Hrabrin Bachev
Volume 1, Issue 1
Published: August 26, 2025
The goal of this article is to identify contemporary modes, factors and efficiency of labor supply in Bulgarian farms. Interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics methodology is incorporated and analysis made of new representative micro data collected from the managers of farms of different type and locations. The study found out that there has been enormous development in labor supply governance in Bulgarian farms during the last two decades.
The permanent employment is major form for labor supply in farms, followed by the seasonal and the part-time employments. Owners and family members account for the largest share of the total workforce. Different forms are used (high recurrence of contracts with the same person, output-based compensation, use of service supply or input contracts, etc.) to reduce transaction costs of labor and overall governance of farms.
The reasons for using employment contracts and importance of different labor supply and governance modes, intensity of transactions, types of partners, and kinds of remuneration vary considerably depending on juridical type, size, specialization, and locations of holdings. The most important problems in hiring labor are the lack of available workers, the high price of hired labor, requirements to pay social contributions and paid leave, high worker turnover, costs for adapting official labor standards, and costs for controlling hired labor (cheating, stealing, etc.).
For a significant number of Bulgarian farms, the costs of finding needed labor and managing workers are strongly restricting enterprise development. This is particularly important for a good proportion of major commercial farms like cooperatives, physical persons, and corporations, and to a lesser extent for sole traders.
Hrabrin Bachev, Independent Researcher, Bulgaria.
Bachev, H. (2025). A Study on Governance of Labor Supply Modes, Factors and Efficiency in Bulgarian Farms. Economic Development & Global Markets, 1(1), 01-17.