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Improved operation efficiency strengthens organizational quality in higher education
Views:2This paper examines quality assurance as an effective tool for organizational development, reviewing the theories and history of quality management. After describing the theoretical foundations used in the USA, focusing on heavy industries, it discusses European models such as TQM, ISO and EFQM systems in more detail, then moves on to critical approaches, especially with regard to the applicability and effectiveness of quality assurance in education and higher education. The second half of this paper focuses specifically on quality assurance in higher education, in particular European standards, approaching it from the perspective of internationalisation. In this context, this paper addresses the issues of brain drain, digital campus, stakeholder involvement and student-centredness. Finally, the paper concludes that quality assurance in higher education is not only an essential but a necessary process as well, which can also be the most effective tool for organizational development.
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Quality in education
149-182Views:264The aim of this paper is to study the basic questions of the quality of education from the perspective of the economics of education. In the introduction we review the fundamental concepts of quality; then we analyze the quality level of hungarian education through the results reported in international comparative studies such as PISA and IALS. We try to find the reasons for the weak performance of domestic education in these studies. After this we review the quality rating and other quality indicators of educational institutes, which are widely available to the public. And finally we try to discover the employers' quality requirements of the higher education system through an empirical study.
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Trade Advantage and Competitiveness of Hungarian Agri-food Exports with the European Union
87-102Views:111The 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
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Some economic aspects of higher education quality
14-30Views:314Based on the world's most renowned university rankings, OECD annual reports and Eurostat data, this paper seeks to demonstrate that a competitive economy requires competitive (higher) education and that there is a significant correlation between the quality of higher education and economic development. Furthermore, in this process, the higher education quality assurance organization system has an outstanding task and responsibility through the formation of quality culture, guidelines, helpful research, summary of good practices and making constructive suggestions. Finally, it points out that close collaboration between universities and agencies with stakeholders is a priority area, which could contribute to a much more capability-based output system in the longer term. It also considers it desirable to make the relationship between universities and scientific research networks and research institutes closer and more vibrant (where it is not).
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: H52, I22, I23, I25, I26, O15
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Consumers' and producers' evaluation of quality
157-168Views:94Quality concepts of consumers and producers are different. This leads to a significant loss in efficiency, because producers plan their marketing activity based on an estimated consumers' quality concept, which is mostly incorrect. This study argues that instead of merely mapping the consumers' quality concept, producers should actively form it, while taking into account the limitations of the consumer's information processing system.
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The Determinants of Wine Prices: A Systematic Literature Review
84-101Views:301Wine is a highly differentiated product sold at a wide range of different prices. This article aims to provide a systematic review of the literature written on the determinants of wine prices globally. The article runs a search on the combination of keywords “wine”, “price”, “determinant” in the Web of Science, Scopus, JSTOR, ProQuest, and Science Direct databases. Based on a final set of 46 articles written between 1998 and 2018, results suggest that terroir and quality ratings are the most significant determinants of wine prices, while objective quality and label data also determines wine prices, though to a different extent and with a different sign in some cases. The hedonic pricing method was the most common way of analyzing the relationship between wines prices and their determinants, and results are similar for most regions and varieties. We believe that our results can be useful for researchers, stakeholders, and even for decision-makers in better understanding the factors lying behind wine prices.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: D12, D40 Q11
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Efficiency and resource allocation: the Hungarian managed health care system
Views:119The managed health care system (MHCS) was introduced and applied in Hungary between 1999 and 2009. The gradually expanding system covered only 22% of the population and included exclusively the curative-preventive health care, subsidy on medicaments, subsidy on therapeutic appliances and the spa service. Like anywhere else it was cost-effectiveness that was expected from the MHCS without the adverse effect in the quality of the health service. To decide whether the MHCS was successful in Hungary or not, we compare it with the results of those segments of the health system where the MHCS was not introduced. We use the method of the incremental cost analysis. We are making our comparison exclusively on the basis of health economics aspects, because no difference has evolved in the quality of the medical attendances. We will see that where the MHCS was applied, the medical attendance became cheaper, at those places where the MHCS was not applied the medical attendance became more expensive, causing a chronic financial deficit (137785 million HUF). Although the MHCS managed from less money, it gained 17767 million HUF during the mentioned ten years. We are going to present the general features of the MHCS and support the fact that the outcome of the managed care concept was rationalized and the savings in several segments of health care, by means of empirical evidence.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: I150, I180, G220, G320, H520.
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Sustainability of growth in countries with diverse backgrounds in the light of main international indices
145-168Views:120The paper tries to answer why fossil fuel abundant countries with diverse backgrounds perform differently depending on the dominance of the advantages or disadvantages accruing from natural resource wealth. With the contribution of the most popular competitiveness and institutional indices the determining factors are indentified. The distinctive factors are market efficiency, the quality of the business environment, innovative capability, the quality and efficiency of governmental, market and judicial institutions, the low level of corruption and the existence of political and civil freedom.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: O13, O17, Q32
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An analysis of services for general economic purposes and universal services in the European Union
49-66Views:132A 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.
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Integration of the CEE agri-food sector into the EU: What does trade theory and empirical evidence tell us?
62-77Views:150The article provides an overview on the main results of empirical research into the Integration of the CEE agri-food sector into the EU. Contrary to early expectations, countries in the region have not become major agri-food exporters. We can observe great diversity in trade specialisations, the patterns of intra-industry trade and price and quality competitiveness among countries and major product groups. These outcomes derive mainly from the differences in relative factor endowments and the different initial conditions of the countries concerned. The recent theoretical and empirical developments in international
trade may help us to better understand the agri-food trade integration of new member states.JEL classification: Q12
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The power of path dependence? State capacity and autonomy in East Central Europe during transition
Views:151The paper examines development of state capacities and autonomy in East Central Europe during transition, and attempts to establish a relation between state characteristics and trajectories of economic transformation, especially with regard to privatisation and FDI. The assertion is that the quality of state capacities and the degree of state autonomy, although changing over time, mutually reinforces the formulating of economic policies, and hence in structural transformation. Thus, state characteristics are important determinants of transition outcome, but are themselves affected by structural economic changes.
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Freedom of the Markets versus Good Governance: Experiences in Central Europe
35-61Views:141The 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
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New tendencies in urban development – The possibilities provided by walkable cities
23-42Views:314Nowadays, 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
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Western Balkans: Opportunities for Agriculture on the Eve of EU Accession
52-73Views:156The 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
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The use of logical programming in decision-making systems
105-113Views:27The strong market in teh globalized economy makes fast, quality responses important. In the accelerated world time for reaction has been decreased, so to say there is less time for response, on the other handm the problems have become more complex and the information needed to make the decision has grown. In this environment computational-response programs have gained an important role. This article shows the opportunities of logical programming and its use and advantages in economic modelling and decision-making systems.
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Management Standards for Competency Management
93-108Views:273Nowadays the knowledge-based economy and organizational development is intertwined with competence-based management. The creation and flow of individual and organizational knowledge elements are critical from this point of view. Knowledge management methods are available but there is lack of application. Based on my research and consulting activities, I have experienced that many organizations are unaware of the possibilities available to them, or are unable to utilize the advantages. In this paper I try to demonstrate that the requirements of the internationally used ISO 9001 standard provide a framework for knowledge-based development. Beyond the theoretical issues the paper summarizes
the limits of practical application.Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: D83, M19
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The carrier follow-up survey of the graduate students of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Debrecen
105-113Views:114In the fall term of 2002/2003 a pioneer carrier follow-up survey of the graduate students of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Debrecen was carried out. The aim of the research is to facilitate the improvement of teaching, to increases its quality. The paper reviews the first results of the tecently launched survey.
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The role of dynamic relationship capabilities and loyalty in organisational relationships
76-92Views:259In this study we try to answer the question of how Hungarian organisations can be depicted in terms of relationship management in networked relationships, and how the nearly fouryear global economic crisis influences the perception of relationship capability and B2B loyalty in organisational relationships. First we review the theoretical background of dynamic relationship capabilities and B2B loyalty, then we show our empirical research results, and we try to identify the factors involved in relationship management and B2B loyalty. From our point of view relationship management has an effect on B2B loyalty, and we support the hypothesis that where relationship management is a conscious action, there are evolved procedures for this. These connected mechanisms have a positive impact on the evaluation of relationship quality and contribute to partners’ loyalty.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: M10, M14, M31, M39
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Deep vs. Shallow Integration. The Case of NAFTA and Mercosur
68-82Views:169Integration processes began in the 1960s and have become increasingly intense, bringing with them a growing share of intra-industry trade flows in international trade. According to the Smooth Adjustment Hypothesis (SAH), trade between similar industries or products results in lower adjustment costs in the factor markets. Due to the liberalizing effect of trade integrations trade flows intensify, causing an increase in intra-industry trade flows and consequently a decrease in adjustment costs at the same time. The alteration of trade patterns can be caused by changes both in quantity and in quality. Analyzing these effects separately allows us to better understand the trade policy practices of the chosen countries and to provide the decision makers with information.
In this paper we analyze NAFTA and Mercosur, two integrations which differ both in factor endowments and in depth of integration (deep vs. shallow). We used SITC Rev. 1 AG3 (industrial level) and HS92 AG6 (product level) bilateral trade data from the UN COMTRADE database to analyze the evolution of intra-industry trade flows.Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: F13, F14, F15