Entrepreneurship, knowledge and employment

Development Issues in the Economic Thought of the European Periphery - the Case of Bulgaria

Penchev Pencho, University of National and World Economy

The aim of the proposed paper is to clarify one of the main trends and characteristic features of the economic thought of a peripheral European economy as Bulgarian. The author’s thesis is that economic backwardness had a large impact on the economic thought of Bulgaria. In a sense it was development economics for more than a century and a half. For centuries the Bulgarian lands were not well integrated in the European grain, money and other markets. That was the situation in the market for ideas too. Following the definition of U. Maki Bulgaria was a peripheral country in the development of economic thought. The main reason for this conclusion is the fact that, with a few exceptions, the local intellectuals and economists largely imported and interpreted foreign economic ideas and concepts. The Development issues of the backward and largely self-sufficient agrarian economy as Bulgarian were at the core of Bulgarian economic thought since its inception app. around mid-19th century. In fact for more than a century and a half the notions of classical liberalism, economic nationalism, German historicism, neoclassical ideas and Marxism were interpreted as a kind of practical instructions for catching-up with the developed industrial core of Europe. The pure theoretical approaches of the Western economists were either neglected or unknown among the Bulgarian economists.

Area:

Keywords: development, Bulgarian economists, peripheral countries

Please Login in order to download this file