 2003-2022 was employed to test the Phillips curve hypothesis for Bulgaria. The results from the empirical analysis showed that: (i) a negative relationship (both linear and non-linear) exists between inflation and unemployment in Bulgaria; (ii) Bulgarian policy makers can decrease inflation by three percent at the cost of one percent increase in unemployment by implementing restrictive macroeconomic policies.
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between sociodemographic variables, financial literacy levels and the sum of causes of insolvency (count of causes reported per respondent). The research adopted a quantitative approach, using a purpose-designed questionnaire based on the 3rd Financial Literacy Survey of the Portuguese Population, conducted by Banco de Portugal in 2020. The sample comprises 84 individuals declared insolvent, of whom 52.4% are women, 40.5% divorced or widowed, and nearly half (47.6%) aged between 40 and 54 years. Data were analysed using SPSS software. The results reveal that insolvency declarations are more likely among specific sociodemographic groups, such as women, divorced individuals, those with low educational attainment, and those on low incomes. The leading causes of insolvency were unemployment or loss of income (57.1%) and unexpected events (59.5%), followed by divorce (32.1%) and financial mismanagement (36.9%). The data indicate that respondents possess a relatively high level of financial knowledge and practice sound financial management, with over 80% reporting systematic control of expenses and timely bill payments, although only about half set long-term savings goals. Additionally, they are heavily influenced by bank counter staff (54.8%) and family members (63.1%) when selecting financial products. These findings underscore the need for measures to enhance financial literacy, particularly among young people and low-income individuals.
This study explores the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war through an existing comprehensive survey, delving into the challenges e-sellers face in North Macedonia. The research specifically investigates how demographic factors influence e-sellers challenges in maintaining prices and coping with decreased demand, attributed to factors like inflation and the Russian-Ukrainian war. The ANOVA test was employed to assess the impact of categorical independent variables, including sales channels, years of operation, number of employees, and online sales, on these challenges. Regression (linear and quantile) is performed to determine the relationship between the variables. The results indicate that e-sellers operating under the click-and-mortar model face more challenges in maintaining prices compared to those exclusively selling online. Notably, other demographic factors such as years of operation, number of employees, industry, and online sales do not show statistically significant mean differences, suggesting a universal challenge for e-sellers. E-sellers with fewer employees (1-9), limited operational experience, newly established businesses, and lower online sales face the challenge of decreased demand more prominent.
In the international legal system for the protection of human rights, a number of universal and regional international acts have been adopted, each of which contributes to achieving a higher level of protection of basic human rights and values. Undoubtedly, one of the most important acts in this system is the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Convention is an international treaty by virtue of which the member states of the Council of Europe that have joined it have both obligations to observe the recognized rights and positive obligations. Subsequently, Additional Protocols to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were adopted, which expanded the list of recognized fundamental rights and freedoms and introduced additional guarantees for their observance. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms guarantees, in addition to the protection of a number of civil rights, also economic rights, such as the right to property. This fundamental economic right is protected in Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Important for the correct application of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court ruling on various violations of its provisions, thanks to which, in recent decades the improvement of the national legislation of the countries parties to the international act and real effective protection of basic human rights has been achieved rights and freedoms at the national level. This report will present the positive impact of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on the protection of human rights and freedoms in Europe and its particular importance for guaranteeing the right to property through the lens of the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court.
In the long-term perspective, the increased societal sensitivity towards environmental protection requires the promotion of environmentally friendly modes of transport. This implies a shift in the distribution of passenger traffic in favor of rail transport. The development of passenger rail services is determined by the quality of the service offered. The most important indicator of this is the condition of the rolling stock. Investments in new rolling stock and, consequently, in transport infrastructure accelerate economic growth, create prosperity, facilitate mobility, and not least, improve geographical accessibility. A key strategic priority for BDZ Passenger Services is the implementation of an active technological policy to meet the needs of passengers for quality, fast, safe, and comfortable transport. The introduction of new rolling stock into operation will meet these requirements while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of overall transport services.
The integration of cryptocurrencies into investment portfolios has been analysed through two main approaches: Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) analysis. While previous research has demonstrated the potential to improve portfolio performance through cryptocurrency inclusion, the current study reveals a more nuanced picture. Empirical results indicate that, under Markowitz's theory, cryptocurrencies are assigned zero weights in the optimal portfolio, primarily due to their extreme volatility (exceeding 50–60% for assets such as DOGE-USD and MATIC-USD). Correlation analysis reveals strong relationships between major cryptocurrencies, such as BTC-USD and ETH-USD (above 0.85), while assets such as DOGE-USD and TRX-USD exhibit weaker correlations with other components (below 0.4). Despite their diversification potential, the high volatility of cryptocurrencies diminishes this effect. The optimal portfolio achieves results similar to traditional benchmarks, with a return of 6.8% and risk around 12%. The study concludes that integrating cryptocurrencies into investment portfolios necessitates more dynamic risk management approaches.
Does firm size matter for the performance of small and medium-sized companies? To answer this question, the study at hand employs data from the well-established Gepard ranking of small and medium-sized fast-growing enterprises in Bulgaria. Ordinarily least-squared regressions techniques are applied on a cross-section of more than 2000 observations with the results showing that returns on revenue are negatively related to firm size in our sample. Additional regressions show that sectoral effects are quite strong and explain a non-trivial part of the variation in profitability. Although significant, regional effects are not that strong. Specifically, our results show that firms in the northern regions are more profitable than firms in the southern regions. Overall, the results are in favor of the hypothesis that firms in the sample follow a growth-focused strategy rather than a profit-focused strategy. The study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the size-growth-profitability nexus by providing evidence from a less researched area of small and medium enterprises in South-East Europe, particularly in Bulgaria.
Managerial competences are crucial for organizational strategic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship and impact of communication as managerial competence on managerial effectiveness. Through a self-administered questionnaire, the study collected data from 323 managers from 205 medium-sized and large enterprises in Kosovo. The results showed a positive impact of communication as managerial competence on managerial effectiveness. The study found that informal communication had a significant impact on organizational effectiveness, whereas formal communication showed no statistically significant results. These findings suggest that managers in Kosovo’s dynamic business environment may benefit from emphasizing informal communication to improve decision-making and team collaboration. Additionally, effective negotiation skills were found to enhance managerial effectiveness. However, the study's regional focus on Kosovo limits the generalizability of these findings to other cultural or economic contexts. Future research could explore testing the model in different countries and consider longitudinal studies to better understand how communication styles evolve over time.
This book review critically examines The Rise of Carry: The Dangerous Consequences of Volatility Suppression and the New Financial Order of Decaying Growth and Recurring Crisis by Tim Lee, Jamie Lee, and Kevin Coldiron (McGraw-Hill, 2020). The authors present a compelling thesis on the rise of “carry trades” and how their proliferation contributes to systemic fragility within modern financial systems. This review explores the central themes of volatility suppression, distorted incentives in monetary policy, and the long-term macroeconomic consequences of a financial system increasingly reliant on stability as an illusion. The review offers a scholarly assessment of the book’s empirical foundations, its theoretical contributions, and its relevance for academics and policymakers interested in macro-financial stability. It also reflects on the implications of “carry dynamics” during post-crisis monetary regimes and considers how the book adds to the broader literature on speculative bubbles, market-based risk, and financial globalization.
This study aims to analyze the factors influencing corruption levels across developed and developing countries, focusing on the roles of institutional quality, sustainable economic growth, income per capita, and human development in shaping corruption outcomes. The study also investigates the comparative differences in corruption levels between these two groups of countries. The analysis utilizes a quantitative approach based on secondary data from 27 European Union countries, covering the period from 2010 to 2022. Using a 13-year panel dataset of 351 observations, the study applies econometric models suited for panel data— specifically, fixed effects and random effects models. Findings reveal that institutional quality significantly reduces corruption levels (B=0.58), while human development shows a positive association with corruption (B=11.56). Conversely, income per capita exhibits a negative relationship with corruption (B=- 0.98). The fixed effects model shows a high explanatory power (R-squared=77.61%) and confirms no multicollinearity (VIF=1.59) and homoscedasticity (p=0.6636). Results also highlight that developed countries experience higher corruption levels compared to developing countries (B=3.97).
The social accounting matrices and the general equilibrium models integrate the microeconomic function of markets, composing macroeconomic outcomes. The level of state intervention does not impede the formation of macroeconomic balances. Sometimes, the scientific literature restricts the real capabilities of these models as planning tools by various commitments. Notwithstanding, in action, these tools have gained widespread acceptance, since all the socio-economic systems have used them for planning. This paper advocates that the general equilibrium models are not tools for the profits’ maximization, but primarily they are tools for a gradual and perpetual holistic restructuring of productive networks, aiming the social felicity and happiness. A more meticulous glance in the thought of W. Leontief reveals and highlights the role of input-output analysis as a tool of social political economy and progress.
Strong relationships across different sectors are the preconditions for the sustainable growth and development of any economy in the world. Though, the reality is that, in many economies such good coordination does not work properly. Agriculture, industry and service are the three prime sectors in an economy out of which the first one is the farm sector and the remaining two taken jointly is the non-farm sector. The contributions of output and employment by the sectors constitute almost the entire economy’s output and employment. The present study investigates whether there are long run and short run linkages in output and employment within and between the farm and non-farm sectors in India for the period 1973-2018 using the time series econometric approach. The study finds stable long run relations between output and employment in levels and growth rates for industry and service sectors. Regarding the farm and non-farm sectors’ linkages in levels and growths of output and employment, the results show that agricultural GDP maintains long run relations with total non-farm GDP but the results do not hold in case of employment. In the short run, the study observes, in most cases, that levels and growths of GDP become the causal factors of levels and growths of employment but not the reverse. Hence, it is recommended that the economic and sectoral expansions are necessarily required for employment generation for the country.
Given the current increase of public debt among governments worldwide and the shift in the composition of that debt toward private sector borrowing, it has become necessary to examine the potential influence of public debt on inequality as a contribution to diagnosing the causes of economic inequality and identifying its mechanisms, especially given the high level of inequality worldwide over the past three decades. This study conducts an empirical investigation of the relationship between public debt and income inequality, comparing the possible effects in developed and developing nations, by employing Fixed- Effects panel regression for 30 developing and developed countries from 1990 to 2020. It is shown that public debt has a significant positive effect on income inequality for the pooled group of selected countries (the full sample). However, the study does not provide robust evidence regarding differences between the debt-inequality sensitivity in the sub-samples of developed and developing countries.
This research examines the dimensionality of consumer ethnocentrism measures in Indonesia as the literature regarding sentiments toward imports growths. We used quantitative methods like factor analysis and structural equation modeling to examine 786 online responses and ensure that the proposed scale met objective standards. A qualitative analysis of a literature review justifies the applicability of this study's findings based on past ethnocentrism studies in Indonesia. This paper proves the refined scale’s construct reliability and validity, including content, discriminant, convergent, and nomological validity. This study reveals the negative and significant relationships of the shortened Indonesian consumer ethnocentrism scale with attitudes toward imports. Ethnocentric consumers are more prone to developing unfavorable attitudes toward imports. This relationship is weak; hence, it should not deter foreign businesses from marketing their products in the domestic market. The limitations are the interpretation bias of a qualitative study, the subjective aspects of the quantitative exploratory factor analysis method, the sample selection bias of an online survey, and nonprobability sampling that hinders generalization. Depending on the situation and dataset, the proposed simple consumer ethnocentrism measure needs to be looked at again in future studies.
Brand Attachment is a crucial factor in developing and maintaining customer-brand relationships. It creates an attachment with the brand and leads to gaining customers' trust to retain them. The study examined the relationship between brand attachment and customers' online purchase intention across diverse socio-economic and demographic settings. Data were collected from 252 respondents in Delhi-NCR who were active customers of online stores selling branded apparel. The PLS-SEM techniques were employed to analyse the data. Additionally, the moderating influence of demographics, such as education, gender, and occupation level, was tested on the relationship between brand attachment and online purchase intention. The study's findings revealed critical insights into the field of knowledge on how different SEED groups explain brand attachment and the different roles of demographics in online purchase intention. There is a significant positive moderation interaction between education and occupation for customers, and a negative interaction between gender.
This article aims to conduct a historic and scientific research concerning the manifestation and development of the financialisation phenomenon and its socio-economic impacts through a survey on prestigious international relevant publications. The research pioneers the literature in terms of the analysis, interpretation and depiction of the phenomenon function mechanism, based on the logic and philosophy of the financial/capital flows (influxes-outflows) of enterprises’ accounting statements. The researched relevant literature was organized into seven distinct levels of approaching gnostic sectors on the basis of the material of the research topics and its characteristics. In the field of global merchant shipping the research conducted led to the identification of a research gap. A comprehensive overview on the relevant articles concerning the evolutionary route of various worldviews involving class systems, social organisations and schools of economic thought dealing with the conceptual formation of the term, the substance of the phenomenon and its evolution is provided in this study. The scientific contribution of this study lies in the fact that: a) the survey covers the whole period (1980-2023) during which the phenomenon was manifested, with various frequencies of rise and fall of its intensity, b) a coherent classification of the relevant articles material, in relation to this concept, the function of financialisation and the sectors it affects is suggested, c) the direct and indirect tracing of the phenomenon manifestation, based on the capital flows of enterprises’ accounting statements is defined methodologically and depicted and d) enriches international literature with a pioneering work, providing an additional academic research-oriented tool for the solution of theoretical and empirical issues but also with outlining or correcting policy issues.
The unique characteristics of emerging markets, alongside the involvement of personal judgement in determining value metrics, make equity valuation in these markets particularly challenging. Using a phenomenological approach, this study seeks the expert opinion of academics on both objective and subjective elements of equity value in these markets. The thematic analysis of their responses reveals that quality of earnings, diverse and distinctive sources of risks in emerging markets to be included in the risk premium, and uncertainty surrounding the growth rate must be carefully assessed and evaluated. While selecting the models, analysts should consider not only integration of emerging markets with global markets but also potential inconsistencies in the model inputs. This study finds that discounted cash flow models are preferred over price-based, relative valuation models because of the instability of the market prices, and within discounted cash flow models, free cash flow models are favored over the dividend discount model. The findings are expected to guide the investors and analysts in the selection of the right valuation metrics and models for accurate equity valuation.
Employment creation is one of the sustainable development goals’ top priorities to be achieved by 2030, and economic uncertainty poses a major threat to this goal. Using data from 1990 to 2017, our study examines the impact of economic uncertainty (EUI), economic growth (EG), and globalization on unemployment in E7 countries. Our study employs the second generation panel tests and the Cross-Section Augmented Autoregressive Distributed lag CS-ARDL and the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation techniques. The findings of the CS-ARDL and PMG indicate that a decrease in EUI reduces unemployment in the long-run. In addition to decreasing unemployment, economic growth exhibits the Okun's law. The PMG results indicate that globalization has a positive and significant relationship with unemployment, while the CS-ARDL results indicate that globalization has a negative but insignificant effect on unemployment. The Juodis, Karavias, and Sarafidis (JKS) Granger-causality test demonstrates a unidirectional causal effect from EUI, EG, and globalization to unemployment. The policy implication is that the government and policymakers should adopt measures to reduce economic uncertainty. Moreover, unemployment, SDGs, and the Paris Agreement are interlinked, with the SDGs offering sustainable development that involves decent work and economic growth (SDG-8), whereas the Paris Agreement addresses climate change, which can affect employment and economic growth.
In the context of Fourth Industrial Revolution, digitalization has been recognized as a key driver of long-term development in developing countries. This study aims to explore the impact of digitalization on the global value chain (GVC) participation of Vietnamese enterprises between 2005 and 2023. Utilizing a probit model, the findings show that digitalization positively affects firms’ GVC participation. The results are robust across various definitions of GVC participation. The study also finds that labor productivity, costs at custom gates, and import licenses play important roles in promoting firms engaged in GVCs. Meanwhile, firm age does not have significant effect on GVC engagement. Regarding heterogeneous effects, digitalization has a more profound effect on medium-sized firms than on large ones. Based on these findings that we propose several policy implications to encourage Vietnamese firms to adopt digitalization and deepen their involvement in global value chains.
This study investigates the dynamic connectedness among conventional cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin), gold-backed currencies (PAXG and DGX), gold, and G7 banking sector indices (USA, Germany, Canada, France, UK, Italy, and Japan). Employing Quantile Vector Autoregression and Temporal-Frequency Connectivity methodologies, our analysis reveals nuanced relationships among these market blocks. France and Germany’s banking indices exhibit the highest connectedness, emphasizing their central roles. Peaks in the Total Connectedness Index coincide with global events, underscoring the market’s sensitivity to external shocks. G7 banking sectors emerge as stable information transmitters, while Bitcoin, PAXG, DGX, and gold act as net receivers of shocks, reflecting their effectiveness as hedges during economic uncertainties. Our time-quantile space approach unveils a symmetrical pattern in dynamic connectivity, emphasizing robust interconnections between positively and negatively shifted assets. The time-frequency connectedness analysis highlights the market’s short-term sensitivity, emphasizing the need for adaptive risk management. Decomposing net directional connectivity into short and long-term dynamics provides valuable insights for investors and risk managers. Ultimately, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of dynamic connectedness in the cryptocurrency market, offering insights for effective risk management and decisionmaking in this evolving financial landscape.
