Many countries have secured larger quantities of COVID-19 vaccines than their populace is willing to take. This abundance and variety of vaccines created a historical moment to understand vaccine hesitancy better. Never before were more types of vaccines available for an illness and the intensity of vaccine-related public discourse is unprecedented. Yet, the heterogeneity of hesitancy by vaccine types in certain segments of society has been neglected so far, even though factual or believed vaccine characteristics and patient attributes are known to influence acceptance. In this paper, we address this problem by analysing acceptance and assessment of five vaccine types using information collected with a nationally representative survey (N=1000) at the end of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, where a unique portfolio of vaccines were available to the public in large quantities. Our special case enables us to quantify revealed preferences across vaccine types since one could evaluate a vaccine unacceptable and even could reject an assigned vaccine to wait for another type. We find that the source of information that respondents trust characterizes their attitudes towards vaccine types differently and leads to divergent vaccine hesitancy. Believers of conspiracy theories were significantly more likely to evaluate the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) unacceptable while those who follow the advice of politicians evaluate vector-based (AstraZeneca and Sputnik) or whole-virus vaccines (Sinopharm) acceptable with higher likelihood. We illustrate that the rejection of non-desired and re-selection of preferred vaccines fragments the population by the mRNA versus other type of vaccines while it generally improves the assessment of the received vaccine. These results highlight that greater variance of available vaccine types and individual free choice are desirable conditions that can widen the acceptance of vaccines in societies.

In this study we reveal the impact of spatial clustering of occupations on the probability of employment and commuting time, with particular emphasis on differences between genders and household types. Based on Hungarian 2011 census data our research confirmed previous results of some USA studies according to which women work in less spatially clustered occupations compared to men. Our most important result is that more clustered the occupation, the longer the commuting time, and the lower the probability of employment. The effect of occupational clustering on commuting time is larger for women regardless of household type and for those living in a relationship compared to singles. Our further result is that the greater the occupational diversity of the place of residence, the shorter the commuting time and higher the probability of employment, and the occupational diversity of the place of residence modifies the effect of occupational clustering on commuting time.

While most empirical studies document that cognitive and social skills are strong predictors of individual earnings, their impact is not homogenous in space. We argue that dense urban settings utilize cognitive and social skills more intensively than rural areas, therefore the labour market return to these skills is higher in cities. Using data from a representative survey recording the skills requirements of Hungarian firms, we show that social skills are rewarded more in dense urban areas. Surprisingly, this pattern is not observed for cognitive skills. We use instrumental variables strategy to correct for measurement errors in skills, and to deal with the endogeneity of agglomeration. Our results are robust to alternative agglomeration measures and a large set of controls, however, returns to skills vary considerably across worker groups and industries.

A koronavírus-járvány első másfél évében 28,4 ezer fővel többen haltak meg Magyarországon, mint ahányan elhunytak volna ebben az időszakban a járvány nélkül. Az így mért többlethalandóság 1,7 ezerrel alacsonyabb, mint a koronavírus áldozataira vonatkozó hivatalos statisztika. Ez részben azzal magyarázható, hogy a koronavírus elleni védekezésnek köszönhetően elmaradt az influenzajárvány, ami korábban átlagosan évente 3 ezer ember halálát okozta. A második hullámhoz képest a harmadik hullámban csökkentek a többlethalandóságban mért különbségek mind a korcsoportok, mind a régiók között. Az előbbi esetében részben az oltási sorrendnek, illetve az elmaradt influenzának köszönhető, hogy jelentősen csökkent a 75 éves és annál idősebbek többlethalálozási rátája, miközben a 40-74 éves korosztályé kissé emelkedett. A régiók közül Észak-Magyarországon és Nyugat-Dunántúlon volt a legnagyobb a többlethalandóság, a fővárost is magában foglaló Közép-Magyarországon pedig a legalacsonyabb az országban. A férfiak többlethalandósági rátája a vizsgált másfél év egészében majdnem minden korcsoportban közel kétszer nagyobb volt mint a nőké.

Ebben a tanulmányban egy, az iskoláskorú gyermeket nevelő családok körében végzett telefonos adatfelvétel első eredményeit mutatjuk be. Az adatfelvétel során a szülőket a koronavírus járvány következtében elrendelt távoktatással kapcsolatos tapasztalataikról kérdeztük. Az adatfelvételre 2021 áprilisában került sor, közvetlenül a teljes oktatási rendszerre kiterjedő egyik kötelező távoktatási időszakot követően. A tanulmány bemutatja, hogy a tanulók gondviselőinek a munkapiaci helyzetét figyelembe véve a háztartások mekkora hányadának okozott nehézséget a távoktatás, mennyire álltak rendelkezésre elkülöníthető terek a tanuláshoz, hogy milyen eszközöket és platformokat használtak a tanulók a távoktatásban hogyan változott a tanulási idő és milyen tanítási módszerek voltak jellemzőek az online oktatás során. A tanulmány egyszerű leíró elemzését adja e kérdéseknek.

This paper assesses the network robustness of the technological capability base of 269 European metropolitan areas against the potential elimination of some of their capabilities. By doing so it provides systematic evidence on how network robustness conditioned the economic resilience of these regions in the context of the 2008 economic crisis. The analysis concerns calls in the relevant literature for more in-depth analysis on the link between regional economic network structures and the resilience of regions to economic shocks. By adopting a network science approach that is novel to economic geographic inquiry, the objective is to stress-test the technological resilience of regions by utilizing information on the co-classification of CPC classes listed on European Patent Office patent documents. We find that European metropolitan areas show heterogeneous levels of technology network robustness. Further findings from regression analysis indicate that metropolitan regions with a more robust technological knowledge network structure exhibit higher levels of resilience with respect to changes in employment rates. This finding is robust to various random and targeted elimination strategies concerning the most frequently combined technological capabilities. Regions with high levels of employment in industry but with vulnerable technological capability base are particularly challenged by this aspect of regional economic resilience.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries eased the burden of borrowers through loan forbearance. Using a representative sample of the Hungarian adult population, we investigate if time discounting and locus of control predict who takes up loan forbearance. We find convincing evidence that time discouting associates with the resort to forbearance: individuals who discount the future less are less likely to take up forbearance, even if we take into account their educational level and financial status. Data suggest that the channel through which time discounting and loan forbearance are related is savings. There is no statistically significant relationship between locus of control and forbearance takeup.

The potential restructuring of global value chains (GVCs) is a widely discussed question in current debates. At the same time, a proper way of capturing these value chains is challenging. This paper focuses on the automotive industry, using detailed data on firm-to-firm transactions in Hungary, as well as on cross-border sales and purchases. Its aim is twofold, capturing to what extent firms being connected to a GVC differ from other firms in the same industry, and what is the impact of integration into GVCs. Findings suggest that firms being part of GVCs tend to be larger, more productive, foreign-owned and having a higher level of intangible capital. There is some suggestive evidence that entering the GVC has a positive impact on size, productivity and per capita wage for certain firm groups and it is preceeded by increased imports of capital. Finally, there are also differences by employee composition.

David Ricardo (és Adam Smith) adóelméletének interpretációja a mai napig angolszász szemléletű, noha fogantatása francia (is) volt. A történeti előzmények felelevenítésének szándékát megerősítette, hogy az utóbbi évtizedben egyre több szerző elmélettörténeti visszatekintéssel alapozza meg gondolatmenetét. A Smith és Ricardo nevével fémjelzett klasszikus iskoláig nyúlnak vissza. Hátterükben azonban ott voltak a fiziokraták, akiktől átvették adóelméletük lényegét, az egyetlen adó, a földtulajdonosi járadékok közvetlen adóztatásának elvét. A járadékalapú jövedelmek keletkeznek, de nem termelnek gazdagságot, a köz(össég) céljaira igénybe vehetők. Adó-incidencia elemzésük is fiziokrata logikát követett. A tanulmány ismerteti a fiziokrata adózás alapelvei mellett egyes jelentős képviselőinek reform elképzelését-gyakorlatát. . (Nicolas Baudeau, Mercier de la Rivière, Turgot).  Végül a korai magyar ár-reformok történetéhez fűzött megjegyzések zárják a munkát. François Quesnay „Second probleme économique” (1763) írásának magyar fordítása olvasható a tanulmány 2. részében.

While an extensive literature investigates the effects of longer schooling, we know very little about what happens when compulsory schooling is shortened. This paper looks at the effects of a reform in Hungary that decreased the school leaving age from 18 to 16. We show that the reform increased the probability of being neither in education nor in employment and being inactive at ages 16-18 substantially while its effects on employment are not significantly different from zero in most specifications. These effects are similar among boys and girls but strongly heterogeneous by social background and ability. The reform had a moderate effect on teenage motherhood on average, but it increased the probability of giving birth substantially among the most disadvantaged girls. We conclude that through its heterogenous effects, the reform is expected to widen social inequalities.

This paper analyzes the driving factors of growth of quantities and prices of the new products for Hungarian firms between 2001 and 2016. It investigates how price levels are correlated with firm and market characteristics, and the time path of the share of new products. Larger and more productive firms were able to sell their new products at higher prices, though larger competition had a dampening role. Pricing patterns differ for all products, higher share of foreign ownership leads to lower export and import prices. The share of new products is negatively affected by size corroborated by the negative effect of both productivity and foreign ownership. Productivity does not have any role in price and quantity growth rates.

In 2013 the responsibility for school governance and funding has been transferred from local governments to a central government agency in Hungary. The key objectives of this reform, as stated by policy makers, was to mitigate interjurisdictional inequalities in education. This paper explores whether the reform had an equalizing effect on education resources on the one hand, and student achievement on the other. First, we estimate elasticities of per-student school expenditures to average income in municipalities. The results reveal a substantial equalization of school resources: before the reform rich municipalities had spent significantly more on education than poor ones, while after the reform no difference in school spending can be detected. Second, we ask whether the equalization of resources had an effect on inequalities in student achievement. Student achievement is measured by test score in grade 6 and grade 8. The results show no equalization in this respect, suggesting that inequalities in school quality were hardly affected by the reform.