"Scientific research" Almanac

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  THE TOBIN TAX AND THE SPECULATIVE CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS

  The purpose of this paper is to outline the Tobin Tax ability to solve certain problems related to the instability of financial markets, conditioned by speculative transactions. First proposed in the early 70’s of the 20th century, Tobin’s idea has re-tained its relevance and is still subject of attention both in academic circles and in terms of ... The purpose of this paper is to outline the Tobin Tax ability to solve certain problems related to the instability of financial markets, conditioned by speculative transactions. First proposed in the early 70’s of the 20th century, Tobin’s idea has re-tained its relevance and is still subject of attention both in academic circles and in terms of its practical implementation. Briefly reviewing the unsuccessful experience of Swe-den to introduce its own type of the Tobin Tax, the paper seeks the lessons learned through it and identifies the most significant obstacles and challenges before the finan-cial transactions taxation from financial, political and organizational point of view.

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  RISK ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR INVESTMENT SELECTION – THEORY AND PRACTICE

  The paper reviews risk assessment for selection of investments in terms of em-pirical derivation and estimation of beta coefficients on the capital market in Bulgaria. It aims to develop some theoretical aspects regarding risk assessment for investment se-lection as well as to provide empirical derivation and trend analysis of the beta ... The paper reviews risk assessment for selection of investments in terms of em-pirical derivation and estimation of beta coefficients on the capital market in Bulgaria. It aims to develop some theoretical aspects regarding risk assessment for investment se-lection as well as to provide empirical derivation and trend analysis of the beta coeffi-cient values of leading Bulgarian public companies included in the SOFIX index. The paper is structured in four main parts according to its subject matter, goal and objec-tives. The first part reviews the current objectives and the theoretical grounds of in-vestment management. The second part focuses on the possibilities to include risk into the investment analysis. The third part analyzes the methodological framework for in-vestment selection. The fourth part presents an empirical study of the beta coefficients of the SOFIX companies for the period 2007-2012, identifies trends and proposes cor-porate grouping according to their capacity to restore market capitalization to the pre-crisis levels. The results show that two of the leading Bulgarian companies (i.e. 13.3% of the total number of companies in the index) have betas exceeding 1.25 (based on monthly data for the period Sept. 2007 - Sept. 2012), seven companies (46.7% of the index) have beta coefficients between 0.75 and 1.25 and six companies (40% of the index) have conservative betas of less than 0.75.

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  REASONS FOR THE CHANGES IN THE VOLUME AND QUALITY OF INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS' LOANS PROVIDED BY COMMERCIAL BANKS IN BULGARIA

  The high credit activities of commercial banks in Bulgaria as regards citizens and households just before the consequences of the global economic crisis, as well as the efforts of local people to maintain a quality standard of living, are the main reasons which increase the burden of individual customers’ loans in the loan portfolio of bank ... The high credit activities of commercial banks in Bulgaria as regards citizens and households just before the consequences of the global economic crisis, as well as the efforts of local people to maintain a quality standard of living, are the main reasons which increase the burden of individual customers’ loans in the loan portfolio of bank institutions. The worsening of economic indicators in the country after the beginning of 2009 forces the banking institutions to change their behaviour on the credit market and to seek effective ways to limit the ever increasing non-performing loans among the population. The purpose of the current study is to trace the tendencies in the change of volume and quality of the banks’ overall consumer loan portfolio for the period December 2006 – June 2012, and to outline the main reasons of the worsened quality of loans extended to individuals for current needs by the local commercial banks.