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• Allocation Of Residual Income Rights Under Internal Governance Empirical Results from the Hungarian Trucking Industry

  Joseph Windsperger

  Maria Jell

  Views:

  119

  The paper offers a property rights and monitoring cost explanation for the allocation of residual income rights between the carriers and truck drivers under internal governance. First, by applying property rights theory, we argue that the structure of residual income rights depends on the importance of noncontractible (intangible) assets of the truck driver to generate a residual surplus. The more important the truck driver’s intangible knowledge
  assets, the more residual income rights should be transferred to him. In addition, we controlled for the monitoring costs as an additional explanatory variable of the allocation of residual income rights. According to agency theory, the higher the variable proportion of the driver’s income, the higher the monitoring costs.These hypotheses were tested by using data from the Hungarian trucking industry. The empirical results are supportive of the hypotheses.

  JEL- Index: G32, M2

• Twenty-one Economic Arguments against an Unconditional Basic Income

  5-29

  Istvan Csillag

  Peter Mihalyi

  Views:

  383

  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

• The Effect of the Economic Crisis on Income Poverty in the Southern Great Plain Region

  61-75

  Eszter Siposne Nandori

  Views:

  132

  The paper examines the effect of the economic crisis and the related negative economic phenomena on the income poverty of those living in the Southern Great Plain region. The regional income poverty is examined using the poverty measures based on the income data of workers and wage earners. I then analyse how economic performance affects poverty measures. The analysis proves that not only the economic growth of the given county, but also the economic performance of the neighbouring counties have an effect on the poverty rate. Economic growth, however, is not enough to reduce the depth of poverty; therefore other measures to improve the conditions of the poor are also required. In the end, the spatial autocorrelation is examined in the Southern Great Plain region.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: I32, R12

• Presentation of two models of consumption/saving

  175-184

  Katalin Buzasi

  Views:

  202

  The Permanent Income Hypothesis (developed by Friedman) and the Life Cycle Hypothesis (developed by Modigliani) are the most popular consumption or saving theories in economics. The aim of this paper is to introduce the main features and consequences of the models mentioned above. The first part of this paper introduces the historical circumstances in which the hypotheses were developed. In the second part we mention various debates on the theories which helped tp clarify some of their more complex aspects. The aim of the third part is to introduce various ways of expanding and supplementing the basic theories and convert them into more realistic ones.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: E21

• Economic Freedom and the Process of Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis Based on a New Measure

  5-30

  Judit Kapás

  Pál Czeglédi

  Views:

  356

  This paper, relying on a conceptualization of economic freedom in terms of kinds of government actions, develops a new measure of economic freedom. However, this is not art for art’s sake; instead, it allows us to provide an explanation for how particular institutions of economic freedom enhance economic development, a view upon which scholars agree. We develop two concepts related to economic freedom, namely the freedom-compatible and freedom-non-compatible institutions and use them as tools in an analysis of the process of economic growth, especially the relationship between economic freedom and long-run income. The major argument is that freedom-compatible institutions are primary determinants of income, while freedom-non-compatible institutions depend upon them and are partly the outcomes of the growth process itself, a fact which is explained by the Misesian theory of interventionism. Our regression analyses support our theoretical insights.

  JEL Classification: B53, H10, O10

• The economic impacts of direct payments on agricultural income – A Literature Review

  3-25

  Akos Szerletics

  Attila Jambor

  Views:

  579

  The economic impacts of direct payments is a widely studied field in the literature related to the Common Agricultural Policy. This article aims to provide a systematic review of the income-related impacts of direct payments. In doing so, the article screened the academic literature on the impacts of direct payments and identified 150 relevant ones, out of which 41 were written directly on income-related effects.
  Relevant articles can be classified into four groups: general, distributional, stabilisation and other impacts. Most of the literature criticised the ongoing system of direct payments and their effectiveness in producing income-related policy goals. We believe that our results can be useful for researchers and policymakers in better understanding the income-related impacts of direct payments.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: Q18

• Adózás, megtakarítás, hatékonyság II.

  5-25

  Tibor Erdos

  Views:

  157

  Folytatva a korábbi cikkben megkezdett elemzéseket, az adózás és a hatékonyság kérdéseit vizsgálva arra a következtetésre jutunk, hogy a differenciált forgalmi adók több szempontból is hatékonyság csökkentőek. Egyrészt megváltoztatják a termékösszetételt, ami így már a lakossági szükségleteknek az optimálisnál alacsonyabb szintű kielégítését valószínűsíti, és másrészt termékösszetételen keresztül torzítják a forrásallokációt is, ami a hagyományos hatékonysági értelmezés szerint, alacsonyabb tőkehatékonysághoz is vezet. Hasonló torzításokat okoz, hogy az imputed income nem adózik. Hatékonyság romboló hatása ellenére a szelektív adóztatás elkerülése gyakorlatban nem megvalósítható, hiszen a társadalmi költségei meghaladhatnák a hatékonyságbeli nyereséget. Végső következtetés ugyanaz, mint amit a korábbi cikkben megfogalmaztunk, sem a méltányosság, sem a hatékonyság nem lehet egyedüli célja az adórendszernek.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: E 62, H21

• Classical liberalism, democracy, and economic growth: a hypothesis about the Lipset hypothesis

  5-30

  Pál Czeglédi

  Views:

  263

  Does economic growth create democracy, as suggested by the proposition known as the Lipset hypothesis? According to this paper, for the Lipset hypothesis to be valid, it is sufficient for an ideological and a technological condition to be fulfilled. The ideological condition is that the political agenda-setting ideology should be classical liberalism, which can be characterised as combining an aversion towards democracy with a positive assessment of economic and civil liberties. The technological condition is that the country in question should be advanced enough in the technological sense, because in such a country there is no economic growth without innovation maintained by a free market for ideas. Logit regressions run with panel data show that in the period up until the early 20th century a higher per capita income increases the probability of a democratic regime change, but afterwards it does not. The explanation is that before the early 20th century the two conditions were met, but they were not met in those countries that were about to become democratic after the first two decades of the 20th century.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: D70, O11, O43

• The improvement and the new manifestation of the Veblenian conspicuous consumption theory

  23-35

  Karmen Kovacs

  Views:

  418

  This paper focuses on how the Veblenian conspicuous consumption theory has been developed further by the theorists of modern economics. The connection between status, status goods and conspicuous consumption is underlined in the discussion. It is emphasized that the price has a multiple role, however, the hypothesized positive relation between price and quantity is not necessarily valid. The wide-ranging motivations and consequences of conspicuous consumption are also analyzed. Finally, the new features of conspicuous consumption are discussed, that is, instead of wasting money on goods, cultural capital and taste have become the core of conspicuous consumption, and instead of focusing on wealth, the contexts of income have become relevant.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Codes: D11, Z13

• The equilibrium problems of the Hungarian economy and the theoretic possibility of a solution

  85-102

  Gyorgy Szakolczai

  Views:

  138

  Followinf article analyses the question, how the twin deficit - the joint deficit of the budget and the current account - changed in Hungary between 2000 and 2006. The first part deals with the basic identities of the national accounts. The second, analytical part, looks through the latest data about the import surplus, the balance of owners' income and the inland consumption surplus, then it deals with the current account deficit and the ways of financing it, the current expenses, the net accumulation and the borrowing of the government budget. The third part performs the economic analysis and draws the main conclusions. According to this, the drastic decrease in proportion of the gross accumulation, the virtually zero net accumulation of the government sector, the deficit of the current account and the debt generating way to finance it are way more serious problems than the cudget deficit, which does not mean, that such deficit is sustainable. Even this situation does not justify the radical demolition of the welfare state, the theoretic solution can only be the increase of export capacity and the employment.

• A review of the border effect literature – is domestic trade really biased?

  81-102

  Ádám Márkus

  Views:

  163

  The aim of this article is to give a comprehensive review of the border effect literature. The author demonstrates through a number of empirical results that state borders still obstruct commodity trade flows between countries significantly, even in the twenty first century’s globalized world market. Countries’ trade patterns show a massive bias toward domestic markets, which can be only partially justified by formal factors such as income differences, distances, tariffs, cultural or linguistic dissimilarities and different currencies. Controlling for all these factors does not abolish the hindering role of borders, which suggests that the preference for domestic partners is excessive. The paper analyses major gravity model specifications and estimation methods in order to shed light on solving the border puzzle.
  

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kódok: F14, F15

• A literature review of Happiness and Economics and guide to needed research

  117-131

  Thomas Wiese

  Views:

  664

  Happiness and Economics as a new branch of behavioural economics has had a major impact on economic theory and economic policy: Several studies have been published in the last 20 years in leading journals. Furthermore, several governments have decided to collect data about the well-being of their citizens. The author claims that utility cannot only be measured by the choices individuals do: Reported happiness and life satisfaction data is also an acceptable empirical estimate for individual utility. Consequently, happiness research can bear new knowledge and important understanding of human welfare. Therefore, this paper gives an overview of the existing literature. Methods and approach of scholars is critically analysed and shortcomings are discussed. Thereafter, findings on major economic issues like growth, unemployment and inflation are presented. Besides, governmental policy and implications for society are debated. Lastly, future research possibilities are mentioned.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Classification: D60 D63 I31

• The Success and Motivation of Academic Entrepreneurs in Hungary

  75-87

  Adam Novotny

  Views:

  525

  This paper presents the results of an empirical study of 80 academic entrepreneurs in Hungary. It aims at analysing the relationship between the motivations for starting a firm and entrepreneurial success. The motivations studied are the prospects of higher income, the need for achievement, the need for independence and the benefits related to research. Success is examined from both objective and subjective perspectives. The indicators of objective success are the firm’s revenue, the change in the revenue, the number of employees and firm age. Subjective success refers to the academic entrepreneur’s self-evaluation. According to the findings, the strongest motivation for starting a spin-off firm is financial necessity, i.e. a dissatisfaction with the university salary. Except for financial need, all the motivations included in the study have a significant relationship with subjective success, but a weaker or no relationship with objective success. Research-related benefits, such as moving the research towards development, is a key entrepreneurial motive in the academic sector, as it is positively associated with subjective success, the revenue of the spin-off venture and its growth.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Classifications: L26, I23, O32

• Nyugdíjreform-dilemmák – jövedelemelosztási arányok és makropénzügyi egyensúly

  5-32

  Laszlo Antal

  Views:

  145

  The paper aims to outline the main relations and critical points of the pension system which make the reform of the whole system inevitable in near future. The most important cause stems from demographic change: in the developed countries average life expectancy is rising rapidly while the number of births is diminishing. This results in rising retirement outgoings and decreasing revenues from superannuation taxes. In addition to this medical expenses are increasing due to the development of treatment methods. In contrast, in Hungary the average life expectancy will only increase after 20-30 years. The main problems of the distributive systems are rooted in the particular characteristics of the political change following the collapse of communism. The level of employment decreased dramatically and there are many tax arbitrage opportunities. In addition nowadays 90% of employers tend to retire on a pension before retirement age. These factors make the main distributive system unsustainable. Additionally the elderly dependence rate will double in the next few decades. Parties debating a socially and financially sustainable main distributive system agree on the inevitability of an increasing role for self-provision and a cut in the growth in expenditure. The pension system will not be able to keep pace with growing wages, to guarantee insurance principals and a minimal income in old-age, and to meet the requirements of long-term financing at the same time, especially not in the period of demographic changes.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL): I38, J11, J26 

• Knowledge Export in Higher Education: A Hierarchic Approach

  35-48

  Jozsef Beracs

  Views:

  153

  The role of higher education in economic growth is increasing parallel with the development of the knowledge industry. The export income from student mobility estimated by some experts exceeds 40 billion US dollars worldwide. In this paper we discuss two aspects of the phenomenon. First, higher education as an industry is more complex than simply student mobility. This is true despite the fact that this mobility is the most visible and most attractive part of the export activity. There are research outputs of universities and other service activities which are classified as exports and which are offered in market based systems. Second, the individual professors - whether employees of universities or freelance knowledge workers - university departments, faculties, universities, countries, regions, etc. could serve as the subjects of the statistical measurement of activities. All of those activities which are carried out by universities can be measured in different hierarchical systems.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: F14, M31

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

  26-47

  Laszlo Torok

  Views:

  468

  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