Table Of ContentTransformations in Hungary
Contributions to Economics
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Sardar M.N. Islam Uwe Walz
Mathematical Economics of Dynamics of Regional Integration
Multi-Level Optimisation 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1185-8
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1050-9
Michael Carlberg
Sven-Morten Mentzel
European Monetary Union
Real Exchange Rate Movements
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1191-2
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1081-9
Lei DelsenlEelke de Jong (Eds.) Giovanni GalizzilLuciano Venturini (Eds.)
The Gennan and Dutch Economies Vertical Relationships and Coordination
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1064-9 in the Food System
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1192-0
Mark Weder
Business Cycle Models with Indeterminacy
Gustav A. HomIWolfgang Scheremetl
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1078-9
Rudolf Zwiener
Tor Rl1Idseth (Ed.) Wages and the Euro
Models for Multispecies Management 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1199-8
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1001-0
Dirk Willer
Michael Carlberg The Development of Equity Capital
Intertemporal Macroeconomics Markets in Transition Economies
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1096-7 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1198-X
Sabine Spangenberg
The Institutionalised Transformation Karl Matthias Weber
of the East German Economy Innovation DitJusion and Political Control
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1103-3 of Energy Technologies
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1205-6
Hagen Bobzin
Indivisibilities Heike Link et al.
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1123-8 The Costs of Road Infrastructure and
Congestion in Europe
Helmut Wagner (Ed.)
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1201-3
Current Issues in Monetary Economics
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1127-0
Simon Duindam
Peter MichaelisIFrank Stahler (Eds.) Military Conscription
Recent Policy Issues in Environmental and 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1203-X
Resource Economics
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1137-8 Bruno Jeitziner
Political Economy of the
Jessica de Wolff
Swiss National Bank
The Political Economy of Fiscal Decisions
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1209-9
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1130-0
Georg Bol/Gholarnreza Nakhaeizadehl Irene Ring et al. (Eds.)
Karl-Heinz Vollmer (Eds.) Regional Sustainability
Risk Measurements, Econometrics and 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1233-1
Neural Networks
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1152-1 Katharina Miiller/Andreas Rylll
Hans-Jiirgen Wagener (Eds.)
Joachim Winter
Transformation of Social Security:
Investment and Exit Decisions
Pensions in Central-Eastern Europe
at the Plant Level
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1210-2
1998. ISBN 3-7908-1154-8
Bernd Meyer Stefan Traub
Intertemporal Asset Pricing Framing Effects in Taxation
1999. ISBN 3-7908-1159-9 1999. ISBN 3-7908-1240-4
continued on page 384
Peter Meusburger . Heike Jons
(Editors)
Transformations
in Hungary
Essays in Economy and Society
With 97 Figures and 92 Tables
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Series Editors
Wemer A. Miiller
Martina Bihn
Editors
Professor Dr. Peter Meusburger
Dipl.-Geogr. Heike Jons
University of Heidelberg
Department of Geography
Berliner StraBe 48
69120 Heidelberg
Gennany
[email protected]
[email protected]
ISSN 1431-1933
ISBN 978-3-7908-1412-5
Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Transfonnations in Hungary: essays in economy and society; with 92 tables I Peter
Meusburger; Heike Jans (ed.). - Heidelberg: Physica-Verl., 2001
(Contributions to economics)
ISBN 978-3-7908-1412-5 ISBN 978-3-642-57584-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-57584-6
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Preface
In the 1990s, Hungary experienced profound changes in economy and society as a
result of transforming the socialist one-party state with its centrally planned econ
omy into a mUlti-party democracy based on a market economy. The aim of this
collection of essays is to analyse related dynamics in time and space and thus to
contribute to a further understanding of Hungary's ongoing transformation pro
cesses and its current situation as one of the leading candidates for EU mem
bership.
This anthology draws together a broad range of topics. It addresses regional
development since socialist times (see chapter by Nemes-Nagy), deals with con
stitutive elements of a modem market economy such as banking (Jons), foreign
direct investment (Hunya), entrepreneurship (Kuczi and Lengyel), knowledge
resources (Meusburger I), and the labour market (Dovenyi; Meusburger II), and
incorporates essays on people's education and income (Meusburger II), their pov
erty situation (Speder), and post-communist voting behaviour (Kovacs). Further
papers explore urban issues, such as urban development and competitiveness, the
housing market or post-socialist residential mobility, either with regard to Buda
pest (Csefalvay; Izsak and Probald) or other cities within the Hungarian urban
system (lzsAk and Nemes-Nagy; Sailer). Finally, informal as well as institutional
ised cross-border co-operations are discussed by looking at the levels of settle
ments and regions (Rechnitzer).
The majority of the papers explore spatial disparities within Hungary by look
ing at different regions and settlements, individual places, urban structures or the
urban hierarchy. They examine the creation of new political, socio-economic and
legal frameworks, and institutions, their effects on people living in different
places, and the question of how people have dealt with the related, often funda
mental changes. In the context of interdisciplinary transformation studies, the
main message of such profoundly geographical approaches is that one cannot
fully understand Hungary's development and its current situation without taking
account of its past and present changing spatial relations, disparities, and local
particularities.
A further group of papers concentrates on a comparative perspective within
Europe, particularly within Central and Eastern Europe, by addressing different
national developments (see chapters by Hunya; Kuczi and Lengyel) and the Euro
pean city system (Csefalvay). The fIrst and last chapters, on knowledge resources
(Meusburger) and cross-border co-operations (Rechnitzer), discuss both regional
and international aspects of Hungary's transformation in the 1990s.
An important issue of the international comparisons is European integration at
the beginning of the 21'1 century since Hungary, together with the Czech Repub
lic, Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia, belongs to the fIrst-tier EU accession countries
VI Preface
that may join the EU in 2003.1 In the first decade after the political change in
1989/90, the former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe faced seri
ous problems including recession, inflation, budget deficits, unemployment and an
increase of poverty. However, macroeconomic analysis shows that Hungary has,
in several areas up until the present, been more successful than its neighbouring
countries in establishing a market economy of Western European style. Hungary
has attracted more foreign direct investment than any other Central and East
European country, it has achieved higher growth rates than most EU states, it has
reduced its unemployment rates to a level far below that of several EU states, and
it has been very successful on export markets. The papers in this book point out
that one of Hungary's greatest comparative advantages stemmed from early
political and economic reforms as well as from early contacts and experiences
with Western Europe. As early as 1968, Hungary launched the New Economic
Mechanism. This programme that gradually introduced decentralised management
structures, allowed for the influence of market forces, lead to a slow but steady
rise in living standards, and made travelling to the west easier. A further decisive
move towards market principles came about at the end of the 1970s because the
state was heavily in debt. New types of economic organisations appeared during
the 1980s, the number of legalised private enterprises increased considerably, and,
after a serious fmancial crisis in 1982, the country joined the International Mone
tary Fund, the World Bank, and the International Finance Co-operation, promising
that new loans would be allocated according to business principles. Some years
before the fall of the iron curtain, in 1987, Hungary was also the first amongst the
former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe to restore the two-tier
banking system typical of capitalist market economies. Even longer before the
political change, the country had started to open itself to western tourists, to allow
students and researchers to study abroad, and to improve bilateral relations with
its western neighbours. The strong socio-economic disparities, however, that were
identified in several contributions to this book, and particularly the spatial polari
sation between Budapest's agglomeration and the country's north-west as pros
perous regions on the one hand, and an economically depressed north-east on the
other hand, cast a shadow over Hungary's relative success in the 1990s, and gave
some contributors cause for one or the other critical remark.
In addition to the analysis of recent socio-economic structures, processes, and
relations, some essays offer innovative examples of the application of different
theoretical approaches to studies of economy and society in general, and trans-
On March 7, 2001, Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh, whose country held the
EU's presidency, delivered an optimistic speech about enlargement of the European
Union (EU) in Washington D.C. She said that the EU, comprising 15 nations, might be
ready to admit new members in 2003. Ten of the twelve countries that are candidates
for membership are part of Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to the five first-tier
countries, the five other countries from this region are Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, and Slovakia; Malta and Cyprus are also seeking EU membership (see
http://www.rferl.org/ncaifeatures/200Il03/0803200 1115133.asp).
Preface VII
fonnation studies in particular. These examples comprise of reflections upon
Budapest's competitive position in regard to capital concentration and knowledge
transfer (Csefalvay), the construction and interpretation of regional political pro
files of Hungary in the 1990s (Kovacs), a comparison of different relative and
absolute approaches to poverty (Speder), the understanding of entrepreneurship in
the emerging market economies of fonner socialist countries (Kuczi and Lengyel),
and explorations into the interrelationship between foreign direct investment and
international competitiveness in the Central European EU-accession countries
(Hunya). In regard to a theory of regional transfonnation, Meusburger argues for
a knowledge-based approach in order to account for Hungary's current regional
and international situation, whilst the chapter by Jons considers her empirical
fmdings on regional transfonnation in Hungarian banking in the light of Bruno
Latour's actor-network theory (ANT) and arrives at rather surprising conclusions
for both ANT and a theory of regional transfonnation.
In regard to theoretical issues, two common themes can be traced through the
essays: Firstly, it is clearly shown that, compared with preceding decades, people,
institutions and places within Hungary have experienced extreme changes and
instabilities in time and space during the first decade of transfonnation towards a
market economy of Western European style. This was the result of the change in
ideology that became manifest in 1989/90. By 2001, however, the major changes
have been completed in most areas of Hungarian economy and society, and thus a
period of stabilisation appears to be on its way. Secondly, there seems to be a core
of detenninants that have been identifled by different authors as being responsible
for Hungarian regional transfonnation in the 1990s, and thus for the country's
overall situation at the beginning of the 21st century. These aspects include the
mental and material legacies of socialist and pre-socialist times, existing differ
ences in economic development, prevailing contact patterns and potentials for
interaction that almost reversed for Hungary after the political change, the avail
ability of human and material resources, the agency and mobility of individual
and institutional actors, the accessibility of a place from Budapest or neighbouring
countries, and, fmally, a fundamental re-evaluation of space after 1989/90.
Altogether, however, this collection of essays comprises of a great variety of
viewpoints and theoretical approaches, mirroring to a large extent the authors'
different disciplinary and institutional backgrounds. Working in geography, soci
ology and economics, the fourteen contributors are affiliated with the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences (Budapest and Gyor), the Eotvos Lorand University (Buda
pest), the University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration (Budapest),
the Kodolanyi Janos University (Szekesfehervar), The Vienna Institute for Inter
national Economic Studies (WnW, Vienna), and the Universities of Heidelberg
and Trier. The contributors, therefore, offer mainly Hungarian (ten chapters) but
also a few foreign, all Gennan, perspectives (four chapters) on Hungary in the
1990s. In the figurative sense, therefore, this English publication strives to con
tribute to a multiple transgression of language barriers within the 'scientific com
munity.' It seeks to serve as a gateway to work on Hungary's recent transfonna-
VIII Preface
tion processes done in the Hungarian and German speaking worlds - work that is,
however, to a considerable extent embedded within the Anglo-American literature
on transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (see lists of references).
What all papers have in common is the analysis and presentation of compre
hensive empirical data. The generous funding of Hungarian, German, Austrian
and European research foundations, and an excellent co-operation with the Hun
garian Central Statistical Office (KSH, Budapest) as well as the Hungarian Minis
try of Economic Affairs (Budapest) since the end of the 1980s enabled some of
the authors to work with unpublished individual data sets that have never been
analysed before (see, for example, chapters by Csefalvay, DOvenyi and Meus
burger). Furthermore, the authors could draw either upon their own knowledge
and contacts as Hungarians or upon strong ties with Hungarian researchers and
institutions in order to generate new quantitative and qualitative data for their
investigations by conducting, for example, comprehensive surveys and qualitative
interviews (see chapters by Izsak: and Probatd; Izsak: and Nemes-Nagy; Jons;
Kuczi and Lengyel; Sailer; Speder) or by exploring other promising and innova
tive sources. Displayed in various tables, maps and figures, the empirical results
presented in the following essays will inform the reader about recent political,
legal, and socio-economic structures and ongoing processes within Hungary, their
historical backgrounds, dynamics and interrelations. They will make the reader
aware of Hungary's, as well as other Central and Eastern European countries',
current problems and future prospects after the first decade of socio-economic
transformation to market economies of Western European style. However, the
empirical evidence presented in this book does not only emphasise the signifi
cance of geographical approaches within transformation studies, but also call for
critical reflection, re-interpretation, and further scholarly exchange across national
boundaries.
Heike Jons and Peter Meusburger
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all people who either supported the research that
enabled the contributions to this anthology, or helped with preparing the book for
publication. Representative of aU institutions that provided funding, we should
like to thank the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna), the EU Commission
(Brussels), the German Research Foundation (DFG, Bonn), the National Scientific
Research Fund (OTKA), the Open Society Support Foundation (Soros, Budapest),
and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Cologne) for having supported several research
projects on Hungary in the 1990s. The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH,
Budapest) and the Hungarian Ministry of Economic Affairs (Budapest) shall stand
in for those institutions and individuals who provided unpublished data for our
analysis, and thus deserve our gratitude. As some authors individually express
their thankfulness to people who contributed to their research, the editors would
like to thank Robert Famulok and Alexander Tonnier for computing some of the
data that is presented in this book. Special thanks are due to Verena Reitz for care
fully assisting with the editing work, and to Christine Bruckner for constructing
and reworking most of the illustrations. Similarly, we are indebted to Jan Heine,
Martina Hoppe and Yvette Tristram for smoothing out major grammatical flaws
from essays that were exclusively written by non-native speakers. Many thanks
also to Peter Boda for checking the Hungarian that inevitably underwent changes
when the manuscripts were transferred from one PC to another. Mike Heffernan
got rather accidentally involved at some stage of this project while being Alexan
der von Humboldt Research Fellow in Heidelberg. We are especially grateful for
his editorial advice. We also owe a great deal of gratitude to Veronique Ragot
who was involved in the organisational work and helped to see the project through
to its fmished form. Finally, we should like to thank Werner A. MOller and
Gabriele Keidel at Springer for their assistance and patience.
Contents
Preface V
Acknowledgements IX
List of Contributors XIII
Peter Meusburger:
The Role of Knowledge in the Socio-Economic Transformation of
Hungary in the 1990s
J6zsejN emes-Nagy:
New Regional Patterns in Hungary 39
HeikeJons:
Foreign Banks Are Branching Out: Changing Geographies of
Hungarian Banking, 1987-1999 65
Gabor Hunya:
International Competitiveness: Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment
in Hungary and Other Central and East European Countries 125
Tibor Kuczi and Gyorgy Lengyel:
The Spread of Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe 157
Peter Meusburger:
Spatial and Social Disparities of Employment and Income in Hungary
in the 1990s 173
Zoltan Dovenyi:
Development and Spatial Disparities of Unemployment in Hungary 207
Zsolt Speder:
Poverty Dynamics in Hungary during the Transformation 225
