Rossitsa Rangelova

Small Firms and Economic Transformation in Bulgaria

The pace of transition to a market economy has been slower in Bulgaria than in some other east European countries in the 1990s. Output levels in the state owned sector, which has not yet been subject to mass privatisation, have fallen sharply and there has been a dramatic increase in unemployment. There has however also been a rapid growth in the number of small firms, and the ability of this sector to generate new jobs will be an important component of labour market dynamics in the future. Some of the main characteristics of this emergent sector are identified on the basis of a sample survey of nearly 400 small Bulgarian firms, covering competitiveness, entrepreneurship, innovation, networking, labour relations and business performance of the small firms. Key features of a subset of small firms with an orientation towards employment growth are identified.

Health and Morbidity in the Accession Countries, Country Report - Bulgaria

Not unlike other countries in Europe, Bulgaria has been subject to the steady process of population ageing, partly owing to the well-established downward trend in birth rates over the last several decades. In the past 15 years, this trend has been accompanied by the consequences of rising emigration, which has primarily involved young and active persons. As a result of the continual process of depopulation and an increase in population ageing, Bulgaria has one of the larger shares of older persons in Europe. The worsening demographic situation and health status of the Bulgarian people, exacerbated by the conditions of economic and social crisis during the transition period to a market economy may be the most alarming phenomena in Bulgaria. Although there are differences among the countries from Central and Eastern Europe, most of them also experienced a deterioration of demographic and health indicators in the 1990s. In Bulgaria, the economic crisis gravely damaged access to health care services in particular. This report presents the health status and morbidity of the population in Bulgaria over the past several decades, emphasising developments in the 1990s, during the country’s transition period. Using statistical data it offers an in-depth analysis of the social and economic factors that determine health status as well as the utilisation of health care services in Bulgaria.

Building the Ethical Infrastructure of the Market in Post–Communist Countries: The Case of Bulgaria

This study considers major problems involved in seeking to build a post–communist ethical infrastructure for business transactions in Bulgaria. After an analysis of the basic economic and political realities of the present transition period, some recent empirical findings are presented concerning the emerging ethics and business culture, concluding with practical recommendations for the future. The author is Senior Research Associate and she also teaches the Social and Business Dimensions of Business in the Institute of Economics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 3, Aksakov Str., 1040 Sofia, Bulgaria; e–mail; ineco@bgearn.acad.bg.

Health Expenditure Scenarios in the New Member States: Country Report on Bulgaria

The expenditures on health care in the new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe have never been based on the model of interdependence of socio-economic factors of the health state and the changes in the structure of population. The development of long-term scenarios here is based on the analysis of a previous study carried out within WPII “Health and Morbidity in the Accession Countries” and thus the health care expenditures are interrelated with the status of health of the nation. Like in the case of the other CEE countries included in the WPIX (Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) for the purpose of the scenarios calculations the model of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Financial and Actuarial Service was used. The main objective of this report is to describe the interrelations between these three groups of indicators related to the health care expenditure in Bulgaria for 2003 taken as a base year and further to produce a long-term projections up to 2050, using an intermediary control (target) year 2025. The outlined projections can be useful for the future health care and social policy in Bulgaria.

Health & Morbidity in the New Member States

The analysis aims to describe processes of demographic and epidemiological changes, as well as health status self-assessment in selected Central and Eastern European countries. Countries selected for analysis represent groups characterized by similar tendencies and specific health and demographic characteristics. Estonia represents the Baltic states, Bulgaria – Balkan countries, and Slovakia represents countries of Central Europe. Poland is a specific country, with demographic and epidemiological characteristics similar to Slovakia, but much larger, with a high share of rural population. In Hungary, demographic processes related to the second demographic transition began much earlier and are still dynamic, and as such constitute a reference for other CEE countries. Analysis is presented in the context of medical service utilization, impact on frequency and structure of services use. Special attention is given to those demographic and epidemiological changes that have direct impact on the frequency of medical service utilization and, as such, determine the increase of healthcare costs. The ageing process and health status improvement are the main hypothetical determinants of healthcare cost increases, and thus they are presented in more detail. Additionally, changes in health behaviour – mainly in the utilization of medical services – are discussed in the context of institutional changes in the healthcare sector.