Vol. 11 No. 1 (2012)

Published June 18, 2012

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Papers

  • Parallel Organizational and Technology Innovation: Designing Organizations following SOA Principles
    5-19
    Views:
    168

    Technology development in general and trends and developments in infocommunication technologies in particular have a direct effect on corporate organizational processes. In information system design, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a set of principles and methodologies for designing software in the form of interoperable services with defined business functionalities. These loosely coupled components can be reused for different purposes, and can be combined with services bought from outside partners and other service providers. The goal of this study is to describe how SOA principles and
    methods can be used for designing business organizations, i.e. socio-technical systems with human and machine components. Part one is a general overview of SOA as it is used in IT, part two explains how IT systems converge with corporate organizations, and part three presents a model for an organization designed and managed following SOA principles. The research project behind this article was initiated by the Hungarian Post.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: L14, L22, L86, M15

  • Empirical analysis of the relationship between the attitudes of domestic researchers and their economic results
    20-38
    Views:
    115

    The study analyses the attitudes towards intellectual property management and innovation attitudes of researchers in Hungarian public research organizations and the different types of economic results they achieve in an empirical way by pointing out the close relationships among them. During the analysis, a form of researcher typology will be developed based on clusters which were formed by the attitudes of researchers. The principal components
    were created from the attitude variables and served as dimensions. The research is primarily aimed at testing two hypotheses. On the one hand, these researcher clusters have significantly different economic characteristics and on the other hand, the cluster which has the most favourable attitudes in terms of the economic exploitation of research results has the greatest economic performance. In the course of the research the results basically confirmed both hypotheses.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: O32, O34, D01

  • Monetary Impacts and Overshooting of Agricultural Prices in Hungary
    39-49
    Views:
    113

    This paper employs the theoretical model developed by Shagaian et al. 2002, to analyse the response of various sectors of the Hungarian national economy to changes in the money supply. Johansen co-integration and vector error correction methodology is used to test whether agricultural prices overshoot their long-run equilibrium path if a monetary shock hits the system. Our results emphasise that agricultural prices do adjust faster to changes in macroeconomic conditions, in particular money supply, than industrial prices, thus affecting relative prices in the short-run; however, strict long-run money neutrality does
    not hold. The result is that flexible sectors of the national economy, such as agriculture or services, bear the burden of adjustment, with significant consequences for farms’ viability.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: C32, E51, P22, Q11.

  • The Comparative Analysis of the Cultural Financing Models of France and Hungary
    50-67
    Views:
    148

    Both France and Hungary use the so called coordinated cultural financing model, in which the active role of the state is decisive. However, instead of producing a similar model, the level of the cultural sector value added to GDP in the two countries is different. The article’s aim is to answer this puzzle. The focus is on the role of institutions and state subsidy. The analysis tries to understand whether direct state subsidy plays a decisive role in the economic performance of the cultural sector. The analysis also shows whether the harmony of formal and informal institutions have a positive effect on the economic growth of the cultural sector. The assumption is that the size of direct government subsidy cannot increase economic growth. If the formal and informal institutions are in harmony, and if there is a long-run cultural policy strategy in a country, the cultural sector value added to GDP is higher.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: Z10, Z11

  • Deep vs. Shallow Integration. The Case of NAFTA and Mercosur
    68-82
    Views:
    154

    Integration processes began in the 1960s and have become increasingly intense, bringing with them a growing share of intra-industry trade flows in international trade. According to the Smooth Adjustment Hypothesis (SAH), trade between similar industries or products results in lower adjustment costs in the factor markets. Due to the liberalizing effect of trade integrations trade flows intensify, causing an increase in intra-industry trade flows and consequently a decrease in adjustment costs at the same time. The alteration of trade patterns can be caused by changes both in quantity and in quality. Analyzing these effects separately allows us to better understand the trade policy practices of the chosen countries and to provide the decision makers with information.
    In this paper we analyze NAFTA and Mercosur, two integrations which differ both in factor endowments and in depth of integration (deep vs. shallow). We used SITC Rev. 1 AG3 (industrial level) and HS92 AG6 (product level) bilateral trade data from the UN COMTRADE database to analyze the evolution of intra-industry trade flows.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: F13, F14, F15

  • Transaction costs in the standardization of mobile telephone systems. The case of Japanese mobile standards
    83-97
    Views:
    97

    Although there have been papers concerned with the connection between standardization and transaction costs, they have analyzed how standards decrease transaction costs. This paper shows that transaction costs emerge during the standardization process. If the creation of a standard is seen as a transaction, in which the parties exchange their explicit and implicit knowledge, standardization can be analyzed from the viewpoint of Transaction Costs Economics. Undoubtedly the knowledge of the parties is a specific asset, exchange of which causes significant transaction costs; therefore opportunism plays a crucial role
    during standardization. In this paper I show that the standardization of mobile phone systems can be analyzed in the framework set up by Teece (1986) in order to point out how transaction costs could be decreased in particular cases. The standardization of second generation mobile systems in Japan illustrates the statements made in the theoretical part of the paper.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: D23, O31, L96

PhD student papers

  • Limits of Economic Theories in Border Research
    98-116
    Views:
    143

    The paper approaches the possible consequences of further trade liberalization, integration and the disappearance of borders from the perspective of well-known economic theories. After putting forward the questions and hypotheses, the author shows the different conclusions of economic approaches in the case of further integration and disappearing borders in borderlands. Using the results of economic theories the paper outlines the development path of those spatial units where state borders still play an important role in forming economic interactions. It comes to the conclusion that only regional reshuffling
    can be mentioned in relation to further integration. The paper also draws attention to the fact that economic theories do not give clear-cut and comprehensive answers for development, so the economic approach could be too simplistic. Consequently, a wellelaborated empirical research programme could provide a genuinely nuanced picture of the development path of borderlands.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: F15, O18, R12

  • Citizens’ Interest Index: What can act as a benchmark for the results of the New Public Management reforms?
    117-131
    Views:
    103

    The aim of the study is to suggest an adequate indicator to describe comprehensively the efficiency of New Public Management (NPM) at a macro level by using the economic roots of NPM. The scientific community has not yet found a comprehensive indicator to measure the efficiency of the given school; however NPM is at the stage of its lifecycle when these researches really do need to be conducted. Both the political-theoretical and the economic roots of NPM are closely connected to public choice theory; this theory thus provides the bases of the model for creating the new indicator. In the article we do not only introduce the created composite index at an abstract level, but also present its formulation and methodological background.

    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: H83, D70, D23