Kaloyan Ganev

Measuring Total Factor Productivity: Growth Accounting for Bulgaria

Total factor productivity measurement enables researchers to determine the contribution of supply-side production factors to economic growth. For Bulgaria, which is a transition economy, it is difficult to construct a production function with stable parameters, mostly because there are atypical developments of capital and labor during periods of economic growth, as well as due to the lack of sufficiently long and dependable data series. In this respect, growth accounting enables us to identify the basic sources and directions of influences. The calculations that have been carried out in this paper help in the identification of total factor productivity development as the main driving force of economic growth. The likely reasons for this strong influence have been also outlined.

Can Educational Attainment Explain Total Factor Productivity? Growth Accounting Evidence from Seven Transition Countries for the Period 1991-2000

In this paper we use growth accounting methodology to study whether human capital explains a part of total factor productivity in transition. The results that are obtained are not in support of the theoretical findings of growth theory that human capital is a major determinant of growth and productivity. However, eventually we continue to believe that the reasons for this misfit to theory lie in the very nature of data and not in the specifics of the methodology used.

Interaction of Leading and Supporting Factors for the SME Competitiveness

The main goal of this research was to investigate the SMEs competitiveness in terms of leading and supporting factors, and to compare the influence of these factors on SMEs performance. The study focused on four leading and four supportive factors. For each of these factors the respective indexes were constructed and calculated on the basis of 300 Bulgarian SMEs. Through the econometric modelling the research addressed the interaction between two groups of factors. The main findings related to the factors ordering - with some of leading factors stepping back and supporting ones becoming more important in the times of crisis.

Effects of EU Funded Policies: Net Impact Assessment of Investments in Education and Science in Bulgaria

The main objective of the paper is to provide an estimation of the impact of the investments in education and science in Bulgaria, financed by the European structural instruments. It provides net impact assessment as of end of 2012 as well as projections of potential effect until 2020. The methodology used is based on application of SIBILA model (Vasilev, Ganev, Simeonova-Ganeva, Chobanov & Tsvetkov, 2011).