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• The macroeconomic possibilities of biosimilars in developed countries

  3-18

  Peter Halmosi

  Views:

  190

  Biosimilars have been used for the treatment of chronic diseases since 2006 in the EU but only since 2015 in the U.S. Despite high market potentials and presumed positive macroeconomic effects in the health care sector, widespread usage is strongly confronted with the opposition of physicians and pharmacists. However, biosimilars are supposed to reform health care financing, alter market positions of pharmaceutical companies and amend informational triangle among physicians, patients and insurance companies in the near future. The use of biosimilars is supposed by experts to reach extra health related savings even if doctors and pharmacists are averse to offer these products to patients in a certain therapeutic area. Governments have currently found no unique way of regulating the marketing, substitution and price regulation of biosimilars. The aim of this study is to discuss the macroeconomic possibilities and barriers incarnated in the usage of biosimilars in developed countries.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: H51, I11, I12, J18

• Freedom of the Markets versus Good Governance: Experiences in Central Europe

  35-61

  László Muraközy

  Views:

  119

  The market and the state, operation and characteristics of two institutions of key importance in the modern mixed economies, are investigated for the former socialist countries in this study. After two decades it can be seen more clearly what system has been established in the region, how it operates, and what its characteristics are. In the first part of the with the help of international comparisons we examine how free the market is, how good the rules are, and how much they help, or hinder, the fulfilment of its function. From an other aspect we compare the scope of the good governance and the size, the freedom and efficiency of the state. According to the evidence of the international studies examined, the former socialist countries established the forms of the market institutional system relatively quickly, but the operation and quality of these lagged significantly behind those of the developed countries. Also important conclusion of the study is that by the first decade of the millennium the characteristics of the former socialist countries are increasingly diverging from one another. Both the characteristics of the earlier socialism, and the more distant historical past which can be caught in the act within it, had and have an effect on the economic and social systems now established in Eastern and Central Europe.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: H1, P17, P27, P35

• Interdependence between government redistribution and economic growth in the long run

  132-146

  Levente Nadasi

  Views:

  156

  The present paper aims to study changes in the degree of government redistribution with an institutional, historical, statistical and model-like approach. I investigate the impact of changes in redistribution on long-term economic growth in 30 European countries. It is generally stated that government spending/GDP ratio has been continuously increasing (in terms of trend) in Europe since the 1870s. I examine how the size of the states affects economic growth, and what other factors influence the long-run relationship between these two variables. My hypothesis is that in developed countries with high government
  redistribution it has been an impediment to economic growth in the long run. Finally, I illustrate this hypothesis with a statistical analysis of 30 European countries.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Classification: E66, H62, C10

• Trends and Tendencies in the Development of HR Departments in Hungarian State Universities

  115-146

  Jozsef Poor

  Andrea Bencsik

  Ivan Fekete

  Zoltan Majo

  Gyula Laszlo

  Views:

  274

  In the last couple years it has been fully accepted that human resource management plays an increasing role in the success of organizations, and also in the development and sustainability of national and international competitiveness (Gordon- Whitchurch, 2007). In the developed industrial countries – mostly the Anglo-Saxon pioneers – public institutions (including higher education) abandoned the normative and bureaucratic-controlled Taylor system (Karoliny et al, 2003). Beginning in the 70’s representatives of the New Public Management model, based exclusively on the effectiveness of business solutions, gained more ground. The early 80’s brought the widespread implementation of reform programs. These efforts have created models and experience that were applicable in the converging countries of Europe – including Hungary. After reviewing the latest professional literature and analyzing practices of eleven Hungarian universities we will assess the conversion of Human Resource Management and consider possibilities for modernization.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: I21; H19; M52;M53;M54

• Political budget cycles: fiscal cycle effects in state expenditures in Poland

  47-62

  Agnes Halasz

  Views:

  125

  In this paper we aim to investigate what kind of role fiscal cycles played in the development of the state budget balances in Poland between 1989 and 2011. Overall, the results of the latest research have found that political budget cycles (PBC) are more typical in less developed countries with a shorter period of experience with democratic institutions, such as the post-socialist transition economies. Nevertheless, empirical studies point out that this phenomenon has been disappearing over time as voters learn how democratic institutions and political manipulation operate. However, this theory could not be proved by testing the pattern of Poland, neither in the case of budget balances nor for state expenditures. Despite the fact that some fiscal cycle effects were found in public sector wages and pensions in the election period of 1997 and 2001, these proved to be temporary, and simultaneously some other measures were identified that counterbalanced the effects of pork barrel spending. Overall, the cyclical evolution of the budget balances in Poland, particularly in the nineties, was not a result of political budget cycles.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: D72, E62, H3

• White collar outsourcing: phenomena of offshore outsourcing

  41-60

  Gyorgy Bogel

  Views:

  176

  Offshoring is the migration of part or all of the value chain to a low-cost location many times far from the home country. The development of information technology and telecommunications makes it possible and pressure on costs make it a must for many corporations and other institutions in the developed world. The present transfer of white-collar jobs and processes is an important trend of the infocom innovation wave. Developing countries have started to compete for outsourced jobs and business processes, business models of offshoring develop fast. It is not easy to predict all potential consequences but there will be winners and losers of this structural change.

• The Relevance of the Washington Consensus for the Post-communist Countries

  5-25

  Peter Mihalyi

  Views:

  217

  The Washington Consensus (WC) is 20 years old now. With hindsight, its main significance is the unification of the normative economics. Prior to the WC, it was widely accepted that different policies should be pursued in the developed and in the underdeveloped economies. It was a sheer coincidence that the emergence of WC occurred a few months before the collapse of the communist systems of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Many scholars believe that the WC is responsible for the recurring economic crisis of the last two decades. I reject this view. A 200-year track record confirms that depressions and financial crisis have been always the intrinsic components of market economies – for the reasons identified by Marx and Schumpeter long time ago.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: F02, F23, F41, P11, P36

• Nyugdíjreform-dilemmák – jövedelemelosztási arányok és makropénzügyi egyensúly

  5-32

  Laszlo Antal

  Views:

  132

  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