Rules, Regulations and Transaction Costs in Transition Bulgaria

Micro-firms (1 to 9 employees) 78
Small firms (10 to 49 employees) 39
The units of measurement most frequently used in the analysis are "percentage", "arithmetical mean" and "median".
The percentage shows the portion of interviewees having answered a question in a given manner. In some cases
the total exceeds 100% as several answers were allowed.
The arithmeticalal mean is an mean value of the valid cases, whereas the median is a middle value with an equal
number of values below and above it in a given set of values, e.g. number of licenses, number of days spent,
number of visits to various institutions, etc. The median corresponds to the fiftieth cumulative percentage and is
appropriate in sets with highly variable values (or standard deviations). Unlike the arithmetical mean, the median
neutralises the effects of the highest and the lowest values.
IV. The sociological poll: results analysis
The results of the sociological poll are divided in the same sections as the questionnaire and, for the sake of
clarity, bear the same titles.
IV.A. Entry costs
The entry transaction costs may be divided into two main groups:
— firm registration of the merchant,
and
— obtaining a permit to carry on the business. The permit is labelled differently depending on the type of
business.
IV.A.1 Firm registration of merchant 19
For the purposes of this study, "firm registration of the merchant" is taken to mean the process starting with
booking a business name at the National Statistical Institute and ending with entry in the tax register.
The data from the sociological poll shows that the process of firm registration takes 15 days on average. If an
intermediary intervenes, the period is reduced immaterially to 14 days, instead of 15. The maximum period of
registration - with or without intermediary - mentioned in a response was 90 days, while the minimum period was
19 For the purposes of this report "merchant" denotes any entrepreneur carrying out by occupation any of the activities
listed in s. 1 of the Commercial Code, viz.: purchase of goods or other chattels for resale either in their original form or
after processing or treatment; sale of goods manufactured by the merchant; purchase of securities for sale; commercial
representation and agency; brokerage, shipping and transport transactions; insurance transactions; banking and
foreign exchange transactions; bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques; warehousing transactions; licensing
transactions; supervision of goods; intellectual property transactions; hotel, tourist, advertising, information,
programming, impresario and other services; purchase, construction or furnishing of real estates for sale; leases.
10