IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/socchp/978-3-031-87923-4_9.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The Role of Bulgaria in the Global Value Chains

Author

Listed:
  • Paskal Zhelev

    (University of National and World Economy)

Abstract

This chapter examines Bulgaria’s integration into global value chains (GVCs), analyzing its role in international production networks from 1995 to 2018. It highlights the structural shift in Bulgaria’s economy toward increased reliance on foreign value-added inputs, reflecting a growing dependence on backward linkages within GVCs. The chapter explores key indicators such as domestic value added (DVA), foreign value added (FVA), and GVC position indices to assess Bulgaria’s participation relative to other Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). The findings reveal that Bulgaria’s GVC participation has steadily increased, but its position remains predominantly downstream, focusing on assembly and processing activities rather than higher-value stages like research and development. The analysis identifies sectoral variations, with manufacturing sectors deeply embedded in downstream roles, while services like ICT and finance show relatively less dependency on foreign inputs. Comparative data indicate that Bulgaria aligns with other CEECs in its GVC engagement but lags behind older EU members, which occupy more upstream positions. The chapter concludes by recommending strategic initiatives to enhance Bulgaria’s value addition, including investment in innovation, infrastructure, and education. Strengthening institutional frameworks and fostering advanced manufacturing capabilities are essential for repositioning Bulgaria higher within global value chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Paskal Zhelev, 2025. "The Role of Bulgaria in the Global Value Chains," Societies and Political Orders in Transition,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:socchp:978-3-031-87923-4_9
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-87923-4_9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:socchp:978-3-031-87923-4_9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.