This paper presents the results of the first stage of the research project "Structure and Management of Contractual Relations in the Agriculture of Bulgaria", financed by the Agricultural Academy and developed by the Institute of Agrarian Economics. The achievements of the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics have been adapted and the theoretical-methodological issues of the economic study of agrarian contracts have been developed. On this basis, a holistic approach has been developed to define, classify, assess and improve contracts and contractual relations in Bulgarian agriculture. A critical analysis of the modern development of the economy of contracts, organizations, and institutions has been made through a study of literature, official documents, and management practices in the agrarian sphere of developed countries and Bulgaria. The peculiarities of the economic study of agrarian contracts compared to the purely legal approach in this area are highlighted. A "new" approach to economic analysis, evaluation and improvement of agrarian contracts in the country is justified, which includes: (1) economic definition of agrarian contracts and characterization of their place in the system of agrarian governance (management) as bilateral or multilateral agreements related to agricultural production and services; (2) economic characteristics of the agents participating in the contractual relations (interests, degree of awareness, risk-taking tendency, capacity, tendency to opportunism, etc.); (3) economic characteristics of different types of agrarian contracts (for purchase and sale, hire of labor and resources, services, loan, insurance, marketing, coalition, etc.); (4) economic characterization of the agrarian bargaining process (technological, transactional, institutional, etc. factors for managerial choice); (5) economic characterization of the outcome of the contractual process and the dominant administrative order in the agrarian sphere (law of law, law of force, contractual structure, etc.); (6) ...
