55 research outputs found
Private Markets and Political Markets: A Comparative Analysis
No full textThis is a study of the political sphere from the perspective of the public choice theory. It analyses the political markets in comparison to the private markets within the microeconomic theoretical framework (methodological individualism, rational choice theory, self-interest axiom). Part one studies the similarities (scarcity constraints; choosing, rational and self-interested individuals; competition), as well as the differences (institutional constraints, the individual cost-benefit calculus, time dimension of the decision-making process, consequences of the individual choice, responsibility, etc.) in the two types of markets. Part two compares the private and political market failures. Part three analyses in-depth a particular pathology in the political markets: the phenomenon of the voter’s rational apathy (ignorance/abstention).
The Modern Political Economy: Traditional Approaches and New Directions
No full textThis paper examines the revival of political economy in various forms in the last decades. The first part is dedicated to the evolution of the definition of the economic science to lay the foundation of a better understanding of the current use of the term “political economy”. The second part sets out a typology of the different theories and schools of political economy and relates them to certain characterization of the present day mainstream neoclassical economics. The last part of the paper focuses on one of the latest developments, the theory of public choice as a “new political economy”: methodology, analytical apparatus, major themes and findings.
Market Order and Social Institutions: the Theory of F. Haiek and the Newly Emerging Market Economies
No full textSubject of the analysis is the theory of F. A. Haiek about the institutional frame of the spontaneous market order and its contemporary sounding. Studied are the nature, functions and structure of the social functions and the way they generate order. At front is drawn the character of the institutions as information and communication carriers and their role for the economizing of a knowledge. The focus is set on the emerging of the informal rules and conventions, which appear as unintentional consequences from the human activity. The second part is dedicated to the relevance of the theory for the contemporary post-communist reality. Defended is the thesis that the paradigm for the spontaneous market order and its institutional frame is necessary as a philosophy of the new social arrangement in more continuous and global perspective. The messages of Haiek are revealed in its warnings for the danger for the monopoly power of the state in the creation of new norms of the social practice, as well as in the insisting for a policy, leaving sufficient space for the changes in the informal market institutions.
About the Austrian Economic Theory, Mises, Hayek and More: a Provoked Answe
No full textThe article is an answer to the publication The Ideas of Ludwig von Mises for the Development of the Austrian Economic School by N. Gerchev (iss. 4/ 2005), constructed as a critical analysis of positions and statements, presented in our study on the Austrian School. An attitude has been taken about some issues of the Austrian economic theory, which are of a disputable nature. The principle position, which the discussion is based on, is the understanding of common tradition and relatively shaped specific "face" of the Austrian School.
Modern Political Economy: Traditional Approaches and New Directions
No full textThis paper examines the revival of political economy in various forms in the last few decades. The first part is dedicated to the evolution of the definition of the economic science to lay the foundation of a better understanding of the current use of the term "political economy". The second part sets out a typology of the different theories and schools of political economy and relates them to certain characterization of the present day mainstream neoclassical economics. The last part of the paper focuses on one of the latest developments, the theory of public choice as a "new political economy": methodology, analytical apparatus, major themes and findings.
The Ideas of Ludwig von Mises for the Development of the Austrian Economic School
No full textPeculiarity of the theory of value of Mises is presented, and a special emphasis is put on differences with the concept of value of earlier Austrian economists. In the light of it the importance of economic calculation issues is deduced too. The theory of interventionism, developed by Mises, is presented in some details. His main conclusion, that interventionism is not an economic system which enables people to reach their goals, is pointed out. Special attention is paid to the character of economic laws. With regard to this a critical analysis of a number of statements in a book by Stefka Koeva (Austrian Economic School: Characteristics and Individual Achievements, Varna, Steno, 2003) is made.
Dolgozó és gondoskodó nők a kommunizmus alatt és után Bulgáriában
Get PDFA tanulmány ismerteti Bulgária munka és család összeegyeztetését célzó politikáját az átmenet előtt és után. Az átmenet előtt a családpolitika pénzkereső-gondoskodó jellegű volt: a női munkavállalás és a gyermekgondozás összekapcsolását támogatta, a férfiakat pedig arra bátorította, hogy a gondoskodásban legalább segítsenek a nőknek. Az átmenet után a nőknek a gondozómunka támogatásához való hozzájutása annyira korlátozottá vált, hogy a családpolitika – fizetésképtelenségből és szélsőségesen magas munkanélküliségi szint mellett – kétkeresős modellre váltott. A Várnai Foglalkoztatási Iroda 349 nő megkérdezésével végzett felmérése mutatja, milyen romboló volt a munkahelyek elvesztése az átmenet során. Ma a bolgár családstratégia kétkeresős, korlátozottan gondoskodó jellegű, s továbbra is magas munkanélküliségi szintek kapcsolódnak a termékenység kemény korlátozásához. Az állam családdal és nemekkel kapcsolatos politikája az üzleti csoportok és az IMF privatizációs nyomása alatt áll. A családi gondoskodást támogató politika még mindig csak papíron létezik, és a valóságban nem érvényesül. Ez részben a szervezett, széles alapokon nyugvó nőmozgalmak hiánya következtében van így. Ilyen szervezetekre volna szükségük a nőknek, hogy eredményesen követelhessék jogaikat és a pénzkereső-gondoskodó családmodell visszaállítását
HEALTH SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT - AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR HEALTH SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT
No full textHealth system performance assessment is a widely recognised tool, which supports the decision-making process in the health system and monitors the progress in achieving its goals. In the last 20 years, many international organisations such as Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Health Organisation European Region and European Observatory on Health Systems and Policy have undertaken several initiatives for health system performance assessment. At EU level, it is seen as an essential tool to achieve effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of health systems. Different conceptual frameworks for health system performance assessment have been proposed at international and national level. Although there is no uniform dimensions and indicators, all these frameworks have a common starting point – the conceptualisation of the health system, defined in a broader or narrower way.
In Bulgaria, over the past decades, comprehensive health system studies have been mainly devoted to the ongoing health reforms and their outcomes. There are numerous studies on specific aspects of the health system, such as effectiveness and access to health services, as well as studies related to the assessment of the health status of the nation. Despite the wide variety of healthcare publications in Bulgaria, there is no a uniform methodology for periodic assessment of the health system. The aim of this study is to review the current state of research on health system performance assessment at international and national level
Achieving OAI PMH compliancy for CDS/ISIS databases
Get PDFPurpose – The main purpose of this paper is to present the work recently carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with Associazione per la documentazione le biblioteche e gli archivi (DBA) in Italy to make web CDS/ISIS-based applications
compliant with the OAI-PMH. CDS/ISIS is an Integrated Storage and Information Retrieval System of Unesco, which is widely used especially in Latin America and Africa. There are hundreds of CDS/ISIS-based application systems managing bibliographical reference, ensuring high quality
content through the use of built-in authority files, data entry guidelines and validations. It also allows for metadata export in many different formats.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology adopted included study, analysis and evaluation of three existing solutions for exposing metadata from the CDS/ISIS database repositories to the OAI framework.
Findings – The implementation did not include the development of automatic procedures for incremental harvesting from CDS/ISIS databases nor the normalization of the harvested data.
However, a lot of experience in implementation of OAI was gained which will be useful for future development of non-CDS/ISIS systems.
Research limitations/implications – The research and development work demonstrates the importance and implications of this work for the whole CDS/ISIS community and specifically for the participating centres from the AGRIS network.
Originality/value – It proposes an open source, easily parametrizable plug-in tool, which can be adapted to expose metadata from a general structure CDS/ISIS database using the OAI-PMH protocol.
This work assures that semantically rich metadata for agricultural science and research publications based on the “AGRIS Application Profile” can be handled by the OAI protocol. This in turn allows for
further creation of additional services based on the exchange of knowledge on agricultural science and technology publications world-wide
Bulgaria and the other new eu member states: trends in the health status after twenty years of transition
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the trends in the basic indicators of population`s health status in the twenty years of post socialist transition of Bulgaria. The processes and tendencies in this country are placed in the broader context of the developments in the other post-socialist countries, particularly, the new EU member states. Thus the ap- proach adopted in the paper is the comparative one. Although the whole period is under consideration, em- phasis is placed on the last 5-10 years. After stagnant or even decreasing life expectancy at birth in the 1990s, this indicator has been showing a positive trend throughout the last decade. Even though the numbers are comparable to the values in some other EU12 countries, they are still one of the lowest among all EU Member States. Although the last few years have seen a slight decrease in overall mortality rates, mortality in Bulgaria is still substantially higher than in any other EU country. Whilst the cardiovascular mortality has decreased in the last decade, it is still the highest in the European Union and several times higher than the EU average. Child mortality (both infant and under-five) has been decreasing, but Bulgaria still lags behind the EU aver- age and even the average of the EU12. Perinatal mortality rate is twice as high as the respective values for the EU-12. The positive tendencies in population health status, as subtle and fragmented as they seem to be, are mainly attributable to the stabilization of the political situation in the country starting from 2000-2001, and especially to the economic upsurge in the mid-2000s
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