This study uses a large, individual-level, linked administrative panel dataset (Admin3) to examine the early labour market success of Hungarian higher education graduates who graduated between 2011 and 214, compared to their peers who graduated with incomplete degrees (only ‘absolutorium’ and no degree). We focus on the first 36 months of the early labour market careers of the two groups. The analyses provide further evidence for the few studies on the economic value of incomplete diplomas in a European context. The results confirm the role of the diploma signal early in the labour market career. Those without a degree take longer to find a full-time job and earn less than those with a degree at the beginning of their career, and in their first job, they are working at a somewhat lower skill level job than degree holders. There is no difference in the probability of occupational mobility between the two groups, with the likelihood of mobility within a given occupation being slightly lower for those with a degree. The results on wage and skill level changes due to occupational mobility are consistent with the U-shaped theory of occupational mobility.

A tanulmány azt vizsgálja egyszerű leíró statisztikai módszerekkel (alapvetően vonaldiagramok segítségével) nemzetközi szervezetek (OECD, Világbank) nyilvános adatbázisai alapján, hogy a magyar állam az emberi tőke előállítására (oktatás) és fenntartására (egészségügy) fordított kiadásai más európai országokéhoz képest mennyire adekvátak, illetve alacsonyak, és hogyan változnak az utóbbi 1-2 évtizedben. A kérdésre az oktatás esetében számos mutató, így pl. a GDP-hez, illetve az államháztartási kiadásokhoz képesti közkiadási arányok segítségével keressük a választ, de megvizsgáljuk azt is, hogy vásárlóerőparitáson amerikai dollárra átszámítva az egy tanulóra fordított kiadások tekintetében mi a helyzet. Az egészségügyi kiadások esetében a kiadások GDP-n belüli aránya mellett összehasonlítjuk az egy főre jutó kiadások abszolút nagyságát is (változatlan áron, vásárlóerőparitáson euróban).  Mind az oktatási, mind az egészségügy esetében elmondható, hogy a fejlett európai országokhoz képest Magyarország a GDP arányában és abszolút mértékben is keveset költ az emberi tőkére, ami hosszabb távon feltehetően kedvezőtlenül érinti az ország versenyképességét. Ugyanakkor egyes dél-európai országokban a magyarhoz hasonlóan alacsony kiadási arányok is előfordulnak. A többi európai rendszerváltó országhoz képest a középmezőnybe tartozunk, de hosszabb távon nézve relatív helyzetünk ebben a mezőnyben fokozatosan romlik.

This study investigates the patterns and determinants of occupation mobility among young workers with medium-level qualifications in Hungary during their first 4-8 years in the labor market. Utilizing linked employer-employee panel data augmented with standardized test scores from grade 10, we examine the relationship between occupation mobility, wages, and skills. Our findings indicate that wages are generally negatively associated with occupation mobility, both within broad occupation categories and specific occupations. However, occupation mobility shows little correlation with test scores. High-wage workers are less likely to change occupations, but when they do, they tend to move to higher positions within the occupational hierarchy, similar to high-skill workers. These results suggest that while wages and occupation mobility are interconnected, the role of direct skill measures in explaining mobility patterns is limited. The study contributes to the understanding of early career dynamics and the factors influencing occupational transitions.

In recent decades, one of the most significant advancements in empirical labor economics was the emergence of longitudinal linked employer-employee datasets. This paper aims to provide a snapshot of this data revolution. With LEE panels now available in over 30 countries, we survey their general availability and key characteristics. Beyond common features, we highlight the more complex aspects of these datasets, which enable rigorous, large-scale research across diverse subfields. Finally, we explore emerging directions in LEE-based research, with the goal of engaging researchers, policymakers, and data providers.

The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) states that people with lower levels of the ability tend to self-assess their ability less accurately than people with relatively higher levels of the ability. Thus, the correlation between one’s objective cognitive abilities and self-assessed abilities is higher at higher levels of objective cognitive abilities. There has been much debate as to whether this effect actually exists or is a statistical artefact. This paper replicates and extends Gignac and Zajenkowski (2020) and Dunkel, Nedelec, and van der Linden (2023) to test whether the DKE exists using several measures of ability and nationally representative data from a British birth cohort study. To do this, we construct a measure of objective cognitive abilities using 18 tests conducted at ages 5, 10, and 16, and a measure of subjective self-assessed abilities using estimates of school performance and being clever at ages 10 and 16. We replicate their models and show that the DKE exists in our secondary data. Importantly, we are the first to look at whether this relationship is heterogeneous by gender and find that while the self-assessment bias is gender specific, the DKE is not. The DKE comes from men relatively overestimating and women relatively underestimating their abilities.

Social innovation (SI) research still struggles with problems of definition (Edwards-Schachter and Wallace 2017) and lacks a shared analytical framework and measurement methods. This lack of coherence is reflected in two bold, diametrically opposing views on SI research. „SI is an eclectic area, since differences still prevail also within the same research communities, revealing some intra-group fragmentation.” (van der Have and Rubalcaba 2016: 1932) In contrast, other authors propose that SI can – and should – be the main building block of a new, comprehensive innovation paradigm. (Howaldt 2019) The sheer number of SI definitions tends to confirm the former view: 252 definitions are identified in Edwards-Schachter and Wallace (2017). This paper argues that despite this plethora of SI definitions there is a need for a new SI definition for two major reasons. First, most of the extant definitions suffer from at least one of the following conceptual flaws: (i) the purpose and the nature of innovation are conflated; (ii) diffusion of SI is ‘required’; (iii) positive impacts of SI is stipulated; and (iv) different levels of change (unit of analysis) are specified in the definitions. Second, SI definitions seek to capture the essential features of SI. However, there are as many types of ‘essence’ as angles to analyse SI purposes, processes, and impacts. The abundance of SI definitions forcefully illustrates that it is impossible to construct a generic and essentialist SI definition. Therefore, the paper proposes a generic and nominal (non-essentialist) SI definition and discusses its analytical, policy, and practical relevance.

This report compares the economic performance of four Central European countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia (henceforth: CE4 countries). Many authors emphasise the similarities between the V4 countries – sometimes even the former planned economies of CEE –, i.e., the former ‘bloc approach’ is still dominant. However, key economic indicators – GDP, productivity, unemployment, inflation, budget deficit, trade balance, and the structure of export – paint a different picture. From a Hungarian perspective, the better performance of the other three countries – also reflected in their ranking in international scoreboards – is particularly noteworthy.

A tanulmány négy közép-európai ország – az ún. visegrádi négyek (V4): Csehország, Magyarország, Lengyelország és Szlovákia – innovációpolitikáját, innovációs és gazdasági teljesítményét hasonlítja össze. A nemzetközi szakirodalomban sok szerző a még mindig visegrádi országok – sőt, időnként a közép- és kelet-európai volt tervgazdaságok – hasonlóságát hangsúlyozza, azaz a korábbi „blokk szemlélet” továbbra is meghatározó erejű. Nem tartják fontosnak a különbségeket sem a fejlettség szintjét, sem a változások irányát és ütemét tekintve. A legfontosabb K+F és innovációs mutatók, akárcsak a gazdasági mutatók – bruttó hozzáadott érték, termelékenység, munkanélküliség, infláció, költségvetési hiány, külkereskedelmi mérleg, az export szerkezete – azonban más képet rajzolnak ki. Magyar szempontból különösen nagy figyelmet követel a másik három ország relatíve jobb teljesítménye, ami a nemzetközi versenyképességi rangsorokban is tükröződik.

We estimate the impact of firm quality — primarily measured by firm productivity — on the health maintenance of employees. Using linked employer-employee administrative panel data from Hungary, we analyze the dynamics of healthcare use before and after moving to a new firm. We show that moving to a more productive firm leads to higher consumption of drugs for cardiovascular conditions and more physician visits, without evidence of deteriorating physical health, and, among older workers, to lower consumption of medications for mental health conditions. The results are robust to using alternative firm quality indicators based on firm-level wages and worker flows, and to controlling for firm size, individual wage and possible peer effects. The results suggest that more productive firms have a beneficial effect on the detection of previously undiagnosed chronic physical illnesses and on mental health. Plausible mechanisms include higher quality occupational health check-ups and less stressful working conditions.

This paper studies tax evasion and the contribution-benefit link in the context of maternity benefits in Hungary. Earnings and employment patterns suggest pre-pregnancy underreporting, followed by formalization of some earnings and employment during pregnancy to increase benefits. Reported earnings in small, domestic, and less productive firms bunch at the minimum wage before pregnancy and the benefit-maximizing threshold during pregnancy. Using a policy reform, the paper shows that the size of the reporting response tracks changing reporting incentives. Increases in pre-childbirth reported earnings are partially sticky after maternity leave. The results indicate that linking benefits to contributions can reduce tax evasion and improve formalization.

Rising inequalities and deprivation have been important drivers for social innovation (SI). We understand SIs as novel initiatives or novel combinations of known solutions, aimed at tackling a societal problem or creating new societal opportunities, applied in practice. SIs success requires enabling institutional framework that facilitate collaborative agency for its design and implementation. However, authoritarian governance undermines such framework conditions. Authoritarian regimes feed on social polarisation, centralisation of power, strengthening of hegemonic governance modes, weakening transparency, accountability, and the rules of law. Hungary has become a prime example of democratic backsliding with socio-spatial disparities intensified by perverse public policies and clientelist patterns of relations. By presenting two SI cases from Hungary, this paper illustrates different ways, in which ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ SI practitioners can interact with, and operate in, an authoritarian system. It discusses how agents’ different positions influence their SI practices and strategies and offers theoretical and practical implications.

Az egymással versengő közgazdasági iskolák különbözőképpen értelmezik az innovációt, és eltérő alapelveket ajánlanak a tudomány-, technológia- és innovációpolitika (TTI-politika) megalapozásához. Az alapvető eltérések ellenére egyetértenek abban, hogy az innováció meghatározó mértékben járul hozzá a versenyképesség javításához és a gazdasági növekedéshez. A tanulmány (i) áttekinti, hogy az üzleti innovációt hogyan jellemzik az innováció lineáris, hálózatos és interaktív modelljeiben; (ii) bemutatja az innováció értelmezését és elemzését a különböző közgazdasági iskolákban; és (iii) összefoglalja, hogy ezek az iskolák milyen TTI-politikai alapelvek követését ajánlják a szakpolitikai intézkedések tervezése és értékelése során.