The paper concentrates on economic developments; it does not treat issues related to domestic and foreign policy. It may well be the case that in the latter fields the trends are not encouraging, but these problems are beyond the focus of our paper. One of the major points we wish to demonstrate...

This paper focuses on knowledge-based entrepreneurship, or new firm creation in industries which are considered to be science-based or to use research and development intensively, in the East Central European (ECE) context. On the basis of case studies of thirteen knowledge-based firms in six...

During the last years, Hungary’s standard of living rose dynamically, but at the same time, government debt increased. The Orban government tries to reduce these debts not by austerity but by eroding purchasing power through induced inflation. By this, Hungary departs further and further...

The paper analyses the relationship between labour costs and employment development in manufacturing industry in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. It indicates the need for thorough labour cost analysis in Europe in the context low employment rates among New Member States. The steps taken...

The paper discusses the salience of the Finno-Ugric links in substantiating intra-EU cooperation among Finland, Estonia and Hungary. The focus is on investigating evidence of such cooperation in the EU's human rights and minority rights related policies towards the Russian Federation and other...

Pension systems and pension expenditures show large variations among countries worldwide. This variation appears to reflect mainly demographic factors and differences in the level of insurance protection, the latter tending to increase with the level of development. The focus of this paper is...

In Hungary and the Central-European region, state regulation has been at the forefront of interest since the beginning of the economic transition. Among the many interesting questions raised, we would like to analyze the problem of building an appropriate regulatory system allowing the industry...

How to assess Hungary's present situation in the broader context of overall economic and political developments in post-socialist Eastern Europe? The regional perspective suggests that in terms of parting with state socialism and building market democracy Hungary - and a few other countries...

The paper provides perspective of recent developments in health care reforms in three fast-reforming transition economies: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The two former countries have been implementing reforms since early 1990s, while Poland started its reform on January 1, 1999 only....

The paper is an attempt at a comparative overview of banking sector systemic risk in six Central European countries as of the end of 1997 concluding with some policy recommendations. The countries covered by the paper (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) are specific...