Megemlékezés
Tanulmány
The error tolerance of the input–output system
The study examines the sensitivity of input–output calculations. It analyses the accuracy of the eigenvalues of matrices when calculating the Hungarian branch multiplier for the year 2000. Attention needs paying to the continual fluctuation of the economy and its state of disequilibrium. The author starts from the eigenvalues because these can be established most accurately under such conditions. He also shows how use of the Leontief inverse can reduce error in initial data, as diagnosis of it is dominant and the matrix well conditioned. There is further analysis of error-correcting, compensating features of some other recommended methods of calculation.
Economic catch-up and competition policy. Comparative lessons of the case of South Africa
The study analyses the specific conditions that led the South African ANC government to undertake a complete overhaul of the nation’s competition law. This government initi-ated profound economic restructuring in the late 1990s. The particular challenges faced by the South African transition process were beyond the capabilities of the previous competition law. The paper draws conclusions from the South African practice of enact-ment (and major revision) and from legal-enforcement records for other developing coun-tries. It compares the South African case with the competition-policy reforms of Euro-pean transition economies.
The role of institutional factors in the development of budget deficit in Hungary
The magnitude of the budget deficit in Hungary has recently become one of the most urgent problems of economic policy, endangering both the target date of entry into the Euro zone and sustainable growth. The recent apparent difficulties of consolidation raise the question of how the chronic high deficit can be explained. The study answers by examining the political-economy literature on deficit, which has tended recently to em-phasize the importance of institutional regulation, rather than economic factors. The main conclusion offered by a survey of Hungary’s system of regulation is that the weak-nesses of the budget process allow short-term interests to dominate in decision-making, so that in times of slowing growth and political tensions, the tendency to deficit is much increased. Reform of the public-finance regulations is therefore essential to creating a balanced budget in the long term.
Műhely
Some questions about the effect of trade concentration
Examinations of market structure and effects show that excessive trade concentration usually reduces competition on the market. It coincides with a longer-term rise in the price level, while both smaller commercial and production firms and the consumers find themselves in a less favourable market and bargaining position, and negative social ef-fects appear. Preventing these effects is in the fundamental interest of social and eco-nomic policy.
Megemlékezés
Tudományos tájékoztató
Könyvbírálat