And the first shall be the last

Abstract

This study analyzes the puzzle of Hungarian economic drifting in a long run perspective. The underlying puzzle for the investigation is why bad policies are invariably popular and good policies unpopular, thus why political and economic rationality never overlap. The first part of the article summarizes in eight points the basic features of the postwar period. Then six lessons are offered, which might be useful for other countries in transition or for students of comparative economics and politics, lessons that can be generalized on the basis of the individual country experience.

The European Economy in 2014: Fragile Recovery and Convergence

“…As pointed out by Murn et al (), Slovenia experienced worsening conditions, including low levels of foreign direct investment inflows, high unit labour costs and an excessive emphasis on labour‐intensive production already at the turn of the millennium. The major blow to Hungary's economic development came around 2001 and 2002, when the public sector turned into the playground of short‐sighted politicians (Benczes and Takács, ; Csaba, ).…”

Isolation and characterisation of flavobacteria from wild and cultured freshwater fish species in Hungary

“…Based on the monitoring presented here, we hypothesise that the Hungarian F. columnare strains identified by traditional methods (Csaba and Békési, 1977) could be F. johnsoniae isolates, since the two closely related species had not been distinguished at that time.…”

“…The presence of this bacterium had already been documented in Hungary previously (Csaba and Békési, 1977), and its occurrence was presumed to be more frequent due to the climate change and rising natural water temperatures. Another objective was to determine the resistance of our strains to antimicrobial agents.…”

Human development and convergence among the states of former Yugoslavia

“…The explanation of the divergence in the CEE-10 is that the recession that followed the financial crisis led to a fall in foreign direct investment and foreign trade, both of which were generators of growth in these countries, thus exposing different vulnerabilities within this group that caused the divergence. The recurring conclusion that the EU accession process is crucial to the reforms that lead to growth and convergence is also reiterated in some country-specific studies, which point out that the reform impulse is usually lost after the accession to the EU, with other long-term institutional and historical factors becoming dominant (Csaba 2011).…”