Abstract

At the onset of the 2008-2009 global economic crisis, the Open Society Institute-Sofia and the World Bank partnered to implement Crisis Monitoring Survey (CMS). The CMS is a multi-topic household survey that followed three nationally representative cross-sections of about 2,400 households, including a panel of about 1,700 Bulgarian households, during February 2010, October 2010 and February 2011. The survey included a detailed income module, but no consumption module. It tracked the incidence of income shocks, the coping strategies used by affected households to mitigate the income losses, and the impact of public polices - social protection in particular - in alleviating the effects of the crisis. In particular, the survey investigated in some depth how households used the labor market to mitigate the impact of the crisis, whether formal social protection programs protected households against sliding into poverty, and the effectiveness of informal safety nets.

Given the special need to study the more vulnerable ethnic minority Roma population, an independent "booster sample" of about 300 households was selected in settlements and neighborhoods identified as predominantly Roma.

The first round of Crisis Monitoring Survey was conducted in February 2010. The data from this round is documented here.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• households,
• individuals

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Two samples were used in Crisis Monitoring Survey: main sample and booster sample.

The main sample was created in two stages.

First, the population was stratified by district (NUTS 3) and type of settlement. In Bulgaria, there are 28 administrative districts. For the type of settlement three categories were defined - rural, urban (with population under 50,000) and metropolitan (with population over 50,000). Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, is include in the metropolitan category. In this way 28 x 3=84 categories (strata) were defined and proportional allocation was made. The method of selecting settlements from each stratum is simple random sampling with replacement, weighted by the number of households in the settlement.

In the second stage, voting stations were chosen in each settlement. Voting stations were used as a type of cluster. Voting stations were selected with probability proportional to the number of voters in each station. In each cluster, (voting station), 20 household addresses were randomly selected from the list of all addresses in the station. The first 10 addresses, which had to be visited mandatorily, formed the main list. If there was a refusal in a household of the main list, this household had to be replaced with an address from the list of reserves (the last 10 addresses).

For the Roma booster sample, an expert database was used. It contained basic information for all segregated neighborhoods in the country like locality (district, municipality and settlement), an experts' approximation for the number of population, number of households, number of houses and other characteristics. The planned booster size sample was 300 households. Simple random sampling without replacement was used in segregated neighborhoods, weighted by their population. In this way, 30 segregated neighborhoods in 20 districts were selected. In each district, 10 randomly sampled households had to be interviewed. GPS sampling was used to identify households in each cluster.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The survey collected information about household demographics (roster), labor market participation and earnings, housing, durables, access to and receipts of social protection programs, informal safety nets and remittances, other income, credit, self-reported impact of the crisis, coping and mitigation mechanisms.

The Bulgaria Crisis Monitoring Survey combines modules that have been used in crisis surveys in a number of countries (including crisis-specific labor, credit, and coping strategies modules) with uniquely detailed modules on income and social assistance.

Response rate

The planned size of the main sample in the first round was 2,400 households, 2,384 households were interviewed. The planned size of the Roma booster sample was 300 households, 296 households were interviewed.

For each cluster, there was a list of 10 addresses that had to be visited by the interviewer and an additional 10 addresses in reserve. If any of the first 10 addresses did not exist, dwellings were locked for a long time or the people refused to be interviewed, the additional ones were used. According to instructions, the interviewer had to visit each address in the main list three times, unless the building (or apartment) was obviously uninhabited. The interviewer had to write down what happened at each visit to each address on the list. At addresses where the interview did not take place, the interviewer noted the reason. Once an interview was done, the questionnaire got an ID that showed whether the address was on the original list or not.

Abstract

The Bulgarian Longitudinal Inclusive Society Survey (BLISS) was conducted in March and May 2013 by Open Society Institute-Sofia and the World Bank. This survey is a continuation of the panel Crisis Monitoring Survey (CMS), with an additional module on the cognitive and socio-emotional skills of the adult population in Bulgaria.

The main purpose of BLISS is to analyze the major barriers to activation (such as skills gaps and mismatches, informational asymmetries, and/or disincentives inherent in the tax-benefit schemes) for different groups (such as women, older workers, and Roma) through an understanding of the labor markets' behavior. The BLISS was conducted using the same panel of households as the CMS for the main sample and the "booster" (Roma) sample. BLISS is treated as an additional round of CMS in the longitudinal analysis, as well as a cross-sectional survey.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• households,
• individuals

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The BLISS was conducted using the same panel of households as Crisis Monitoring Survey.

Two samples were used in Crisis Monitoring Survey: main sample and booster sample.

The main sample was created in two stages.

First, the population was stratified by district (NUTS 3) and type of settlement. In Bulgaria, there are 28 administrative districts. For the type of settlement three categories were defined - rural, urban (with population under 50,000) and metropolitan (with population over 50,000). Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, is include in the metropolitan category. In this way 28 x 3=84 categories (strata) were defined and proportional allocation was made. The method of selecting settlements from each stratum is simple random sampling with replacement, weighted by the number of households in the settlement.

In the second stage, voting stations were chosen in each settlement. Voting stations were used as a type of cluster. Voting stations were selected with probability proportional to the number of voters in each station. In each cluster, (voting station), 20 household addresses were randomly selected from the list of all addresses in the station. The first 10 addresses, which had to be visited mandatorily, formed the main list. If there was a refusal in a household of the main list, this household had to be replaced with an address from the list of reserves (the last 10 addresses).

For the Roma booster sample, an expert database was used. It contained basic information for all segregated neighborhoods in the country like locality (district, municipality and settlement), an experts' approximation for the number of population, number of households, number of houses and other characteristics. The planned booster size sample was 300 households. Simple random sampling without replacement was used in segregated neighborhoods, weighted by their population. In this way, 30 segregated neighborhoods in 20 districts were selected. In each district, 10 randomly sampled households had to be interviewed. GPS sampling was used to identify households in each cluster.

In BLISS, there were five types of addresses: - All the households from the first wave, regardless if they were interviewed in the second and third waves or not; - Addresses of the households only from the second and third waves; - Addresses of the households only from the third wave; - Addresses of the households only from the second wave; - Additional addresses to complete the list to 2,400 households.

In BLISS, 2,239 main sample households and 285 booster sample households were interviewed.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire used in BLISS is similar to Crisis Monitoring Survey questionnaire, but it has an additional module on cognitive and socio-emotional skills of the adult (18-65) population.

Response rate

The planned size of the main sample in the first round was 2,384 households, 99% of this sample was realized. The planned size of the Roma booster sample was 296 households, 99% of this sample was realized.

For each cluster, there was a list of 10 addresses that had to be visited by the interviewer and an additional 10 addresses in reserve. If any of the first 10 addresses did not exist, dwellings were locked for a long time or the people refused to be interviewed, the additional ones were used. According to instructions, the interviewer had to visit each address in the main list three times, unless the building (or appartment) was obviously uninhabited. The interviewer had to write down what happened at each visit to each address on the list. At addresses where the interview did not take place, the interviewer noted the reason. Once an interview was done, the questionnaire got an ID that showed whether the address was on the original list or not.

Ottoman Plovdiv Geodataset is a digital addition to the monograph Ottoman Plovdiv: Space, Architecture, and Population (14th–17th centuries) by Grigor Boykov, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, ISBN. Analyses and conclusions presented in the book are based on this dataset. The geodataset is created and curated by Dr. Grigor Boykov, Institute for East European History, University of Vienna. For contacts: grigor.boykov@univie.ac.at Sources: A variety of primary sources contributed to the creation of the dataset. Except for 30-Meter SRTM DEM, several historical plans of the city were harvested for features: Plan of Plovdiv and its surroundings by A. Jägerschmid, 1828 (National Library "Ivan Vazov," Plovdiv. Kp II 60); City plan of Plovdiv by Lejean, 1867. (Guillaume Lejean, "Voyage en Bulgarie," Le Tour du monde, nouveau journal des voyages 26 (1873): 113–70); City plan of Plovdiv by Heinrich Kiepert, 1876. (Crop from Heinrich Kiepert, Karte des Sandjak Filibe (Philippopolis) aufgenommen nach Anordnung des dortigen Provinzial-Gouverneurs Mehemmed-Nusret-Pascha.); City plan of Plovdiv by Ferdinand v. Hochstetter, 1869. (Ferdinand von Hochstetter, "Reise durch Rumelien im Sommer 1869. 5. Philippopel," Mitteilungen der K. und K. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien 14 (1871): 65–80); City plan of Plovdiv by G. Ilinskij, 1878. (National Library "Ivan Vazov," Plovdiv. РЦ ІV 62); City plan of Plovdiv by Joseph Schnitter, 1891. Various Ottoman archival and narrative sources also contributed to creating the dataset. For detailed information about the source base of the dataset, please refer to the relevant section in Boykov's monograph. The geodataset consists of 33 layers. A brief information on each of the layers is provided below. For further information, please refer to the book. Layers:

Street polylines – created by manual feature extraction from Schmitter's 1891 plan in scale 1:5000.
Street polygons – created by manual feature extraction from Schmitter's 1891 plan and partial data from Ilinskij's 1878 plan in scale 1:4200. Mahalle – defines urban quarters' boundaries, based on variety of sources (see the book). Density_1472 – presents the distribution of population densities per quarter in 1472, based on data from Ottoman tax register PD 17/27, Bulgarian National Library, Sofia. Density_1489 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1489, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 26, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1516 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1516, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 77, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1525 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1525, based on data from Ottoman tax register MAD 519, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1530 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1530, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 370, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1570 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1570, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 494, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1596 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1596, based on data from Ottoman tax register KuK 65, Cadaster Archive, Ankara and TD 648 and TD 1001, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Density_1614 – distribution of population densities per quarter in 1614, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 729, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1472 – presents the distribution of total population per quarter in 1472, based on data from Ottoman tax register PD 17/27, Bulgarian National Library, Sofia. TotalPop_1489 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1489, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 26, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1516 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1516, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 77, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1525 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1525, based on data from Ottoman tax register MAD 519, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1530 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1530, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 370, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1570 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1570, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 494, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1596 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1596, based on data from Ottoman tax register KuK 65, Cadaster Archive, Ankara and TD 648 and TD 1001, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). TotalPop_1614 – distribution of total population per quarter in 1614, based on data from Ottoman tax register TD 729, Ottoman Archives, Istanbul (BOA). Buildings_certain_location – polygons reflecting the location and shapes of certainly identifiable buildings from the Ottoman period. Buildings_tentative_location – polygons of buildings from the Ottoman period, whose existence is attested by the written sources, but precise location and shape are uncertain. Cemetery_Christian – the area of Christian graveyards, based on the plans of Schnitter and Ilinskij. Cemetery_Muslim – the area of Muslim graveyards, based on the plans of Schnitter and Ilinskij. Field – cultivated plots as reflected in the plans of Schnitter and Ilinskij. Orchard – orchards as reflected in the plans of Schnitter and Ilinskij. Forest – forests as reflected in the plans of Schnitter and Ilinskij. Fountain – public fountains (çeşme) as reflected in the plan of Ilinskij. Walls – reconstruction of the medieval walls of Plovdiv, based on observations and archaeological data Swap – the tentative shape of the swamp at the southeastern edge of the city. Islands – islands on the Maritsa, based on the plan of Schnitter Bridge – reconstruction of Lala Şahin's wooden bridge, based on the plan of Schnitter, visual sources, and archaeological data. Maritsa – the riverbed of the Maritsa before regulations, based on the plan of Schnitter. Contour – contour lines of the relief, extracted from 30-meter DEM.