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• Agricultural employment in Hungary and the North-Great Plain region

  Tunde Csapone Risko

  Views:

  146

  The transition deeply effected the economical sectors of Hungary. The role of agriculture within the economy reduced, its contribution to the GDP is now less than 4%. These developments caused considerable changes within the structure of employment in agriculture, a process which corresponds to EU trends. The North-Great Plain Region is situated in the northe-east part of Hungary and can be considered a typical agricultural area. In this region the GDP per capita has been one of the lowest in Hungary for several years. The reasons for this are as follows: the dominant role of agriculture in comparison with other sectors of the economy, the low profitability of agricultural production and related activities and the high ratio of less developed areas within the region. Agriculture plays an important role in this region because it provides workplaces for local people, reducing their migration into big towns and contirbutes to the rural development of the region.

• Western Balkans: Opportunities for Agriculture on the Eve of EU Accession

  52-73

  Tamas Mizik

  Views:

  156

  The Western Balkan countries can be characterised by their shared goal, which is to achieve the quickest accession to the European Union. Agriculture is an important obstacle to achieving this goal. The role of agriculture differs widely among the countries analysed but is more important than the average of the EU. This study gives a comprehensive overview of the most important agricultural indicators. These indicators allow us to acquire a precise picture of the sector’s relevance, production structure, efficiency and international relations. After demonstrating changes in input use, production structure, prices, terms of trade and agricultural policies, the next section identifies some of the reasons for these changes. The analysis concentrates on the most recent years for which data is available. In the last few years Serbia became the leading producer and the only net exporter of agricultural goods in the region. Nevertheless, the current situation is endangered by several issues, such as imbalanced sectoral production, fragmented production structure, relatively low yields, unfavourable export composition, and poor food hygiene and quality control, which anticipate painful and difficult measure which need to be carried out.

  JEL classification: Q15, Q17, Q18

• Revealed comparative advantage in Hungarian agriculture: a chaotic or coherent pattern?

  59-82

  Imre Ferto

  Views:

  140

  We describe the evolving pattern of Hungarian agri-food trade using recently developed empirical procedures based around the classic Balassa Index at various aggregation level and different bechmark between 1992 and 2002. Our results shows a significant geographical differences and across sub-sectors of 1, 2, and 3 digit SITC classification. The extent of trade specialisation exhibits a declining trend for all benchmarks; Hungary has lost comparative advantage for a number of product groups over time. The indices of specialisation have also tended to converge. For particular product groups, the indices display greater variation. They are stable for product groups with comparative disadvantage, but product groups with weak to strong comparative advantage show significant variation.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: Q12

• Ecological marketing strategy and futurology

  169-188

  Maria Szolnoki Gyozone Karkus

  Views:

  220

  For both branches of futurology - prognostics and the creation of a picture of the future - the natural environment is an important element. Both economics and environmental economics try to influence the actions of economic actors by painting alarming or attractive pictures of future developments. The concept of sustainable development attempts to achieve the realization of those concepts which harmonize present and future economic, environmental and social interests. To this end a preventive environmental policy is necessary, as is the introduction of a value system in which in the course of economic decisions, environmental interests are accorded at least equal status with economic interests. Among the various concepts, eco-marketing is an appropriate method of harmonizing the often contradictory goals and interests of companies. The first part of the study deals with the relationship between research into the future and the environment, the second introduces the concept of eco-marketing, and systematizes ecological marketing strategies.

• Monetary Impacts and Overshooting of Agricultural Prices in Hungary

  39-49

  Zoltan Bakucs

  Views:

  149

  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 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