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Education is the core of the factors that improved people for a better lifestyle and increases the level of society' development. Quality education is one of the most vital goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to actualizing these factors. Using relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA), which have three interrelated substages, this current paper computes the educational economy efficiency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries bearing in mind the characteristics related to SDGs. The contribution of our study is the use of a novel approach to computing the educational economy efficiency using relational network DEA with GAMS. Even though some interesting differences reveal in the efficiency of the countries, the findings show that countries with high-efficiency scores are clustered around countries like Latvia, Slovenia, and Korea.

This paper studies a sample of economies in transition to verify the assertion that returns to schooling increase as an economy transitions to a market environment. This claim has been difficult to assess in the past as the empirical evidence so far has covered only a few countries over short time periods. A number of studies find that returns to education increased from the "pre-transition" period to the "early transition" period; it is not clear what has happened to the skills premium through the late 1990s, or the period thereafter. We implement a more systematic analysis using data comparable across countries and over time to estimate returns to schooling in eight transition economies (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia). The analysis covers the early transition period up to 2002; in the case of Hungary, we capture the transition process more fully, beginning in the late 1980s. Compared to the existing literature, we also implement more comprehensive robustness checks on the estimated returns, although at best we offer only an incomplete solution to the problem of endogeneity. We find that the evidence of a rising trend in returns to schooling over the transition period is weak. There are, however, significant differences in returns across countries. These differentials have remained roughly constant over the last 15 years. We speculate on the likely institutional and structural factors underpinning these results. (Contains 6 tables.)

The countries that signed the Bologna Declaration need also to modify their engineering programmes accordingly. In Hungary some modifications are necessary independently of the Bologna Declaration. The number of students has increased by a factor of three during the past decade without an increase in the number of staff. The consequence is disadvantageous, especially in engineering higher education. The students have fewer practical exercises and are not involved enough in teamwork. This must be changed in order to maintain the good quality of diplomas. Other changes should be introduced in harmony with the Bologna Declaration. This paper gives a summary of the changes in the Hungarian higher education in the past decade and summarizes the expectations of experts working in industry and the economy. A suggestion is given for the structure of engineering BSc and MSc courses. In Hungarian higher education, especially in engineering higher education, there is an agreement that 3 years are not enough for BSc studies. Our suggestion is that the BSc programme should be the integration of the present college-level programmes and of the first 3 years of university programmes. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

This article analyses the economic impact of inbound student mobility in Hungary. The research is based on an innovative approach not only showing the geoeconomic impact based on expenditures of the different groups of incoming students (Erasmus+, degree mobility of self-funded or scholarship holder students), but also links the data to specific sectors of the national and local economies. Thus, the paper reveals that international student mobility affects not only the internationalization of the higher education institutions or even the entire higher education sector, but also the wider macro environment, carrying geopolitical considerations. Based on the findings, a new aspect or "side effect" of the global and/or governmental "soft power" initiatives (e.g. Erasmus+, Belt and Road Initiative, Stipendium Hungaricum) can be identified in economic development. With the Hungarian case, the article intends to contribute to a better understanding of the changing geopolitics of higher education in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the determinants and the stability of money demand functions in Hungary and Poland, using an error-correction framework. The null of stable cointegration relationships cannot be rejected in some specifications. The results suggest that long-run parameters are in line with economic theory. While judging the appropriateness of different strategies of monetary policy on the basis of these findings alone would be premature, the paper suggests that money demand functions can serve as a useful reference for monetary authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays behavioural economics is widely studied and referenced. Well-known classic experiments (e.g. prospect theory) have provided many results which prove that we are human, but most of these studies did not deal with the background and origin of these problems. In this paper we use classic experiments on one sample each of Hungarian and Vietnamese students. The respondents are not just geographically distant, but their cultures differ greatly. Cultural differences can be described through cultural comparisons (e.g. the Hofstede, GLOBE, and Schwartz studies) which explain the main differences between our two studied samples. But each actor has a different personality, and the way we handle risky situations colours our decisions. Due to this fact, we applied the DOSPERT Scale to each respondent, measuring their personal risk-taking levels. Our main research question focuses on how cultural background and personal risk level matter in economic decisions. Based on the relevant state of the art, we have added to classic experiments the DOSPERT Scale and extended it with cultural dimensions using Hofstede's theory; the impact of gender differences was also observed. Altogether seven hypotheses were defined and tested using an online survey in order to compare cultural differences between Vietnamese and Hungarian samples (n=190). We found significant differences between the two samples; we can therefore conclude that the final decision is in many cases associated significantly with participants' cultural background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a brief review of the Marxist economic approach to the environment and environmental protection with special attention given to the formal system of environmental regulation in Hungary. (JDH)

The study aims at deciphering the driving forces behind the Hungarian eurolessness from a more complexity-aware perspective. To this end, it applies the concept of runaway phenomena, borrowed from complexity science pervaded by an evolutionary view to the socio-economic innovation ecosystem, in interpreting the runaway Hungarian nationalism. It demonstrates that global runaway phenomena in the world economy have been heavily influencing the Hungarian path. With this approach, it becomes clearer how Hungary turned from eulogy to neutrality and then has gone even beyond in terms of Europeanisation. The paper also conveys some lessons both for economics theory and economic governance alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, the Hungarian pig sector has undergone remarkable changes. In the 1980s, the Hungarian pig sector was the main pork product provider of the Eastern bloc, but after the political and economic transition, the sector lost its main markets and the size of pig herds decreased radically. The economic changes have brought negative impacts for all the players of the pork supply chain: the producers have been mostly affected, but slaughterhouses and the processing industry had to face new circumstances as well. The goal of this paper is to review the present situation and the current problems of the Hungarian pig-producing sector and to draw up the main prospects and favourable directions of the future by the findings of the SWOT analysis of the Hungarian pig sector and based on the proposed directions of the government's new pork strategy. As the pig sector is an important pillar of the Hungarian agriculture and the rural communities, it is worth to summarize the sector's present market position and to set those opportunities, which could give advantages for Hungary in the international competition. The paper concluded that the most prominent problems of the pig sector are caused by the economic and structural problems of the sector, based on the problem tree and sector's SWOT analysis the main external and internal factors were detected, and the results were compared to some measures of the government's pork strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of pension funds' performance in Poland and Hungary, two Central European countries characterized by strong regulation of their private pension fund industries. Thus, the paper extends the literature, which has so far mostly focused on the performance of pension fund industries facing no or limited regulation. We find that the performance of pension funds in the two studied countries differs. While we do not find convincing evidence of outperformance by Polish pension funds, we find strong evidence of underperformance by Hungarian pension funds. The results are robust to time variation. The paper considers possible explanations for these findings. The results of the paper should be of interest to policymakers seeking to achieve optimal performance of pension systems and to academics researching the area of pension funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – One of the new factors in Eastern European countries (and there is an acknowledgement that this aspect is displayed in other countries too) is this concept of freely sharing information, i.e. the concept of what is known in knowledge management (KM) literature of "Knowledge Sharing". Sharing only takes place where there is trust and where there is a shared feeling of ownership of goals. The reasons behind the tendency to share are based on the kind of interpersonal relations between co-workers inherent within the organization and the effects of social relationships within organizational teams. Strengthening the social relationships between individuals in the team is crucial in motivating team members to share knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of how KM impacts on an small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) and create a framework of best practice of KM in SMEs. Design/methodology/approach – New research is currently investigating the concept of "sharing social relationships" and one of the aims of the project is to investigate the barriers to sharing information in a particular type of business – that of the (SME) in order to form a comparative study. The results of the study will be used to from a model of "information sharing best practice" for SME which are setting up or using KM systems. The paper will examine the barriers to sharing in two newly emerging economies (Poland and Hungary) and one relatively established economy (the UK). At the time of writing, the work with Poland and Hungary has been completed and this paper gives the initial results from the Hungarian study. Findings – The findings are complex and varied but in the case of the Hungarian results there is a clear energy, enthusiasm and commitment to knowledge sharing in order to ensure the success of the business. Research limitations/implications – Emerging economies are by their nature changing economies and so this work forms a snapshot of life at a particular moment in time. Practical implications – The paper shows that there is a need for an increase in training, and that government support is helpful and enabling. Originality/value – Knowledge sharing is important and the study described in the paper will allow cross comparisons between different countries. It is intended that a model of best practice will be one of the outcomes of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widely used measure for studying social, economic, and health inequality is the Gini index/ratio. Whereas other measures of inequality possess certain useful characteristics, such as the straightforward decomposability of the generalized entropy measures, the Gini index has remained the most popular, at least in part due to its ease of interpretation. However, the Gini index has a limitation in measuring inequality. It is less sensitive to how the population is stratified than how individual values differ. The twin purposes of this paper are to explain the limitation and to propose a model-based method—latent class/clustering analysis for understanding and measuring inequality. The latent cluster approach has the major advantage of being able to identify potential “classes” of individuals who share similar levels of income or one or more other attributes and to assess the fit of the model-based classes to the empirical data, based on different cluster distributional assumptions and the number of latent classes. This paper distinguishes class inequality from individual inequality, the type that is better captured by the Gini. Once the classes are estimated, the membership of estimated classes obtained from the best fitting model facilitates the decomposition of the Gini index into individual and class inequality. Class inequality is then measured by two relative stratification indices based on either the relative size of the Gini between-class components or the relative number of stratified individuals. Therefore, the Gini index is extended and assisted by model-based clustering to measure class inequality, thereby realizing its great potential for studying inequality. Income data from France and Hungary are used to illustrate the application of the method. INSETS: Figure 1. Gini indices and Lorenz curves for income data...;Figure 2. Empirical income distribution of France in 1990...;Figure 3. Income clustering in France, 1990.;Figure 4. Income clustering in Hungary, 1992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radical changes in Eastern Europe which aim to transform these economies into market economies put the issue of organizational and individual adaptation at the centre of attention. Hungarian-Western mixed management organizations are regarded as effective tools for helping this adaptation process. This paper examines, through the example of five joint ventures, what practices are to be changed and what problems arise in terms of organizational and individual adaptation and learning. For the theoretical framework, the author draws together the insights of four types of learning approaches with structural contingency theory, strategy-structure and strategic choice theories, institutional theory of organizations and organizational change theories. The paper finds that there are changes in the organizational routines and procedures as a response to changes in the contingent factors. Westerners do not, however, necessarily play a positive role as agents of change in introducing strategic thinking among Hungarian managers. This problem relates to the phenomenon of new paternalism which also makes it easier for Westerners to cope with the problems of not being able to change the old philosophies of their Hungarian staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are market friendly views determined culturally? Answering this question is an important step in understanding economic development. The paper focuses on Hungary and Hungarians because the fact that substantial Hungarian minorities live in countries neighbouring Hungary gives us the possibility to examine the role of the country of residence as opposed to the role of ethnicity in determining the extent to which a person has a more or less positive view on the market economy. Following the literature on economic growth, which sees ethnicity as a proxy for common culture, this paper uses data that can be found in different waves of the World Values Survey, and applies different theories of market friendly attitudes to identify possible determinants of the strength of such views, other than culture. The example of Hungarians shows that the country one lives in is more important than ethnicity in determining whether one's views on the market are more or less positive, and the country one lives in is important even if several other determinants of pro-market views are accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays tourism is often a key element of urban and regional competitiveness. The aim of this study is to present how can become a less-known town also a tourist attraction with taking into consideration the local characteristics during the planning and development processes. The paper presents the case of Mórahalom, which is a small town in Southern Hungary. Few decades ago agriculture was the main economic sector in the settlement but since then massive investments have been put into the spa industry. These investments have accelerated the development of Mórahalom and quickly restructured its local economy and society, too. The paper is based on the content analysis of the local media and development documents, survey and local statistical data analysis. According to the results the cumulative inter-dependent developments in the spa industry of Mórahalom have produced a multiplier effect which has led to a strong increase in tourist arrivals or income tax. The visitors are satisfied with the spa and the services offered in Mórahalom. Therefore, the town has all the assets to be competitive in the tourism market which is a key factor of the local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of export competitiveness ~ff Hungary and other new member countries of the EU (NMEs) prior to their accession. It also makes a contribution to the methodology of competitiveness measurement. It links competitiveness analysis to so-called eclectic trade theories trying to synthesise different approaches to comparative advantage. Design/methodology/approach Introductory theoretical remarks are followed by a survey of various techniques to measure competitiveness. It defines "fields of competitiveness" in order to gauge Hungary's relative positions vis.á.vis her main export competitors. The analysis of export competitiveness of these countries in their main markets within the EU-15 is based on market shares between 1996 and 2001. Findings The most advanced economies of the sample including Spain, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic showed a "neo-technological" type of competitiveness development. The "Heckscher-Ohlin" path based on cheap labour and mass technologies was followed by Portugal, Poland or Turkey for example. The "Ricardian" path with a great degree of reliance on natural resources could be observed in the ease of Ukraine and Bulgaria. Originality/value - The paper makes a contribution to three fields of economics: the economics of transition, competitiveness analysis and trade theory. It proves that the catch-up process of the NMEs brought about significant changes in their patterns of specialisation and competitiveness which is a feature of transition hitherto neglected by literature. Furthermore, it provides a proof to the so-called eclectic model of trade theory introduced by Hirech in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of capital accumulation and imports on the relative demand for skilled and unskilled labor in Hungary between 1980 and 2002. Historical data show that both relative employment and wages of skilled labor were favorably influenced by the changes of the past decades, when the Hungarian economy transitioned from a centrally planned to a market-led regime. The international literature suggests that skill-biased technology development and increasing trade resulted in similar changes in many developed and less-developed economies. Because only limited research has been done in this respect in Hungary, the paper investigates whether these factors had similar effects on relative labor demand in Hungary to those observed in the international literature. Compared to the results of relevant Hungarian studies, the most important finding of the paper is that, during past decades, capital and skilled labor were used not only as relative complements in production, but as absolute complements. The paper employs a framework that allows for the fulfillment of the appropriate curvature conditions required by the underlying economic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the construction of green money, a civil society-based initiative in Hungary as a case study of the ‘institutional’ approach to the transition from command to market economies in East/Central Europe, which argues for the development of civil society organizations to facilitate structural changes in the economy. The paper compares programmes developed endogenously in Hungary through the diffusion of ideas about sustainability and economic democracy through international activist networks with those developed by a Hungarian NGO with support from western aid agencies. For the former, green money was a radical project aimed at developing alternative forms of livelihood through localized money networks, while for the latter it was a tool for ameliorating transition through the construction of mutual aid and community feeling. The paper points to problems in building new civil society institutions, arguing that while some of the difficulties encountered were technical problems that reflect the poor performance of green money as a development tool, other problems reflect more structural, political and cultural problems. The paper argues that over-optimistic conceptualizations of the potential of civil society in the facilitation of inclusive transition need to be more cognisant of the difficulties in constructing civil society from the outside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two and a half decades, the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, have become an integral part of the global economy. Following the change of regime, the rate of foreign direct investment increased, modern industries emerged and exports became significant. However, this process was halted by the global economic crisis in many advanced and transition economies, and the concept of 'reindustrialization' emerged as one of the economic policy responses to the new challenges generated by the crisis. In our paper, we study whether reindustrialization is present following the lowest point of the crisis in one of the post-socialist countries of the EU, in Hungary. If so, in which regions and industries, and under what conditions? Our research indicates that reindustrialization can be generally observed only in a few rural regions after 2009, limited to only one or two industries, while, for instance, in the capital and in its agglomerations and in urban regions with large research universities, deindustrialization is more likely to take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal payments for health care are a well-known phenomenon in many health care systems around the world. While informal payments could be an important source of health care financing, they have an adverse impact on efficiency and access to care, and are a major impediment to ongoing health care reforms. This paper aims to study the scale and patterns of informal patient payments for out-patient and in-patient services in three former-socialist countries: Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine. The data are collected in 2010 and 2011 based on national representative samples and are analysed in pooled models to explain variations in payments. The results of the cross-country comparison suggest a relatively higher prevalence of informal patient payments in Ukraine and Hungary than in Bulgaria, where patients also have to pay formal user charges in the public sector. Nevertheless, informal payments for hospitalization in Bulgaria are quite extensive. We observe some differences in informal payments across the years. Variations in payment size are mainly explained by the nature, type and need for services, fee awareness and, on some occasions, by household income. Interpreted within the context of structural differences (e.g. reform paths, regulations, funding, user fees, anti-corruption policies), the findings of our study have implications on how to address informal payments for health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of MNCs' crisis-driven cost-cutting and organizational restructuring actions on their local subsidiaries in Hungary. We hypothesize that much of the cost-cutting minded and esed organizational transformation prompted by the global crisis of 2008 can actually be beneial to some subsidiaries. Drawing on interviews carried out at 13 manufacturing subsidiaries, we d that upgrading occurs partly as a consequence of MNCs' pressure to reduce costs and improve ef organizational restructuring and resources reallocation, and partly as a result of an increasing delegation of advanced functions to production subsidiaries. Although the Hungarian subsidiaries were on the receiving end: they hosted some of the relocated production activities, the main managerial implication is that caution is needed, success often breeds failure. The resulting overcon may prevent local managers and policy-makers from monitoring and analyzing industry-speci technological and market trends to detect opportunities and threats as early as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to support political and economical decision makers by providing climate information for the future, it is essential to analyze regional climate model results. These models are capable to describe the regional climate conditions of individual countries using 25 km horizontal resolution, whereas global climate models are too coarse for such details. This paper discusses the regional effects of global warming using regional climate model experiments from the PRECIS model developed at the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office. Since PRECIS was adapted at the Department of Meteorology, Eötvös Loránd University in the recent years, important regional/local conditions could be taken into account during the modelling process. In the experiments of PRECIS, three different emission scenarios (A2, A1B, B2) are considered to provide estimations for the 21st century. Our conclusions highlight the significant warming tendency in Hungary, especially in summer. The frequency of cold temperature extremes is projected to decrease significantly while warm extremes tend to occur more oft en in the future. Furthermore, significant drying is projected in the region, especially, in summer. In winter the precipitation is likely to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychosocial Intervention is the property of Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In my study after introducing some basic border-theories, I will focus on an economic-related issue that has hardly been researched until nowadays: cross-border retail trade. In the theoretical part of this paper I aim to highlight the multiple interpretations and explanations of borders. After determination of some basic concepts about socio-economic borders, I introduce a new model about classification of borderland areas in which I determine 4 types of "border spaces". Following the results of latest border research agendas, I draft a new model, where the typology of cross-border factor flows and their influencing factors are introduced. Here I distinguish 3 ranges of cross-border economic flows, and 5 factors that influence these. In the final part I analyse the most important findings in the field of cross-border retail trade. After distinguishing the terms "shopping tourism" and "cross-border retail trade" (from the point-of-view of the participants, aims, affected area, etc.) I present some empirical evidences about the importance and relevance of cross-border retailing related to the Western part of the Slovakian-Hungarian border area. I focus on the activity of small and medium sized retailers, and on the shopping behaviour of people living in the border area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the relationship between the use of specific knowledge and economic success among Hungarian grape growers and wine makers. In the last decade, Hungary has been left behind by world trends as represented by the increasing share of the premium and super-premium wines (which utilise higher knowledge) in the export development. According to our survey, one cause of this might be the inappropriate use and management of knowledge and skills which is 'conditio sine qua non' for wine making. The Hungarian wine regions (usually with resource-based, fordist type resource endowment) are rather knowledge users. We have found (based on the PCA estimation) that two principal components cover 77% of the total variance: 'Size' and 'Innovation capabilities'. However, although the use and spread of skills is a basic component in explaining the differences of variation among the companies, it is not unambiguous in formulating the business success measured in different indicators. Because the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have limited resources in capital accumulation and knowledge creation, they need to maintain living network connections in order to expand their constrained innovation capabilities. Instead of the 'closed' type of innovation and knowledge accumulation, they utilise the 'open' way of acquiring knowledge, where they necessarily share their specific information with their partners, but at the same time, they are supplied with new knowledge which might be vital for their own progress. The majority of the Hungarian vine- and wine makers are not open enough in the different phases of the innovation process. However, our analysis proves that if they showed up mutuality especially in knowledge sharing with their competitors, they could improve their positions significantly. We conclude that the Hungarian wine enterprises - keeping the idea generation as well as its further development, elaboration and the adequate use within the frame of the company - can achieve market success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The concept of social tourism is not new for Hungary. In the socialist era, social tourism took place mostly in mountain, lake-side or spa destinations, as a part of the social services supported by (state owned) companies and trade unions. The facilities, i.e. accommodation establishments of often low quality, were run by companies or trade unions. Employees, union members and their families were eligible to visit these premises. These trips were either free or heavily subsidised. Following the changes around 1990, the old support system collapsed. This system was replaced by the so-called supported holiday system. Social tourism establishments were either privatised or closed down. The role and power of trade unions diminished, the ministry's budget was cut and reorganised significantly. Organisations and companies allocated lower amounts for social benefits and gradually removed inherited obligations, i.e. social tourism. The paper discusses the development and transformation of social tourism in Hungary: from its origins to today's uncertain situation. Social tourism has undergone significant changes in the last decade, leading to a wider scale of supported services as well as increased demand for such services. As a consequence, in 2010, the state has introduced new measures to regulate the market, the end results of which are unforeseeable yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication as a strategic tool of HR management has become hugely significant -- an assertion proved by both international and Hungarian trends (Cranet 2005, Cranet 2008). In our globalised economy, employees often work on the same project for the same multinational company - sometimes widely separated from each other geographically -- and the choice of communication channel determines the effectiveness of HR communication in the organisation. HR managers need to exploit to the maximum the advantages of new communication technologies and systems provided by software such as SAP ERP Human Capital Management (HCM). SAP ERP Human Capital Management includes the HR Direct service - provided by Shared Service Centres (SSCs) and operated by the company -- which integrates and simplifies the process of dealing with everyday routine. This frees HR managers' time for strategic issues. In this paper we discuss how the implementation of the SAP ERP HCM system affects HR management and its communication process in SAP Hungary and in MÁV (Hungarian Railways). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION The availability of lower-cost cigarettes in neighboring countries provides price-sensitive smokers with incentives to purchase cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This study estimates the prevalence of and factors associated with cross-border purchasing of cheaper cigarettes among smokers from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The prevalence of cross-border purchasing was estimated by residential location, defined as living in regions bordering a lower-price country (where prices were at least €1/pack lower), regions bordering a similar- or higher-price country, and internal non-border regions. METHODS Data were from a survey of nationally representative samples of adult smokers (n=6011) from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The primary outcome was purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Residential location was defined using The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2 in Germany and NUTS3 in the other countries). Multivariable logistic regression tested differences in purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes by country and residential location. RESULTS Residential location was associated with purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in Germany and Poland (p<0.05): 31% of German and 11% of Polish smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries reported purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries had 4.21 times greater odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes compared to smokers living in non-border regions. CONCLUSIONS Overall, only a minority of smokers in the six countries purchased cheaper cigarettes outside their country. However, smokers living in regions bordering countries where cigarettes were at least €1/pack lower than their home country had significantly higher odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This effect was especially prominent among German smokers. Tax harmonization policies designed to minimize crossborder price differentials can eliminate lower-priced alternatives for price-sensitive smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do countries move from public to private financing of healthcare? This paper explores this issue by looking at the divergent reform trajectories of three postcommunist countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. While existing accounts emphasize veto points to explain changes in healthcare systems, the present analysis finds that moves towards private financing can be better explained by differences in access to the policymaking arm of the state. Specifically, a penetrable single-party government and weak bureaucratic capacities allow physicians to capture the reform process and implement their preferred policies. The results suggest that scholars of health policy should focus more attention on the actors seeking change and their access to policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides, against a review of prior literature on the problems faced by economies in transition from plan to market, an analysis of developments in Hungarian accounting regulation during the past 15 years. Significant legislative events are examined, as well as gradually shifting attitudes of the key players involved in the regulatory processes. We identify a number of obstacles to the development of a regulatory framework suitable to provide decision-useful accounting information, among which the roles and attitudes of the legislator and the accounting profession feature prominently, as well as the lingering influence of taxation on accounting, and of other Continental European, code-law regulatory and accounting features. We conclude that a reduction of the influence of government and legislation is required, as well as a more progressive approach in the education and training of accountants. This should focus on the teaching of a new way of thinking and move away from the traditional teaching of detailed accounting methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study which investigates the organization of household economic behavior in post-socialist rural Hungary. Data from 751 randomly selected households in three rural regions of the country showed weak labor force attachment and heavy reliance on social welfare programs among these households. Self-provisioning and interhousehold exchange were also prevalent. The data showed that interhousehold ex-change is motivated by both economic and social logics. Interhousehold exchange appears to be more likely among better-off households with more economic and social resources. Economic distress is not distributed uniformly across Hungary, but tends to be concentrated in the rural sector. In this paper, an embeddedness perspective is used to identify factors associated with variations in household economic behavior in rural Hungary, especially self-provisioning and the production of goods and services for interhousehold exchange. Rural households are embedded in a cultural system that provides a tool kit which guides nonmarket work and attests to its social and economic value. Moreover, nonmarket activity has been part of rural life in Hungary for generations, and it has been institutionalized as part of village social structure.

The study introduces the current situation of electric vehicle technologies, the possibilities and possible directions of their market, as well as the economic and environmental aspects in the eastern region of the EU, with special regard to Hungary. Our calculations show that despite the higher costs of ownership, in the case of 7 years of use (among Hungarian conditions), the total cost of the Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) is lower than that of the Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV) in each of the four segments analysed. The purchasing power of the population in the eastern regions of the EU is clearly lower compared to the western regions, yet people in this region spend beyond their financial means on motorization. Despite its unfavourable position, Hungary is in a particularly advantageous position compared to other countries in the region per vehicle and per capita in terms of the spread of BEVs. In the long run, even taking higher prices into account, the use of electric cars, in general, has significant advantages from an economic point of view; lower maintenance costs and fuel prices (especially with increased use) make EVs more cost-effective overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The paper brings out the role of political economy in influencing the process of urbanisation and [the] structure of settlement network. This is demonstrated through an empirical study of Hungary during the twentieth century. Three phases get easily distinguished: pre-1949 or the period of changes in the state boundaries; 1949-89 or the period of state socialism; and post-1989 or the period of institutional reform. An interesting finding is that there was a bias in favour of large cities and county seats in allocation of development funds under all the regimes.", (excerpt)

This paper examines the relationship between expected stock returns and size, and market-to-book ratio in four transition emerging markets, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Overall, we find a premium for large firms and growth stocks; factors that drive cross-sectional differences in expected transition stock returns are qualitatively different to those documented for many other emerging and developed equity markets. As our finding applies to the post-1996 period, we confirm the assertion of Black ( Journal of Portfolio Management , 20 , 8-18, 1993) and MacKinlay ( Journal of Financial Economics , 38 , 3-28, 1995) that 'the value premium is sample-specific'. Thus, the higher average return on value stocks that has been documented for developed and emerging equity markets may not be considered as a local manifestation of a global phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the secular changes in the body development patterns of Hungarian children between the 1910s and the beginning of the 2000s in relation to socioeconomic and demographic changes in the country. Individual growth data of children were available from two national growth studies (1983-86, 2003-06), while sample-size weighted means of children's body dimensions were collected through regional studies between the 1920s and 1970s. Gross domestic product, Gini index, life expectancy at birth and under-5 mortality rate were used to assess the changes in economic status, income inequalities of the society and the population's general health status, respectively. Secular changes in food consumption habits were also examined. The positive Hungarian secular changes in socioeconomic status were associated with a continuous increase in children's body dimensions. The negative socioeconomic changes reflected only in wartime and post-war periods of children's growth, and the considerable socioeconomic changes at the beginning of the 1990s did not appear to influence the positive trend in children's growth. The positive secular trend in stature and body mass did not level off at the beginning of the 2000s: the socioeconomic conditions that support optimal growth and maturation could improve in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2009 and the first quarter of 2014, only one case of HIV (contracted outside Hungary) was detected among PWIDs in Hungary. However, more recent evidence suggests increased sharing of injecting paraphernalia among PWIDs. This is linked to the emergence of new designer drugs that require frequent injection, alongside funding cuts to the Hungarian needle exchange program (NEP) which has reduced access to sterile injecting equipment. During the past five years in Hungary, drug use has become increasingly discussed in moral as opposed to public health terms, and drug consumption has been re-criminalized. The largest NEP in Hungary was closed because of political pressure and government funding for regular HCV/HIV testing/counselling and seroprevalence studies among PWIDs has been stopped. This paper describes the detection of two new cases of HIV infection in PWIDs attending two NEPs in Budapest in May 2014. These new cases may indicate an unfolding HIV outbreak among PWIDs-similar to those reported in Greece and Romania. Yet the question remains: If no further HIV cases are detected, is this because there are no new cases or because there are no testing facilities for PWID? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether the impact of International Monetary Fund ( IMF) programs on the perceived creditworthiness of a country is conditional on government partisanship. Left-of-center governments tend to suffer from greater credibility problems in financial markets than right-wing governments, because they are typically believed to pursue expansionary policies and have less respect for debt obligations. Applying the conventional wisdom held as ' Only Nixon can go to China,' I argue that adopting IMF programs can benefit leftist governments more than other types of governments. The logic of the Nixon paradox implies that market-oriented reforms have greater credibility when implemented by a left-of-center party, whose ideologies do not accord well with the IMF's neoliberal policies, than when implemented by a right-wing party. This is because market participants interpret the action by a leftist government as driven more by a willingness to commit to market-oriented reform than by ideological affinity. Using sovereign credit rating data for almost 90 emerging market countries from 1980 to 2004, I find robust evidence consistent with the ' Nixon- Goes-to- China' hypothesis. The findings suggest that adopting IMF programs improves the perceived creditworthiness of leftist governments, whereas no such benefit is found among non-leftist governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay by András Simonovits of the Institute of Economics in Budapest, Hungary, is presented. Simonovits discusses the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the Hungarian pension system, outlining the system's main feature, the general reaction to the crisis in Hungary, and offers concluding remarks.

Announces that the second international conference on Economics and Management of Networks will take place in Budapest, Hungary, from September 15 to 17, 2005. Increasing economic significance of networks; Goal of promoting communication and awareness among researchers in economics and management; Provision of a forum to present current research and to discuss issues of common interest.

The obligation to introduce the euro is widely assumed to provide incentives for fiscal consolidation in the new member states of the European Union. Without questioning the general validity of this thesis this article calls attention to the potential for an opposite effect and the possibility of exacerbating rather than reducing the deficit bias in these countries. The argument proceeds in three steps. First, it shows that, given a weaker institutional environment in emerging economies, the new member states of the EU are particularly prone to deficit bias. Second, the incentives from the EMU are analysed and the potential moral hazard problem is identified for the current members as well as the candidate states. Third, a closer examination of Hungarian fiscal policy developments between 2002 and 2005 illustrates how weak institutions and strong market confidence can result in excessive deficits. The main implication of the article is that without complementing the EMU fiscal framework with mandatory procedural rules at the national level the deficit bias is unlikely to be eliminated in the new member states, which could result in considerable imbalances after these countries join the euro zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the criteria of selection of leaders of the Hungarian - and some other East European --planned economies. It deals with the connections of these criteria with education and career patterns. It interprets the changes in terms of professionalization and cadrification. It argues that because this processes are interwoven the emphasis between loyalty and education (or to put it in the immanent terminology of personnel policy: among the categories of political responsibility, professional knowledge and the skills of leadership) has been slightly altered during the decades of state socialism. But behind the balance of loyalty and competence those social variables which were seriously taken into account in the personnel policy have been changed frequently and sometimes dramatically. It is intended to disclose that despite the basic similarities of socialist industrialization there were differences among the Eastern European societies, concerning the pace of cadre changes and the social-educational composition of the economic elites. It also suggests that one has to distinguish two levels of economic leadership from the very beginning of nationalization. In the light of empirical evidence the criteria of recruitment in the case of the planners-controllers and in the case of the enterprise managers were different. According to the Hungarian experiences the economic reform supported the process of professionalization, although the proportion of party members remained extremely high. With the systemic changes party membership lost and networks gained importance in the selection of the elite. Despite the importance of the subject literature on leaders in planned economies is rather scanty. A greater part of articles are managerial studies, while empirical contributions mainly survey the political elites rather than the leaders involved in the economic control sphere and at the helm of enterprises, a layer which is more difficult to reconstruct empirically. It is a specific feature of research on Hungarian leaders to use case studies or interviews. These methods, though most suitable for exploring the attitudes and interests of leader, mark out the boundaries of analysis as well. The data and information in the following represent mostly the Hungarian, and partly the Soviet, Polish and Czechoslovakian developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]