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• New tendencies in urban development – The possibilities provided by walkable cities

  23-42

  Petra Szucs

  Miklos Lukovics

  Bela Kezy

  Views:

  285

  Nowadays, the so-called disadvantages of urbanization – the noise, air pollution, overcrowding – receive more and more focus in cities. Vehicles require increasing space to themselves in cities which decrease the quality of living space people need, which is harmful from the point of view of the society and the economy, as well. Sustainable urban mobility can be a solution, which has two elements: the well-known environmentally friendly public transportation and the less known walkability. The latter comes to the front in the course of the preparation of sustainable city development strategies, nevertheless walkability measurements have been taken principally in USA’s and Western-Europe’s big cities. In our paper we search for the answer of the question, how the concept of walkability is interpretable in middle-sized European cities and what kind of city development potentials do all these have. In the course of our research
  primary surveys were conducted in Szeged and Valencia to investigate walkability and its improvement opportunities. Our survey verified that the concept of walkability could be a useful city development tool even in middle-sized cities.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: R42

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

  Tunde Csapone Risko

  Views:

  122

  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.

• The question of duality in post-transition economic development

  71-90

  Miklos Szanyi

  Views:

  169

  One of the main questions of the FDI-based economic development model is how the local embeddedness of technologically advanced, globally operating multinational firms can be increased. The global economic integration of smaller, locally owned firms could be enhanced by the stimulating spillover effects stemming from multinationals. However, if the two main sectors of the economy function in isolation from each-other, stimulation effects cannot appear. This paper studies the features and extent of structural duality in Hungary, and the preconditions for deepening economic ties between the two sectors and
  of the utilization of positive externalities stemming from the presence of large multinational firms.

  JEL classification: F23, L53

• A comparison of efforts to set up cluster initiatives in two Hungarian regions – submitted cluster proposals in North Hungary and the Northern Great Plain

  133-140

  Mate Pecze

  Views:

  103

  The Hungarian government has taken the initiative to finance the formation of new entrepreneurial co-operations using the cluster theory. It is not certain whether or not the Hungarian economy is ready for an initiative such as this. In North Hungary and the Northern Great Plain (two Hungarian NUTS 2 regions) project teams set up fresh clusters to obtain the subsidy – as in other regions. Their level of cooperation, the number of submitted projects and the ratio of successful projects tell us if theory and the western practice fit with the local needs - if Hungarian companies want to work and can be successful in clusters or not. In this article I examine the willingness of regional business actors to cooperate and start new business networks in the framework of the 2008 regional cluster calls. The two regions have similar but not identical results.

  JEL classification: R58, L2