Publication:
Bulgaria - Investment Climate Assessment : Volume 3. Technical Appendices

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (696.12 KB)
201 downloads
English Text (539.7 KB)
75 downloads
Published
2008-10
ISSN
Date
2012-06-12
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Sustained improvements in living standards depend on broad-based economic growth. This will only take place when firms improve worker productivity by investing in human and physical capital and increasing their technological capacity. But firms will only invest when the investment climate is favorable. The goal of the Bulgaria Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment climate in all its operational dimensions and to promote policies to strengthen the private sector. The ICA is largely based on results from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The 1,000-firm survey was conducted in late 2007 and collects detailed information on firm performance, what managers see as the main obstacles that they face, and objective data on various aspects of the investment climate. Additional sources of information are used to supplement the survey data, including the World Bank's Doing Business Report, a study that provides detailed, comparable data on regulation across the world, data from the National Statistical Institute, and reports from the Government of Bulgaria, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, academics, and other sources.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2008. Bulgaria - Investment Climate Assessment : Volume 3. Technical Appendices. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7867 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Are Skills Rewarded in Sub-Saharan Africa? Determinants of Wages and Productivity in the Manufacturing Sector
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08) Oviedo, Ana Maria; Fox, Louise
    Using recent matched employer-employee data from the manufacturing sector in 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, the authors analyze how the supply of skills and legal origin of the country affect the wage setting process. The wage analysis yields three main findings. First, increasing returns to education, especially for older workers, suggest that the expansion of education in Africa has reduced returns to education for entrants in the labor market. Second, age effects matter not just for returns to education, but also for the wage setting process more generally. In particular, in civil-law countries, returns to seniority are rewarded only after a certain age. Third, workers exercise some power in the wage setting process but their influence varies by linguistic group. In common-law countries, union presence benefits all workers equally, not just members, whereas in civil-law countries, only older members enjoy higher wages. The authors also contrast wage premia with relative marginal productivities for different age, occupation, and education categories. The findings show that in general, older, highly educated, and highly ranked workers receive wage premia that do not reflect a higher relative marginal productivity.
  • Publication
    Peru : Trajectories towards Formality
    (Washington, DC, 2008-06-16) World Bank
    This report is the outcome of very close cooperation with the authorities of the Government of Peru. The authorities have been involved in all stages of the process, going back to the first phase of this programmatic study. The authorities proved instrumental in helping design the focus of this report, including the scope of a survey of businesses conducted for this study, the survey questionnaire itself, they also suggested specific topics to be explored, which are presented throughout the report mainly in the form of boxes. This report focuses on the trajectories towards formality of micro and small businesses, drawing insight by polling those businesses directly. The study finds no significant impact of certain characteristics of formality, such as having a municipal license or being registered with the tax authorities, on the profitability of businesses or on their probability of obtaining a loan. These results must be accompanied, however, by the caveat that establishing the impact of informality econometrically is notoriously difficult. The methodology used in this report does not attempt to capture the negative effects that informality may have on the performance of formal firms, or the effects that informality may have in undermining social trust and the overall business environment. The study also finds informality to be particularly persistent in the area of labor relations and access to pension, driven largely by high costs of being formal, limited enforcement of labor relations, and a preference for flexible labor relations. These two findings combined suggest that: (i) efforts to increase the access to health insurance and pension coverage of workers through a shift from informal arrangements to existing formal labor relations will prove difficult; and (ii) alternative methods to increase access to health and pension coverage are well-worth exploring. The rest of these main findings concentrate on the conclusions of the study regarding the determinants of informality and what prompts businesses to move towards formality.
  • Publication
    Foreign Wage Premium, Gender and Education : Insights from Vietnam Household Surveys
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-04) Fukase, Emiko
    This paper investigates the differential impacts of foreign ownership on wages for different types of workers (in terms of educational background and gender) in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys of 2002 and 2004. Whereas most previous studies have compared wage levels between foreign and domestic sectors using firm-level data (thus excluding the informal sector), one advantage of using the Living Standards Surveys in this paper is that the data allow wage comparison analyses to extend to the informal wage sector. A series of Mincerian earnings equations and worker-specific fixed effects models are estimated. Several findings emerge. First, foreign firms pay higher wages relative to their domestic counterparts after controlling for workers personal characteristics. Second, the higher the individual workers' levels of education, the larger on average are the wage premiums for those who work for foreign firms. Third, longer hours of work in foreign firm jobs relative to working in the informal wage sector are an important component of the wage premium. Finally, unskilled women experience a larger foreign wage premium than unskilled men, reflecting the low earning opportunities for women and a higher gender gap in the informal wage sector.
  • Publication
    Informal Employment in Argentina : Causes and Consequences
    (Washington, DC, 2008-03) World Bank
    This report presents the final results and conclusions of a two-year program developed by a World Bank team in Argentina, to analyze the determinants of informality and its impact on poverty and equity. Informality in the labor market has become a central concern for policy makers and the society at large in Argentina. The long upward trend in informal employment until recent year has been viewed as a deterioration in working conditions that is behind the sustained rise in poverty and inequality in the last quarter of the twentieth century. While some of the possible causes for the rise in informality have been studied, their relative importance remains unclear and its links with poverty and inequality have not been examined in detail. A primary objective of the program is to deepen the shared work with the Argentine government and civil society on socio-economic development and equity issues. The aim has been to analyze and propose policy options for the labor market that respond to the Government's priorities, are technically sound, and provide an open menu for discussion. The study of informality in the labor market is not an empty field in Argentina. Many local analysts have studied its causes and consequences, and this report built on this work. A key aspect of the program was to draw on the extensive local analytical studies on the issues and sustain an active interaction with government counterparts and civil society through technical workshops, meetings and other outreach efforts. This report focused on discussing the evolution, determinants, and policy options to reduce labor informality in Argentina and its impacts. By developing a common base of diagnoses with the government, the program set a path for further discussions and collaborations. Following this process, the Ministry of Labor has already asked the Bank to collaborate on a new program that will focus on labor markets, social protection, and income distribution, looking for policies that would result in better and more effective policies to increase equity in Argentina.
  • Publication
    An Assessment of the Investment Climate in South Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Clarke, George R.G.; Habyarimana, James; Ingram, Michael; Kaplan, David; Ramachandran, Vijaya
    The objective of the South Africa Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment climate in South Africa in all its operational dimensions and to promote policies to strengthen the private sector. The investment climate is made up of the many location-specific factors that shape opportunities and incentives for firms to invest productively, create jobs, and expand. These factors include macroeconomic and regulatory policies, the security of property rights and the rule of law, and the quality of supporting institutions such as physical and financial infrastructure. The main source of information for the ICA is a survey of over 800 formal private enterprises. The survey includes data on firm productivity, the cost of doing business, the regulatory environment, the labor market, the financial sector, the trade regime, and levels of investment. The analysis links business environment constraints to firm-level costs and productivity. Also, the investment climate and performance of firms in South Africa can be compared with those of firms in the more than 70 low- and middle income countries in which Investment Climate Surveys (ICSs) have been conducted.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23) Belacin, Matias; Iacovone, Leonardo; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy
    Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.