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Business and Economics
Investigation on human resource role is progressing, and the influence of fits between human resources and business strategies have been confirmed in various studies. Such influence has also been proven as a good way to acquire organizational competitive advantages and achieve the optimal operating performance. Under such a context, a new variable, Management Innovation, is included in this study to observe the effects of such a practical and changeable variable on strategic orientation and human resource management role.
Top ten businesses in Fujian Province are selected for the questionnaire survey. Total 500 copies of questionnaire are distributed and 376 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 75%. The research results show the positive effects of 1. strategic orientation on management innovation, 2. strategic orientation on human resource management role, and 3. management innovation on human resource management role. It expects to verify richer and multiple effects in this study for the reference of successive research and the practice.
Establishment of an effective early warning system can make the company operators make relevant decisions as soon as possible when finding the crisis, improve the operating results and financial condition of enterprise, and can also make investors avoid or reduce investment losses. This paper applies the partial least-squares logistic regression model for the analysis on early warning of enterprise financial distress in consideration of quite sensitive characteristics of common logistic model for the multicollinearity. The data of real estate industry listed companies in China are used to compare and analyze the early warning of financial distress by using the logistic model and the partial least-squares logistic model, respectively. The study results show that compared with the common logistic regression model, the applicability of partial least-squares logistic model is stronger due to its eliminating multicollinearity problem among various early warning indicators.
A business needs to constantly innovate and reinforce the competitiveness for the survival development and sustainable management. Focus on new product development has become the key factor in modern manufacturers maintaining the competitiveness. The process and the results depend on the effective application and management of organizational knowledge that it is necessary to reinforce the capabilities in order to promote the new product development performance.
With random sampling, the employees and the managers in top ten businesses of 1,000 Chinese industrial businesses are distributed 1,000 copies of questionnaire. Total 568 effective copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 57%. The results show 1. the significantly positive correlation between knowledge acquisition capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 2. the remarkably positive correlation between knowledge transformation and application capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 3. the notably positive correlation between knowledge protection capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, and 4. the signifi- cant moderating effects of product innovation type on the correlation between knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance. The research results are expected to provide essential contributions and suggestions for the knowledge management capabilities and the new product development of Chinese businesses.
The gross product of catering industry in developed countries often exceeds most other industries because of changing styles of societies, economic development, increasing national income, frequent international trade, and convenient and rapid transportation. The economic development in Taiwan has stepped in service-oriented phase from industrial economy and is approaching the mature economy of advanced countries. The marketing and management strategies for catering industry have become important as it is a business related to “people”, with more personnel than other industries, mainly providing delicate food, which is regarded as the key in tourism industry, and offering better products and services for customers.
Aiming at the staffin Landis Hotels & Resorts as the research subject, total 280 copies of questionnaires are distributed, and 176 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 63%. The research findings show the significant correlations between 1. Organizational Support and Professional Commitment, 2. Professional Commitment and Employee Engagement, and 3. Organizational Support and Employee Engagement.
Regardless of public sectors, private enterprises, or non-profit organizations, breach of good faith and violation of regulation are emerging endlessly in past years. A genuine and honest leader is a key success factor in maintaining organizational running. Authentic leadership is regarded as the foundation of business success. An authentic leader applies positive morality and has the highmorality and value behaviors and languages be the paradigm. It is considered in this study that a non-profit organization could effectively affect the first-line administrators and organizational volunteers, through a leader’s authentic leadership style, transform the degree of psychological capital and knowledge sharing intention and further enhance the operating performance of the non-profit organization.
The leaders and administrators in China Association for NGO Cooperation, as the research samples, are distributed the questionnaires, and 428 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 71%. The research results are summarized as following. 1. Authentic leadership shows significant correlations with psychological capital. 2. Psychological capital reveals remarkable correlations with knowledge sharing. 3. Authentic leadership presents notable correlations with knowledge sharing. 4. Psychological capital appears mediating effects on the relation between authentic leadership and knowledge sharing. This study intends to discuss whether authentic leaders in non-profit organizations could enhance the employees willing to actively share knowledge through psychological capital, provide reference opinions for the practical operation of non-profit organizations, and propose suggestions for possible directions.
The 21st century is a knowledge economic era when a person who could master knowledge and technologies could master the competitive future. The knowledge and technology competition and the emergence of information technology and the Internet in the future have innovation strategies enter a new era. Knowledge management and share as well as innovation strategies of a business present the importance on the enhancement of competitive advantages. Effective knowledge management and innovation strategies become the key in the success.
Aiming at Kunshan German Industrial Park, the executives and employees in 6 of top 500 businesses are distributed 300 copies of questionnaires, among which 218 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 73%. The research results show the significant correlations between 1. innovation strategies and competitive advantages, 2. knowledge management and innovative strategies, and 3. knowledge management and competitive advantages. It is expected to assist businesses in constructing knowledge management.
The fight against the shadow economy and tax evasion is among priority policy objectives in most developed countries. In addition to causing significant budget revenue shortfalls, the shadow economy and tax evasion distort the quality of statistics and market competition. Based on the theoretical and empirical literature, this paper presents the underlying reasons behind the shadow economy and estimates on the size of the shadow economy in Hungary. Furthermore, it draws conclusions on the whitening effects of recent policy measures, based on the most recent statistics of the National Labour Office and the retail sales statistics.
This study assesses the Pigou taxes introduced as a response to negative externalities in practice. The authors analyze the international practice and effectiveness of taxation on food products harmful to health and on carbon emissions harmful to the environment and, in relation to these two types of taxes, the focus is on the opportunities and the factors reducing efficiency.
Seldom does public attention follow taxation as it does now. As a result of the global economic crisis, due to the fiscal consolidations, taxation plays an increasingly important role within financial policy. The emergence and the extensive spread of taxes on the financial sector is one of the consequences of the global economic crisis. This paper deals with some theoretical connections of this change in taxation.
Smooth Transition Regression Model (STR) is applied to analyze the non-linear effect of urbanization on economic growth in this study. By collecting relevant variable data in 1978–2012, financial deepening is selected as the transition variable to construct the STR Model which could reflect the dynamic change of urbanizational economic growth effect. The result shows that urbanizational economic growth effect should present the characteristics of threshold and could be described with non-linear Smooth Transition Model (LSTR1). Meanwhile, the urbanizational economic growth effect should reveal asymmetry, in which the research findings show contemporary financial deepening (FISt) as a factor. Specifically, the linear feature appears when the FISt is lower than 0.3792 (before 1990), while it reveals non-linearity when the FISt exceeds 0.3792 (after 1990), and the non-linearity becomes the major factor in the urbanizational economic growth effect after 1990.
Landscape lighting is a symbol of modern urban development and service capabilities, and it is also the important content of urban competitive power. This paper used the descriptive statistics, basic statistical tests and Granger causality test to analyze the historical data and the data from the Shanghai Landscape Lighting Survey. It draws conclusion that Shanghai’s landscape lighting has formed unique and sustainable development mode with governmental, cultural, economic, social and ecological attributes, which is led by the government, and market and society join together in the construction and operation.
The paper focuses on the effects of EU’s Eastern Enlargement of 2004 on trade convergence within the EU and among the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE-8). Using sigma-convergence approach, it finds evidence of convergence of exports and imports per capita as well as of productivity levels associated with the member states’ export baskets. Convergence of territorial and commodity structures of trade has not occurred; conversely, divergence has been observed, leading to the possible conclusion that multinational companies have adjusted their production structure in facilities across the EU to achieve higher economies of scale. Correlation analysis shows that revealed comparative advantages of the old and new member states have come closer to each other. As an example, the paper also offers a brief comparison of trade development in two CEE-8 countries, Latvia and Slovakia, after their entry into the EU.
This article attempts to offer a picture of the state of the economic reform in Ukraine in the summer of 2015, assessing what has been done. It offers a periodisation of Ukraine’s economic policy since its independence in 1991, suggesting that Ukraine has seen three periods of significant reform and this is by far the most important. The main cause of Ukraine’s current economic decline is Russian warfare. The present situation differs greatly from that after the Orange Revolution in late 2004. These reform efforts are more far-reaching than earlier attempts, especially in the energy and banking sectors. Finally, four risks to the present reform wave are discussed. The four big risks to this reform wave lie in Russian warfare, insufficient international funding, lagging reforms in the judicial sector, and the wearing out of the coalition because of economic hardship.
Housing policy is one of the major public policies in Taiwan. Since 2006 the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung have been busy with housing refurbishment as part of the urban policies. However, as for the Kaohsiung housing refurbishment projects, the initial result was somewhat disappointing. Only one out of the twelve applicants who applied for housing refurbishment was subsidized in Kaohsiung; the required subsidy rate for Taipei was also low, 38%. This paper focuses on the performance analysis of the housing refurbishment policy. This paper will use the FANP method to find the factors that could influenced the performance of the housing refurbishment.
Through empirical analysis, it was found that the success of the housing refurbishment projects are heavily affected by the factors of economic benefit and policy deliverables. We believed that the proper promotion of house refurbishment subsidy, the transparency of information can consolidate the implementation of house refurbishment policy.
This article analyses the approximation of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the European Union (EU) from a Central European perspective, with a focus on the role of the Visegrad Four (V4) states in this process. The article sets out with two strategies of state-building exercised by the West in the aftermath of the Dayton Peace Treaty – a ‘hands-on’ and ‘hands-off’ (or ownership) strategy. It analyses the position of the Visegrad states towards these strategies. The text mainly explains the overall engagement of V4 in the context of EU enlargement policies. The article asks to what extent the four partners cooperate with each other and with likely regional partners Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria. The positions of the Central European states are informed by qualitative interviews with stakeholders and research literature on external governance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is concluded that the V4’s engagement is limited due to small budget commitments and to a significant overlap of V4 positions with the positions of more active European partners.
Competitive pressures of the world economy are continuously reshaping the global supply chains of manufacturing firms. At the same time, global competition is altering the nature of output offered by manufacturers, shifting it towards a higher share of service elements. The goal of this paper is to investigate how these two factors are combined, using a sample of manufacturing companies from 13 European countries belonging to the assembly industries of fabricated metal products, machinery and equipment. The results indicate that different business models became dominant in the less developed Eastern European and the developed Western European region. Involving measures of business performance and reasons for plant location, this study also argues that in terms of service offerings and supply chain position, other types of business models can coexist and successfully prevail in the two regions.
Spatial autocorrelation analysis is an important method that can reveal the structure and patterns of economic spatial variables. It can be used to identify not only global spatial patterns in the country, but also characteristic locations at micro levels. In this research, we used spatial autocorrelation methodologies, including Global Moran’s I and Local Getis—Ord Gi statistics to identify the intensity of the spatial clustering of municipalities in Serbia by the level of average monthly net earnings from 2001 to 2010. We identified and mapped local clusters (hot and cold spots) by the level of average monthly net earnings for the same period. The results show that overall spatial segregation between municipalities with high and low average monthly net earnings was predominantly increasing during the investigated period. Local statistics illustrated that overall spatial segregation followed a broad north—south divide, with a concentration of municipalities with high net earnings in the north of Serbia, and low net earnings in the south. Closer inspection showed that at the beginning of the study period, there were three statistically significant hot spots in the north. As time passed, only one highly clustered hot spot remained — the Belgrade region. One cold spot retained a relatively stable position in the country’s southeast. This research shows that spatial changes of net earnings can be successfully studied with respect to statistically significant global and local spatial associations in the variables using spatial autocorrelation analysis.
This study examines herd behaviour in four Southeast Asian stock markets, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Empirical results indicate that except for the Philippines, herding exists in the other three markets. Stronger evidence of herding has been detected in these markets when the market is up. When the market is down, it is only the Malaysian market that exhibits significant herding. The study further investigates herding by dividing the entire sample period into two sub-periods: pre-crisis and during economic crisis. We find strong evidence of the existence of herding in Indonesia and Malaysia in both sub-periods. However, the findings are mixed when we additionally examine herding in up and down market scenarios during the two sub-periods by using modified models.
For two decades Hungary, like the other Eastern European countries, followed a general policy of establishing and strengthening the institutions of democracy, rule of law, and a market economy based on private property. However, since the elections of 2010, when Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party came to power, Hungary has made a dramatic U-turn. This article investigates the different spheres of society: political institutions, the rule of law, and the influence of state and market on one another, as well as the world of ideology (education, science and art), and describes the U-turn’s implications for these fields and the effect it has on the life of people. It argues against the frequent misunderstandings in the interpretation and evaluation of the Hungarian situation, pointing out some typical intellectual fallacies. It draws attention to the dangers of strengthening nationalism, and to the ambivalence evident in Hungarian foreign policy, and looks into the relationship between Hungary and the Western world, particularly the European Union. Finally, it outlines the possible scenarios resulting from future developments in the Hungarian situation.
The notion of over-education has drawn considerable research attention since the work of Freeman (1976). This study provides evidence that education match matters for labor market outcomes. Using data from the REFLEX survey, we find that over-education and over-skilling has a significant negative impact on wages and job satisfaction in the Czech labor market. Secondly, we find that the wage penalty is stronger for female respondents. In contrast, overskilled and overeducated men are more dissatisfied than women.
Measurement, incorporation and use of performance information in the budget
A methodological survey approach to map performance budgeting practices in local government
In search for efficiency, effectiveness and fiscal sustainability, governments gather more performance information than ever before. As many of them have sought to incorporate and use this kind of information in budgeting and planning documents, the main goal of this article is to discover how local government performance budgeting practices can be mapped by a survey in a way that enables international comparison. Three previous mapping endeavors served as preliminary guidelines to develop a refined index based on the dimensions measurement, incorporation and use of performance information which form a generally accepted logical sequence in the public management literature. Results for the case of 304 Flemish local governments show a huge variation in the way performance budgeting is practiced, as index scores vary from nearly zero to more than 76 percent. Although it seems that available performance information is incorporated fairly well, measurement and use are lacking. It can be concluded that measuring performance budgeting offers interesting insights in the way this kind of budgeting is practiced in local governments. Although, from an analytical point of view, it is not sufficient to fully grasp performance budgeting and this for several reasons discussed in the article.
The objective of the paper is to create a composite leading indicator (CLI) for monitoring and predicting Hungarian business cycles. We compare the existing CLI applied by the OECD and Eurostat with our own CLI. According to our findings, our CLI forecasts the evolution of a referential series more precisely than the CLIs developed by the OECD and Eurostat. Nevertheless, from our point of view, the application of all existing CLIs at the same time can be appropriate. Consequently, the number of false signals should be reduced. The CLIs allow us to receive the first rough preliminary estimations of an economic cycle, in our case, the Hungarian one.
The paper seeks to explore the pricing strategies used by Hungarian food retail chains and how these strategies are related to the market and financial performance of the chains. A two-phase empirical research was carried out in 2011/2012. The research is based on 44 in-store observations, the analysis of price promotion leaflets and interviews with retail professionals. In-store observations focused on collecting data on baseline prices. The price promotion leaflets enabled the assessment of the promotional activity of the observed retailers. The interviews were used to check the validity of the research results. By grouping the analysed 11 retail chains along baseline price levels and price promotion activities, three different types of pricing strategies were identified. A relationship was found between the three pricing strategies and the performance indicators of the included chains. An important finding is that retail chains with a medium price level and low promotional activity were the least successful, while retailers with a low price level and high promotional activity achieved the best performance.
This paper presents a regional application of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) methodology of Acs et al. (2013) to examine the level of entrepreneurship across Hungary’s seven NUTS-2 level regions between 2006 and 2012. The Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) has been constructed for capturing the individual efforts, and their contextual features, of entrepreneurship across regions. The REDI method builds on a Systems of Entrepreneurship Theory and provides a way to profile Regional Systems of Entrepreneurship. Important aspects of the REDI method include the Penalty for Bottleneck analysis, which helps in identifying constraining factors in Regional Systems of Entrepreneurship, and Policy Portfolio Optimisation analysis, which helps policymakers consider trade-offs between alternative policy scenarios and associated allocations of policy resources. The paper describes the entrepreneurial disparities amongst Hungarian regions and provides public policy suggestions to improve the level of entrepreneurship and to optimise resource allocation over the 14 pillars of entrepreneurship in the seven Hungarian regions.
Inter-regionalism refers to regular forms of cooperation between regions or actors from different regions and is a result of the parallel phenomena of globalization and regionalism. Inter-regional links are rapidly developing all around the world and form a new level of global governance. Though originally inter-regionalism typically connected the actors of the so-called Triad, today emerging economies and developing regions are more active and visible participants of inter-regional cooperation. The article examines the perspectives and limitations of inter-regional relations between China and Latin America as a new dimension of deepening Sino—Latin American relations.
In the wake of the economic crisis, a question arises increasingly often: what is the role of economic culture in overcoming the crisis? Since the mid-2000s, leaders of developed countries have kept pointing out that fostering political and economic education is a driver of growth and development. Curricula are being overhauled; new modules are appearing in the study programmes of secondary schools, colleges, and university-level undergraduate courses; significant curriculum developments have been launched at the world’s leading universities in the last few years. Hungarian higher education cannot exclude itself from this process.
This study examines the determinants of China’s outward direct investment (ODI) between 2003 and 2009. We first analyse the structure and dynamics of ODI. We propose three testable hypotheses including technology sourcing, resource seeking, and political linkage. Various estimates show that technology sourcing is supported moderately, whereas resource seeking serves one of primary driving forces. Crucially, the motive of political linkage is significantly related to ODI and it is particularly relevant to developing destinations. This finding indicates that China tends to invest in developing countries with high political risk, which is in contrast with the prediction of the FDI theory. Furthermore, a developing country with high political risk seems to be the favoured destination for China’s ODI to acquire technologies and resources.
This paper offers a few remarks on the so-called heterodoxy commentaries of recent times (e.g. Bod 2013, Csaba 2011). In accordance with the growing popularity of unusual economic policy actions, a set of “tools” is emerging that aims to exert its effects breaking with instrumental actions. Outlining a special framework of the history of mainstream economics, it will be argued that economic policy only gradually has become capable of applying this system. In our view, both the emergence of symbolic economic policies mentioned above and the rise of heterodoxy are on the same level, since certain governments can only operate through giving signals. Although it is not the time to formulate ultimate and eternal generalised statements, it may perhaps be stated that symbolic economic policies can make some room for manoeuvring available as a last resort. In other words, the possibility of a certain kind of economic policy “tools” can be derived from theoretical considerations, and this set has become highlighted recently by some constraining changes in the macroeconomic environment. Our theoretical framework will be filled sporadically with some episodes from the last few years of the economic policy of Hungary.
Assuming an alternative corporate governance paradigm that puts employees in the firm’s governance structures, as well as understanding their objective functions, we investigate capital structure decisions in employee-governed firms. Examining corporate capital structure decisions in 12 European countries, we provide strong empirical evidence of employees’ conservatism in capital structure choice. We find that employee-governed firms operate with significantly lower leverage and that employee-governed firms are significantly less levered at the same amount of earnings volatility than firms governed by other stakeholders. We also find evidence that employee-governed firms, at least in some countries, rely on internal resources to a larger extent. However, we did not find evidence that employee-governed firms have to pledge more collateral to obtain debt financing. In addition to this, we find evidence that employee-governed firms choose debt of shorter maturity and, somewhat surprisingly, that employee-governed firms in some countries are faced with lower cost of debt compared to firms governed by other stakeholders and not higher cost of debt as expected because of credit rationing and limited borrowing capacity.
This paper seeks to illuminate empirically a class of drivers of firm performance hitherto neglected in the economic literature. To accomplish this objective, we distinguished three elements: sales volume, participation in technology alliancing, and successful patent issuing. Our findings suggest that competitive pressure posed by larger rivals in an industry affects sales performance negatively, but the possession of absorptive capacity can counter this deleterious effect. Findings regarding the effects caused by a product portfolio with high technological content are mixed. Depending on the performance measure applied, the results show evidence of adverse outcomes for sales, U-shaped effects for participation in technology alliancing and inverted U-shaped results for patenting. We obtained our raw data from the 2006 and 2008 PITEC database, which is the Spanish equivalent of the EU Community Innovation Survey. Our sample embraces more than 3000 firms.
Public policy seeks innovation as a solution to society’s big problems, yet it almost always fails to address one key component of innovation: risk. Furthermore, risk management in public policy predominately focuses on the minimization or even avoidance of risk, no matter its nature. This article focuses on the nexus between risk and social innovation specifically in public policy. It acknowledges the special context of decision-making in public policy and proposes two differentiations that are necessary for a holistic model of risk management in public policy innovation: Firstly, the differentiation between cases of risk and uncertainty; and, secondly, between hard and soft risk management approaches. Concluding, the paper presents a framework that can inform public policy makers and practitioners alike regarding risk management and its effect on social innovation.
Based on a micro-level approach and using data from the European Working Conditions Survey, covering 27 countries, we analyse the determinants of job quality. With cluster analysis applied to 11 dimensional indices, we form three homogeneous country groups and identify, by estimating twice-censored Tobit models, the main determinant factors affecting the individual level of job quality in each group. We verify the relevance of variables related to worker characteristics, firm characteristics, and the country in which the individual works. Among worker characteristics, education and employment status are the factors with the highest impact on job quality, while the economic sector is the most important firm characteristic. The results suggest the existence of important differences among groups regarding the magnitude of the impact of some factors. The highest dissimilarities are found between the group with better jobs (Nordic countries plus Belgium) and the group with lower quality jobs (Central and Eastern European countries plus Portugal and Greece). Variables related to age, education, dimension of the firm, and economic sector are those in which more heterogeneity is found among the groups.
The objective of this paper is to examine the factors influencing workers’ job satisfaction aside from the conventional factors, in the light of basic cultural values and beliefs, and then to set this into a comparative perspective for three groups of countries: South-East European (SEE) countries, Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) and Western Europe. Cultural values are grouped into traditional vs. secular-rational values and survival vs. self-expression values. The main result of the study is that culture has a considerable effect on job satisfaction across all groups of countries under investigation. However, there are between-group differences in terms of the relative importance of specific cultural values for job satisfaction. We also find some evidence suggesting the persistency of cultures and slow-moving institutions.
Freedom and life satisfaction are desirable conditions and they both have a special meaning in Eastern Europe — transition was largely about gaining freedom and ultimately overall wellbeing. There are several studies about the effect of freedom on life satisfaction, but none of them focuses on Eastern Europe. I investigate the effect of self-reported freedom on life satisfaction in post-transition Eastern Europe using the World Values Survey. Surprisingly, East Europeans feel less free and less satisfied with their lives than other nationals. But a personal feeling of freedom increases their life satisfaction at a higher rate than in other countries. Freedom is a strong predictor of life satisfaction as compared to national income.
The latest reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has recently been accepted, identifying important challenges for EU agriculture, but proposing only limited changes to the previous CAP. Now it is time for the implementation of the new measures. However, from a theoretical point of view, it seems that the CAP can hardly meet the challenges it faces due to the inconsistencies between the predefined challenges and the measures proposed to meet them. The aim of the paper is to systematically analyse the consistency between the challenges of European agriculture and the policy measures aimed at meeting them. It seems that not all measures are consistent with the challenges.
The paper investigates the role of regionalization and regional identity in the endeavours of emerging economies to connect successfully to the global world economy. It addresses the question of whether the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with its loose institutional integration framework, has contributed to the global integration of its very heterogenous members in the first decade of the 21st century — and, if so, what are the drivers behind this. The paper summarizes connecting theories, using a multidisciplinary approach, and uses descriptive statistical analysis to identify the achievements of the ASEAN-6 countries within global trade and foreign direct invesment (FDI) flows in the given time period. We suggest that ASEAN countries, with their efforts to initiate interconnecting regional organizations in Asia, most specifically the ASEAN+3 (APT) construction, did contribute to greater integratedness of member countries; and they have created a regional image with a common market and production base. Such achievements, however, can be in great part attributed to the micro-level activities of international and regional firms wishing to establish cross-border production networks in these countries.
The risks of household lending are still a major issue in Hungarian banking. The proportion of non-performing loans is rising continuously. We constructed a model to find those factors which have significant effect on the probability of default of households’ mortgages. We also used this model to calibrate the optimal level of household mortgages’ payment-to-income ratios, which is important from a regulatory point of view. Our results show that the denomination of the loan and the indebtedness of the household are crucial factors in the performance of the loan. We also show that loans contracted via agents are riskier than others. The results carry two important messages from a regulatory perspective. Prescribing the same payment-to-income (PTI) ratios for HUF and FX loans may be unnecessarily restrictive for the former and excessively permissive for the latter. The uniform regulation of households with different income levels may also lead to undesired anomalies.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public administration reform, as well as to reveal the inconsistent nature of some of its elements and to describe the connected risks. The starting point of the article is the Magyary Zoltán public administration development programme. The reform steps are compared to the ideal type NPM approach. The Hungarian public administration reform can be characterized by strong centralization and the revitalization of Hungarian anti-liberal traditions at macro level, and by the support of the enhancement of market rules and management at micro level.
This paper aims at investigating the role of different trade regimes in determining the bilateral trade of Western Balkan countries and the enlarged European Union between 2001—2010. Special focus is laid on the intra-regional trade of Western Balkan countries and complementarities of this sub-regional trade integration and the EU accession process. Using panel data, we estimated the gravity model of bilateral exports from Western Balkan and Central Eastern European countries to the core EU members in the 2001–2010 period. The results confirm the importance of EU membership for the development of acceding countries’ trade and shed light on asymmetrical trade regimes as important factors of boosting the bilateral trade flows. Additionally, CEFTA 2006 has a significant contribution to intra-regional Western Balkans trade.
This paper revisits the empirical trade literature on East-West trade in the early 1990s and provides a replication of the traditional gravity findings of that period with the Baier-Bergstrand version of the model, providing thereby better estimates of the trade hindering impact of the Cold War by including multilateral and world resistance factors and simultaneously considering country fixed effects. Breaking down the Cold War Walls increased world trade by 2.7% of world GDP. The replication with the Baier-Bergstrand model also reveals that Cold War trade distortions also significantly impacted China’s trade with the West.
According to the consensus view, it was primarily physical capital accumulation that drove economic growth during the early years of state socialism. Growth models incorporating both human and physical capital accumulation led to the conclusion that a high physical/human capital ratio can cause a lower economic growth in the long run, hence offering an explanation for the failure of socialist economies. In this paper, we show theoretically and empirically that according to the logic of the socialist planner, it was optimal to achieve a higher physical to human capital ratio in socialist countries than in the West. Using a VAR analysis, we find empirical confirmation that within the Material Product System of national accounting, the relative dominance of investment in physical capital accumulation relative to human capital was indeed more efficient than under the system of national accounts.
This study examines the determinant of non-life insurance consumption in 14 countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe between 1995 and 2010 within a vector error correction model (VECM). We use non-life insurance penetration as a measure for non-life insurance consumption. Empirical results provide evidence that the number of dwellings and number of passenger cars positively and significantly influence non-life insurance consumption in the long run, while the existence of the rule of law and EU membership are significant in the short run.
One factor that contributes in the size of the shadow economy is the regulation of business activities. This paper provides empirical analysis of the effects of regulatory discretion on the unofficial economy. It adds to the previous findings by gathering evidence from a large data set of 162 countries for the 1999 to 2007 period. Going beyond simple correlation, it uses the Arellano-Bond estimator to investigate the dynamics and causal effects of regulation on the shadow economy. We find that increase in regulation increases the size of the shadow economy.
The primary objective of this study is to analyse the impact of human capital accumulation on productivity growth in a sectoral approach. In our estimations, we followed a specific taxonomy to identify the features of output and employment growth tendencies in four different labour-skilled branches in OECD countries. Besides determining the differences of output and labour structure by standard descriptive statistics, we used a dynamic panel regression method to investigate the connection between physical and human capital, employment, and productivity growth in each sector. All in all, we found an increasing role of human capital (HC) from the period between 1985 and 2007. Analysing the time series panel data of these countries, our results also yield valid relationships between the level of education and productivity growth.
The transition period, and the still ongoing economic crisis, amplify the volatility in the domestic insurance market and forces the management of insurance companies to continuously monitor changes in the market, i.e. to identify risks and opportunities, and therefore to undertake certain activities. The focus of the business of insurance companies is based on satisfying the needs of existing and potential clients. Respecting the current situation in the insurance market in anticipation of future events, the management of insurance companies must create and implement the optimal strategy in line with the company’s capabilities. For this purpose it is necessary to measure the efficiency of the business, which is the subject of this paper where the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method is applied to the case of insurance companies operating in Serbia.
