SHADOW ECONOMY FACTOR DETERMINATION AND APPROACHES TO LIMIT IT IN BULGARIAN SOCIETY
The project is being implemented by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology – BAS with the financial support of The Research Fund (FNI), КП-06-Н3519/18.12.2019. The present scientific research project is the first serious and purposeful attempt at a fundamental investigation and explanation of the “shadow economy” in the perspective of its factor determination and its influence on national economy and social relations. The project will offer a sociological reconstruction (in the Ivan Hadjiyski sense) of the manifestations of the “shadow economy”, with making emphases on study of 1) factor determination of shadow economy, including people motives for getting involved into shadow practices and 2) possibilities for its limitation through relevant governmental and other approaches.
Based on the specific features of the attitudes and inclinations of various generations (young people, people in active working age, and people in pre-retirement and retirement age) towards shadow economy practices; on this basis, will be established the motivation of Bulgarians for participation in shady practices and socio economic consequences of such economic behaviour. In the process of project will be explained: 1) the various levels of tolerance towards the shadow economy, 2) the various degrees of willingness to take part in shadow economy practices, and 3) factors and motives driving people to become a part of the shadow economy. As a result of this, the project: 1) will construct working schemas of interpretation of the economic behaviour of contemporary Bulgarians and 2) will recommend constructive approaches and measures for reducing those causes among the various age groups.
As a result of the project activities, a wide range of databases will be gathered which will be a basis for creation of new fundamental knowledge in the field under study and design of significant governmental approaches for shady practices limitation. In the framework of the project, a Shadow Economy Tolerance Index will be constructed and applied, for the first time, for measurement.