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• Greenxit: Greenland’s Case with the European Union

  34-53

  Fruzsina Siger

  Views:

  294

  In connection with the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit) a little-known episode of the European Union history became particularly interesting and timely: Greenland entered the European Community in 1973 together with Denmark, and later it left in 1985. This study provides an overview of the accession and withdrawal of Greenland to and from the European Communities and then it is put into a comparative context. On the one hand Greenxit is examined in the light of the planned withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, on the other hand it is compared with the almost-entry of Iceland. The study concludes that considering the key aspects of the case of Greenland it does not resemble that of the Brexit. However, the differences between the sovereignty and economic, political weight of the two territories explain the attitude of the EC/EU to the withdrawal. The comparison with Iceland highlights the importance of fisheries.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: F53, P52

• European rights in the Hungarian legal system

  67-72

  Imre Voros

  Views:

  114

  With the accession to the European Union, European rights became part of the Hungarian legal system, and have prority over Hungarian laws in the same areas. Regular courts make use of European law in situations where their own law is unclear. Nonetheless the integration of European law into the Hungarian legal system is not without problems: the Constitutional Court is in a trap, because the priority of European law does not apply to it. thus it can only examine the constitutionality of a law originatiing from Europe in the context of how it affects the Hungarian Constitution. The Hungarian legal system must conform to European norms, so legal harmonization is necessary. This requires precise and well-thought-out law-making, while European rules are often simply 'copied' into a Hungarian law, thus ruining the inner logical structure and consistency of the Hungarian law. Behind these problems lies the fact that European law has undergone an 'overdevelopment', and has not been consistently thought through.

• The Monetary Union and the policitcal unification in Europe

  96-104

  László Jankovics

  Views:

  126

  The article deals with the European Economic and Monetary Union's connection with politics. The author examines how the Monetary Union came to be with the help of the traditional integration theories and also what answers can be gained from them on the question of politically unification. He shows how the Werner-plan, mentioned as the forerunner of the EMU, helped in forming the Union in the light of the theory of optimal currency areas. He points at the problem around European fiscal federalism. In order to elevate the mostly underrated economic powers, he uses the Mundell-Fleming model to illustrate the economic relations behind the Union, which, to some extent, stand in contrast with the way of behaviour driving back to political thinking.

• An analysis of services for general economic purposes and universal services in the European Union

  49-66

  Eva Sztanko

  Views:

  116

  A topic in the focus on debates on the European social model has been to define the future role of Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI). The European Commission launched a widespread public discussion on the public utility related objectives of SGEI, their impacts on the quality of life, on the environment and on the competitiveness of European firms, as well as on ways of organising and financing these services. This discussion has received an important input from rulings of the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance in cases on Services of General Economic Interest. Although these court rulings lacked consistency in some cases, they still helped to obtain more accurate definitions of SGEI. Most member countries of the EU have started to elaborate the concept of universal services, but there are still serious loopholes in the field of monitoring, control, quality management and in terms of financing. To sum up, the EU member country level practice of universal services in the energy sector is still in the first phase of realisation.

• The joining negotiations in rapport with the EMU

  75-87

  Laszlo Jankovics

  Views:

  116

  The study surveys the field that deals with the Eastward expansion of the European Economic and Monetary Union /EMU/ after the joining negotiations, involving the probable legal, political and economic dilemmas and problems of the introduction of euro in Hungary. The joining contract and the relevant documents unambiguosly outlining the items within the monetary integration for the Hungarian economy can be planned. It also examines the chosen monetary integration for the Hungarian economy can be planned. It also examines the chosen monetary-political systems of the candidate for membership countries from the relevant European regulation point of view, just as the possibility of individual solutions.

• The Roots of Euroscepticism in Hungary.: Economic Policy and Perceptions of the European Union in the Crisis

  5-22

  Jozsef Peter Martin

  Views:

  278

  The paper explores the relationships among three factors: economic policy, its evaluation, and perceptions of the European Union. It considers Hungary’s recent decade, primarily the years of the recent global financial and economic crisis. The analysis compares Hungary’s economic statistics and attitudes with those of other countries on the EU periphery. The main questions are the following: why and how Hungary has become a eurosceptic country? On what does the image of the EU (created in the population) depend? Is there any link between how the economic policy is being pursued on one hand, and the attitudes towards the EU, on the other? Is the evaluation of the national economy confirmed by the hard facts?

  Journal of Economic Litterature (JEL) classifications: O520, Z130, P160

• The role of France in the economy of the EU

  207-224

  Mariann Eszter Kovacs

  Views:

  100

  The author examines the decisive role of France within the EU. After a preliminary examination of the principles of European integration and its historical development, the article analyses the netwrok of connections existing between the EU and the French economy, as well as the period of growth and retrenchment in its development. The main theme of the article is the debate over the stability and growth pact and the circumstances and consequences of the failure to comply with the pact's rules caused by the France's long-lasting budget. This failure calls into question, and in the long term may be fatal for the future of European integration and for the direction of a common supra-national economic policy and the national responses it requires. The common European currency, and the stability and future of the Euro are also affected, since this failure can influence the co-operative efforts of the various elements of the European Union in an unprecedented way. It also affects the relationships bewteen the smaller and larger countries, and the economic opportunities of all member states.

• Examination of the effect of financial transfers within the European Union

  83-102

  Zsuzsanna Tron

  Views:

  253

  It is a common view that financial transfers within the European Union have a significant effect on economic growth. Model simulations, sponsored by the European Commission, seem to confirm this supposition. The econometric analyses evaluating the actual impact of the funds, however, yields a dismal picture on the additional growth and convergence effects of financial transfers. This study's goal is to find the reason why the outcomes differ so much. First, we present the main types and the underlying logic of the evaluation methods of EU regional policy. This is followed by a review of the lessons learnt from the specific evaluation methodologies including case-studies, general equilibrium models, and regression analyses. Our conclusion is that the main objectives of the European regional policy prevailed only to a limited extent, which is mainly due to crowding out effects, rent-seeking, inefficient allocation and moral hazard.

• The prospects of uniformization of the internal market of electricity in the European Union

  3-22

  Eva Sztanko

  Views:

  222

  The European internal market of electricity is not yet uniform, although it has been moving toward this direction for the last two decades. The energy market position of the consumers has been strengthening, the liquidity and the cross-border trade of the European electricity markets has been increasing. The stronger competition limited the wholesale prices. Despite the backsliding or stagnating household and industrial consumption, however, the retail prices and the costs have been increasing. The EU has to carry on reforming the electricity market in order to satisfy the need for more flexible energy-systems, to increase the competition, to make the consumers react to price changes in a more flexible way, to create more cost-effective governmental/market measures to handle price volatilities, to finance investments, and to minimise cost increases. The most recent comprehensive recommendations of the European Committee intend to create a new electricity market model, however, it yet remains to see the reception of these on behalf of the member countries.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: Q48

• Trade Advantage and Competitiveness of Hungarian Agri-food Exports with the European Union

  87-102

  Imre Ferto

  Views:

  94

  The complementarities of trade advantage and trade competitiveness measures for Hungarian agro-food trade with the European Union are analyzed. The stability and duration of the trade measures over time is investigated by survival analysis using the nonparametric Kaplan-Meier product limit estimator and the consistency test between the trade measures is conducted by the stratified Cox proportional hazard model. Hungary experienced a greater number of products with relative trade disadvantages and a greater significance of one-way imports. Hungary also experienced relative trade advantages for bulk raw commodities, processed intermediates, and horticulture, with the greatest significance of successful quality competition and one-way exports, and the lowest significance of unsuccessful price
  and unsuccessful quality competition. The duration of relative trade advantages is longer than the duration for the successful trade competition categories. Our results confirm that relative trade advantage is consistent with the one-way export and the successful price and successful quality competition categories in two-way trade on the one hand, and relative trade disadvantage with the one-way import and the unsuccessful price and unsuccessful quality competition on the other.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: Q12

• The development of regional policy in the European Union: reforms and conflicts

  88-102

  Zsuzsanna Tron

  Views:

  132

  In the European Union the discussion of each budgetary period sees fierce debates about the structural expenses and their distribution. The paper presents a summary of the principles of those involved, and tries to catch them in the policy making of Brussels. In the first half of the paper the necessity of regional policy and its theoretical foundation are examined touching upon the so called convergence and divergence theories. This is followed by the discussion of the conflicting interests and motifs shaping the regional policy. The final question is whether the expenses of the Structural Funds can be justified in view of the processes and results shown.

• Communitarisation in the cultural spheres of the member states of the European Union

  127-144

  Akos Toth

  Views:

  91

  The intstitutions of the European Union encourage the liberalisation of the cultural sector wirh the reduction of the coercive power of the member states. The article assumes that communitarisation in the cultural sphere exists although there is no EU Treaty (acquis) on cultural policy and the member states use different cultural financing models. The author first analyses the government and household expenditure for culture of the OECD countries, then compares the productivity and profitability indicators of the post socialist countries with the same indicators' EU 25 average.

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

• Human Capital and EU-Enlargement

  83-92

  Dietmar Meyer

  Views:

  84

  The enlargement of the European Union is an almost everywhere accepted necessity, but at the same time of course also a compromise. Economies or regions of different economic, social, institutional, etc. development become united in Europe with a territory from the Atlantic to the Eastern borders of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. This integration process going along with the worldwide globalisation will imply a new distribution, or a redistribution of the factors of production. First of all the human capital will be touched by this development.2 One of the most important results found by social sciences in the 20th century is the realisation of the immense role played by human factors in the process of economic development. The extremely high efficiency of human capital and the high mobility could diminish the regional differences in the economic development and therefore in the social life. But even this is one reason for the mentioned re-allocation of the human capital. In the frame of a very simple static model (See e. g. Bishi – Kopel [2002]) the flow of human capital between different regions – called the European Union and the New Member States – will be analysed. The introduction of search costs extends the field of policy-analysis.

• The Complexity of Technological Progress: Empirical evidence in the European Union

  23-34

  Julianna Csugany

  Views:

  128

  The author examines the role of institutions in technological change on the basis of an understanding of the macroeconomic context of technological progress. The empirical study aims to demonstrate the macroeconomic relationship between economic growth, technological progress and institutions, using data from the member states of the European Union. This paper constructs a statistical model which accommodates the complexity of technological progress and contributes to the analysis of its different aspects. It concludes that the elements of the technological environment and an emphasis on the protection of property rights play an essential role in understanding the effects of technological progress on economic growth.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: O11, O34, O43

• Challenges ahead for the European Union

  7-12

  Alexandre Lamfalussy

  Views:

  97

  It is a mild understatement that nowadays the EU is navigating in rough waters. Close to half of the member countries of the Euro area are in breach of their fiscal stability commitment – and some of them very substantially. Quite a few heads of government publicly criticise the ECB’s monetary policy. Germany and France are determined to water down the Bolkenstein directive on the implementation of a genuine single market for services (which amount to about two-thirds of the EU’s GDP), to which, incidentally, no major objections had been raised by the governments of the member states during the drafting stage. There is no agreement on the longer term EU budget. Only Ireland, the UK and Sweden accept the free movement of the residents of the ten countries which became members of the EU in May last year.

• The problems and future of EU regional policy: the background, preparation and conlcusions of the Third Cohesion Report

  189-206

  Zsuzsanna Tron

  Views:

  104

  As the time approaches for the preparation of the new European Union, budget storm clouds are appearing on the horizon. The various problems and challanges are putting European politicians to the test. The present article investigates the main areas in which experts must act. One of the most visible of these areas is European regional policy. After analysing what regional policí has and has not achieved, and summarising the aims of the structural policy, the article describes the planned reforms and the outline of the new cohesion policy according to the Third Cohesion Report which appeared in February.

• Political Economy of Fiscal Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

  66-75

  George Kopits

  Views:

  85

  The reform of public finances has been at the centre of the post-socialist transition of Central and Eastern Europe since the early 1990s. At various stages of the transition, the reform process encompassed the entire gamut of public finances: the national budget, sub-national finances, extrabudgetary operations, and state-owned financial and non-financial enterprises. For the most part, fiscal reform was a non-linear stop-and-go process – often characterised by backtracking as well – and was uneven across countries. Moreover, unlike most reform experience in the rest of the world, fiscal reform in this region took place against the backdrop of a radical break, as sovereign countries emerged from a colonial past following the collapse of the Soviet Union. An important milestone was reached in 2004–2007, when all ten countries covered in this article became members of the European Union. The purpose of this article is to discuss fiscal reform in Central and Eastern Europe from the perspective of political economy. Following an overview of basic reform trends, the article focuses on the principal drivers and impediments to reform in the region. To conclude, the ingredients of successful reform are examined. The article does not provide an exhaustive inventory of reform measures, nor does it offer a survey of broad political economy issues prior to or during the transition period. Country references are intended to serve as stylised illustrations of main points, rather than as a comprehensive documentation of reform episodes.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: H1, H3, P2, P52.

• European economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions

  45-60

  László Szigethy

  Views:

  157

  The study focuses on the short-term effects of economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions. The research relies on panel data from the European Union member states. Based on carbon dioxide emissions-income elasticity, the study reveals wide differences in the growth rate of emissions, depending on whether the member state was a former socialist or a highincome country. The research also finds an asymmetric effect between periods of economic growth and recession in respect to emissions.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: Q56, O44

• Economy of Austria

  125-148

  Kitti Vass

  Views:

  103

  In my article I examine a member state of the European Union, the open and federal Austria, which can be considered as an example of a corporate economy. During the reconstruction period following the Second World War the Austrian economy was characterized by a frantic economic expansion. After the oil crisis, an incomparably low inflation rate and low unemployment, and the more dynamic than average economic growth attracted attention to the country. Due to the intensified external economic interest, the Austrian model - namely the economic policy and establishment - was widely studied at this time. However, at the beginning of the 1980's some structural problems appearing in the economy contributed to slowdown in growth, until the political changes of the year 2000, which finally brought a new favourable turn in economic policy. I start with an examination of Austria's economic status after the Second World War, then the development, changes and role of the Austrian social partnership. I go on to analyze today's Austria from the point of view of the sustainable balanced budget, focusing on the financial circumstances of the state, such as the complex financial connections derived from federalism.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL): H62, H63

• The future of Russian outward foreign direct investment and the eclectic paradigm: What changes after the crisis of 2008–2009?

  31-54

  Kalman Kalotay

  Views:

  146

  This article explores the future of Russian outward foreign direct investment in the aftermath of the crisis of 2008–2009. As it is too early to analyse the full impact of the crisis, it develops hypotheses about the degree of slowdown in the foreign expansion of Russian transnational corporations. It uses an extension of the eclectic paradigm to home country advantages (competitive environment, business environment, development strategy, State involvement) applied to a comparison of the Russian Federation with other economies in transition as an analytical tool. Systematic differences between transnationals from the Russian Federation (global firms, based on natural resources, aiming for vertical integration of assets) and from new European Union member countries (regional firms, based on downstream activities or services, aiming for horizontal integration) allow us to formulate more solid conclusions about the future of the Russian firms facing lower export prices, lower market capitalizations and higher debts. In turn, this article argue that a comparison with the large emerging economies of Brazil, China and India, under the acronym of BRIC can be less useful in the current context, as these economies are significantly less affected by the crisis of 2008–2009 than the Russian Federation; hence they can not expect a slowdown in their outward foreign direct investment similar to that of Russian transnationals.

  JEL: F23; F21; O52; P29

• Roadmap for the adoption of the euro in Hungary: dangers and opportunities

  Laszlo Jankovics

  Views:

  151

  In April 2003, the EU Accession Agreement was officially signed for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. These countries are destined to become EU members in May 2004. As part of the “acquis communautaire”, participation in the new version of the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II), and subsequently in the European Monetary Union (EMU) is obligatory for all new EU members (no opt-out clause is available). Therefore, the question today for the accession countries is no longer whether or not to enter the eurozone but rather the time horizon when the entry should happen.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: E42, E58, F33.

• Twenty-one Economic Arguments against an Unconditional Basic Income

  5-29

  Istvan Csillag

  Peter Mihalyi

  Views:

  362

  In 2013/14 there has been an intense public debate both in the European Union and in Hungary on the feasibility of Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) support. In the Hungarian context, the publication of a 100-page proposal was an important milestone, in which a group of experts applied the UBI concept to the present circumstances. The study, the brainchild of István Bánfalvi, a distinguished social policy practitioner, proposed the following specific amounts as from January 2015: HUF 25,000 for children (≈ EUR 83), HUF 50,000 for adults and HUF 75,000 for expectant mothers. The present paper’s first objective was to challenge the entire 25-50-75 concept from both theoretical and practical-administrative perspectives. In addition, we tried to show that income poverty in Hungary is much less of a problem than generally presumed. Our final conclusion is that from a poverty alleviation point of view the geographical remobilization of the Hungarian Roma population is by far the most important issue. Roma living in small rural settlements should be assisted to move towards large cities, where the chances of finding work, education and health care are much better.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: H21, I38, J15

• Trust as a Cost Reducing Factor

  74-84

  Anett Hodosi

  Views:

  192

  The current study analyzes the cost reducing feature of one of the well-researched informal institutions, trust. The micro level analysis is followed by a macro level approach, which is aimed at highlighting trust’s direct cost reducing element via transaction costs and its indirect effect through the legal system. As part of the latter an empirical evaluation of 25 European Union countries has been carried out regarding the connection between costs due to administrative burden and trust. On the one hand academic economic literature proves that trust reduces transaction costs, and on the other hand that the effectiveness of the legal system contributes to the decrease of transaction costs. According to our assumption the increase of the level of trust improves the effectiveness of the legal system and via this
  mechanism it supports the reduction of transaction costs.

  JEL classification: D02, E02

• Corporate tax - a new paradigm is needed! -II. A new global value-added tax is needed instead of a corporate tax

  31-47

  László Török

  Views:

  146

  Abstract: The corporate tax system is easy to manipulate in modern economies, with high explicit and implicit costs of maintaining it. Attempts to reform it have been unsuccessful, with aggressive tax planning and tax evasion gaining ground at the international level. The source of constant conflicts between national tax administrations and companies is also the corporate tax base and tax accounting. Therefore, based on a new paradigm, I have developed a new, globally introduce, corporate value-added tax on corporate adjusted sales. Revenues from this tax would replace general government revenues lost due to the abolition of corporate tax. Based on the GDP of the member states of the European Union, I calculated the rate of the new tax for all member states. In the study, I present in detail, the mechanism of operation of the new tax, then describe the advantages of the introduction of the new tax compared to the corporate tax. Finally, I will thoroughly present how the taxation of dividends from company owners/shareholders would change if the new tax I planned was introduced and operated. This new type of taxation of dividends would, in my view, contribute more fairly to the burden-sharing.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: C 53, E 62, H 24, K 34

• Corporate tax - a new paradigm is needed - I.: Income tax versus value-added tax

  26-47

  Laszlo Torok

  Views:

  428

  Since the existence of the corporate tax institution, it has been a difficult task to determine the exact corporate tax base. As long as states are as large as possible, taxpayers, on the other hand, are interested in the smallest possible tax base. National and supranational rules for determining the tax base are changing with unrealistic frequency. It is almost impossible to enforce them, so conflicts between countries and between companies and tax administrations over corporate tax payable seem to be perpetuating. With the rise of trans- and multinational corporations, aggressive corporate tax planning and covert tax avoidance have also emerged. National governments are trying to prevent this with bilateral and multilateral treaties. Still, the verdicts of the recently revealed multi-billion euro/dollar corporate tax cases prove that they do not have a deterrent effect, meaning that the measures taken so far are far from sufficient to prevent them. In my research hypothesis, I argue that the corporate tax system's current form is unsustainable at both national and global levels due to its intricate design and manipulability and its high macro- and micro-level implicit costs. I will then propose a new value-added tax and tax rate to compensate for the loss of government revenue due to the abolition of corporate tax in an equivalent and essentially clear way. After that, I tested the proposed new type of tax based on the European Union countries' value-added data. Finally, I present the new global tax's territorial principle to replace corporate tax and its contribution to national public burden-bearing.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: C53, E62, H24, K34