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This article estimates the wage effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) using firm-level and linked employer-employee panel data containing a large number of foreign acquisitions over a long period of rapid development in Hungary. Matching on preacquisition data, the authors find that much of the raw foreign wage premium represents selection bias, but that foreign acquisition nevertheless raises average wages by 15 to 29% when controlling for fixed effects for firms and highly detailed worker groups, and by 6% with firm-worker match effects. Acquired firms that are later divested to domestic owners experience a substantial reversal of the positive acquisition effect. No type of worker--defined by education, experience, gender, incumbency, and occupational group--experiences wage decline, but the patterns suggest skill bias in the gains from acquisition. The evidence implies a strong cross-firm correlation of FDI wage and productivity differentials, and an inverse relationship between FDI effects and economic development level of the sending country relative to Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the consequences of a sudden increase in household debt burdens by exploiting variation in exposure to household foreign currency debt during Hungary's late-2008 currency crisis. The revaluation of debt burdens causes higher default rates and a collapse in spending. These responses lead to a worse local recession, driven by a decline in local demand, and negative spillover effects on nearby borrowers without foreign currency debt. The estimates translate into an output multiplier on higher debt service of 1.67. The impact of debt revaluation is particularly severe when foreign currency debt is concentrated on household, rather than firm, balance sheets. (JEL E21, E32, F34, G51) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on early socialist project in Hungary within a longer history of rationalization and scientific management in the first half of the twentieth century. It mentions planning apparatus that had characterized the Hungarian economy and socialist state relied heavily on techniques to promote productivity long advocated by work scientists schooled in capitalism. It also mentions cultural differences between the two communities account for divergent practices of producing wool.

The article focuses on the relationship of social science knowledge and political power in economics in communist Hungary. It mentions networks and practices of patronage and field of economic research gained a considerable degree of autonomy and could yield some remarkable intellectual performances. It also mentions expansion and development of the disciplinary infrastructure of economics and military intervention.

This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the margins along which firms responded to a large and persistent minimum wage increase in Hungary. We show that employment elasticities are negative but small even four years after the reform; that around 75 percent of the minimum wage increase was paid by consumers and 25 percent by firm owners; that firms responded to the minimum wage by substituting labor with capital; and that disemployment effects were greater in industries where passing the wage costs to consumers is more difficult. We estimate a model with monopolistic competition to explain these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the European Innovation Scoreboard (2017) report, Hungary's summarised innovation score is 67.4 against the EU28 average of 102. This implies that the Hungarian economy has got rather serious disadvantages in the European Union community. This statement is more pronounced in the case of the food industry. From an innovation point of view food industry is seen as a slow one, which is lagging behind the technology pushed possibilities, but sometimes behind the customers' desires and requirements as well. In our research, we determine why the food companies in Hungary do not engage in innovation activities and if they do so, what are the main drivers of their innovation performance? We use the Community Innovation Survey (CIS 2012a) data and employ double hurdle estimation because of the nature of the innovation distribution. This method also helps in overcoming the selection bias problem, which necessarily occurs in this situation. Results prove that networking scope as well as networking intensity, play an important role in explaining innovation performance. The size and market obstacles are also significant factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies identified a positive relationship between a firm’s knowledge assets and its productivity. Knowledge assets are usually considered as the level of human and technological capital of the firm. Knowledge assets of the firm may also increase by the so-called spillover effect, especially in less developed host economies of foreign direct investment, which means diffusion of the technology, knowledge and managerial skills from foreign companies to local ones. Beyond the impact of the human and technological capital of firms, this paper also examines the effect of spillover of knowledge on the firms’ performance in Hungary within a linear regression model. The model is based on individual data of Hungarian enterprises, examining the change in performance as the difference of the variables between 1996 and 2014. The paper shows that knowledge assets (concerning human capital) basically determine the firms’ production in Hungary from 2000. The effect of research and development activity was not significant in the investigated period. Foreign shares in the industries’ total equity (proxy for spillover effect) have a weak and, after 2005, a negative influence on performance. The spillover effect in the Hungarian economy was not demonstrated by the regression model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing economy is a relatively new business model and it is continuously extending dynamically due to the rapid development of digital technology, importance of sustainable development and change of customer behavior. Sharing economy can also build trust among individuals which is a really important factor in Hungary, because there is a lack of trust among people due to the historical background. Previous studies mainly focus on definitions, conditions of successful operations, regulation issues but less on customer behavior. The objectives of this article are to identify and specify the main features and economic, social and environmental forces of sharing economy and present the main motivation factors and general customers' attitudes of sharing economy's users based on two researches in Hungary. As motivation incentives, prompt and flexible service, trust and personal interaction, as well as ease of use are listed by sharing economy consumers, besides certain economic benefits. Online qualitative survey in Hungary has revealed that people participating in the sharing economy have much greater consumer awareness, are much better promoters of sustainability and show increased level of trust when dealing with unknown partners compared to their peer consumers who are not new to online shopping, yet have never used sharing-based community services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the performance and time varying risk behaviour of Hungarian equity mutual funds by applying modified versions of the four-factor model applying different market proxies. We classify the funds according to their target markets (Hungary, Central and Eastern Europe [CEE], developed markets) and separate bullish and bearish periods. We find no significant excess returns for any circumstances; however, market betas are significantly different for bullish and bearish periods as well as the explanatory power of book-to-market ratio and market capitalisation. After taking into account the daily percentage changes in the number of shares outstanding we find investors’ relation to risk to be different in bearish and bullish periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Whitening the economy is a constantly recurring theme in the tax literature, which can have significant effects in a range of areas. Among them the reduction of the tax burden and in a lucky combination the growth of tax revenues and the effect on the increase in the level of competitiveness and tax morale are the most important. In Hungary a positive example of reducing the tax burden and whitening the economy can be observed. The constellation of high economic growth rate achieved in the last decade and a lower degree of government intervention in the Visegrád countries, especially in Poland, should be considered in terms of our domestic economic policy. My study deals with the tax structure, the reduction of the tax burden and, in connection and within this topic, with the whitening of the economy. After a brief overview of the literature I describe the main specifics of the Hungarian tax system by way of an international comparison. Next I examine the transformation of the domestic tax system by analysing the changes in the tax burden, within this I separately discuss the important elements of the post-2016 tax changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interprets the spatial dimension of health inequalities in Hungary through the connection between unemployment and life expectancy from the national level to the level of micro-regions and settlements with a special emphasis on cities. The article highlights the correlation between unemployment and average life expectancy at birth based on regional statistical databases. The results of quantitative questionnaires (n = 545) and qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 26) are also presented in order to explore the effect of the crisis on urban populations residing in major Hungarian cities. The correlation between unemployment and life expectancy becomes stronger during crisis periods. Our findings indicate not only that the labour-market position and level of income are important from a health point of view, but also that the level and growth of existing social and health inequalities strengthen the effects of the crisis on health. It is evident that, in Hungary, direct effects of the crisis on health inequalities exacerbate regional differences. Cities can counterbalance the unfavourable health effects of the crisis and they may successfully contribute to decreasing health inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some ammunition to better understand Hungary's position in the IMD World Talent Report 2015 (IMD WTR 2015). First, it gives a brief overview of the methodology of the IMD WTR by highlighting its main features. Second, it presents the 2015 ranking and puts the focus on Hungary's withering talent competitiveness. The paper conveys the message that an overarching and consistent reform package is a must in the education system to foster talent utilisation. However, such a package is likely to be insufficient unless economic policy addresses the relevant shortcomings of the Hungarian innovation ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective decision making uses various databases including both micro and macro level datasets. In many cases it is a big challenge to ensure the consistency of the two levels. Different types of problems can occur and several methods can be used to solve them. The paper concentrates on the input alignment of the households' income for microsimulation, which means refers to improving the elements of a micro data survey (EU-SILC) by using macro data from administrative sources. We use a combined micro-macro model called ECONS-TAX for this improvement. We also produced model projections until 2015 which is important because the official EU-SILC micro database will only be available in Hungary in the summer of 2017. The paper presents our estimations about the dynamics of income elements and the changes in income inequalities. Results show that the aligned data provides a different level of income inequality, but does not affect the direction of change from year to year. However, when we analyzed policy change, the use of aligned data caused larger differences both in income levels and in their dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]