Assessing Market Functioning: The Case of the Hungarian Milk Chain

The paper discusses the impact of market power in the Hungarian milk chain. In a first step a vector error correction model is estimates to assess whether a domestic market for raw milk exists. Since the answer was positive we proceed by developing a structural market model of the Hungarian market for raw milk that is able to identify a possible affect of market power on resource allocation. A nonlinear 3SLS approach was applied to estimate the supply and the demand for raw milk. The results provide that despite the high concentration of in dairy processing the indications for market poser are rather limited. The Bertrand like equilibrium can be attributed to the low degree of capacity utilization in dairy processing and the marketing alternative of farmers.market power, market integration, dairy, Hungary., Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Workplace-based vocational training in Central and Eastern Europe: evidence on the school to work transition of Hungarian apprentices

Although apprenticeship training has been praised for its effectiveness in smoothing the school-to-work transition of non-college bound students in Western European dual education systems, there is a lack of evidence from Central Eastern Europe. Using a unique individual-level panel database, which includes an extensive set of controls, the study shows that Hungarian students of the non-college bound vocational training track with workplace-based training, have about 10-15% higher probability of initial employment, compared to similar graduates from the same track, who were trained in school. This effect seems to be stable across industries, and robust to specification checks

The factors affecting the international judgement of the Forint and Zloty in the light of the financial crisis of year 2008

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 has shaken both money and capital markets. Its consequences have not even left European markets untouched and divided spirits in the financial world. In some countries efforts by the monetary policy to protect the national currency throughout the crisis seemed to be ineffective. In the present paper we are investigating the effect of the most important macroeconomic and economic policy factors on the exchange rate of the forint and zloty in the last decade. For an analysis of exchange rates we are relying on some preceding research results based on equilibrium exchange rate theories

Wealth portfolio of Hungarian households – Urban legends and facts

As significant part of national wealth, households’ wealth is the central issue in both policy debate and academic literature. Nevertheless, in Hungary little effort has been made so far to conduct thorough evaluation of households’ wealth for the last decade. Under the auspices of ‘the plural of anecdote is not evidence’ axiom, this study provides a formal evaluation of Hungarian wealth and connects the development of wealth elements to economic events. Doing so, as a by-product, we also display the estimated wealth levels of households. Based on international comparison and econometric techniques, it is confirmed that the recent financial wealth level of Hungarian households is still relatively low, meanwhile the current housing wealth is not evidently below the equilibrium level. These results provide an explanation why governmental housing subsidy scheme has its major effect on house prices rather than housing stock. Besides, the soaring house prices, via housing loans, vanished financial savings. The ‘saving disaster’, i.e. small or in some periods even negative saving rates, experienced in early 2000’s, to a certain extent, is the other side of the ‘saving miracle’ of early and mid 90’s when households rearranged their wealth portfolio from real assets to financial assets implying decreasing house prices and high saving rate.household wealth, housing subsidy scheme, house price.

A model of household type specific food demand behaviour in Hungary

The paper describes a two stage model of Hungarian households' food demand. Demand for the food aggregate is represented by a Working-Leser type single equation model while demand for seven distinct food types is modelled in a complete demand system using the LA/AIDS functional form. Estimation is based on household budget survey data for 1996. Demand elasticities are estimated for average households as well as for specific groups defined by sociodemographic characteristics. Fruit and vegetables are found to be the food types with most elastic demand but in general, differences between elasticities for different products as well as between different sociodemographic groups are relatively small. -- G E R M A N V E R S I O N: Das Papier beschreibt ein Modell der Nahrungsmittelnachfrage ungarischer Privathaushalte. Die Nachfrage nach dem Gesamtaggregat "Nahrungsmittel" wird durch ein Eingleichungsmodell vom Working-Leser Typ beschrieben während die Verteilung der Nahrungsmittelausgaben auf sieben Nahrungsmitteltypen durch ein vollständiges Nachfragesystem vom Typ LA/AIDS modelliert wird. Die Datengrundlage für Parameterschätzungen entstammt den Haushaltsbudgeterhebungen des Statistischen Zentralamtes aus dem Jahr 1996. Nachfrageelastizitäten wurden sowohl für durchschnittliche Haushalte als auch für spezifische soziodemographische Bevölkerungsgruppen errechnet. Die höchsten Elastizitäten weist die Nachfrage nach Obst und nach Gemüse auf, allerdings sind die Unterschiede zwischen den Elastizitäten für verschiedene Nahrungsmitteltypen und für verschiedene Bevölkerungsgruppen relativ klein.food demand,demand modelling,Hungary,Nahrungsmittel,Nachfragemodell,Ungarn

Markov mezők a képmodellezésben, alkalmazásuk az automatikus képszegmentálás területén = Markovian Image Models: Applications in Unsupervised Image Segmentation

1) Kifejlesztettünk egy olyan szín és textúra alapú szegmentáló MRF algoritmust, amely alkalmas egy kép automatikus szegmentálását elvégezni. Az eredményeinket az Image and Vision Computing folyóiratban publikáltuk. 2) Kifejlesztettünk egy Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo technikán alapuló automatikus képszegmentáló eljárást, melyet sikeresen alkalmaztunk színes képek teljesen automatikus szegmentálására. Az eredményeinket a BMVC 2004 konferencián és az Image and Vision Computing folyóiratban publikáltuk. 3) A modell többrétegű továbbfejlesztését alkalmaztuk video objektumok szín és mozgás alapú szegmentálására, melynek eredményeit a HACIPPR 2005 illetve az ACCV 2006 nemzetközi konferenciákon publikáltuk. Szintén ehhez az alapproblémához kapcsolódik Horváth Péter hallgatómmal az optic flow szamításával illetve szín, textúra és mozgás alapú GVF aktív kontúrral kapcsoltos munkáink. TDK dolgozata első helyezést ért el a 2004-es helyi versenyen, az eredményeinket pedig a KEPAF 2004 konferencián publikáltuk. 4) Horváth Péter PhD hallgatómmal illetve az franciaországi INRIA Ariana csoportjával, kidolgoztunk egy olyan képszegmentáló eljárást, amely a szegmentálandó objektum alakját is figyelembe veszi. Az eredményeinket az ICPR 2006 illetve az ICCVGIP 2006 konferencián foglaltuk össze. A modell előzményeként kidolgoztunk továbbá egy alakzat-momemntumokon alapuló aktív kontúr modellt, amelyet a HACIPPR 2005 konferencián publikáltunk. | 1) We have proposed a monogrid MRF model which is able to combine color and texture features in order to improve the quality of segmentation results. We have also solved the estimation of model parameters. This work has been published in the Image and Vision Computing journal. 2) We have proposed an RJMCMC sampling method which is able to identify multi-dimensional Gaussian mixtures. Using this technique, we have developed a fully automatic color image segmentation algorithm. Our results have been published at BMVC 2004 international conference and in the Image and Vision Computing journal. 3) A new multilayer MRF model has been proposed which is able to segment an image based on multiple cues (such as color, texture, or motion). This work has been published at HACIPPR 2005 and ACCV 2006 international conferences. The work on optic flow computation and color-, texture-, and motion-based GVF active contours doen with my student, Mr. Peter Horvath, won a first price at the local Student Research Competition in 2004. Results have been presented at KEPAF 2004 conference. 4) A new shape prior, called 'gas of circles' has been introduced using active contour models. This work is done in collaboration with the Ariana group of INRIA, France and my PhD student, Mr. Peter Horvath. Results are published at the ICPR 2006 and ICCVGIP 2006 conferences. A preliminary study on active contour models using shape-moments has also been done, these results are published at HACIPPR 2005

After, Before and During: Returns to Education in the Hungarian Transition

How valuable are the education and skills acquired under socialism in a market economy? This paper uses data for about 3 million Hungarian wage earners, from 1986 to 1998, to throw light on this question. We find that returns to schooling reach 10 percent early on and remain at this high level. These estimates are larger than for other transition economies, but similar to those for middle-income developing countries. With the gap in average years of schooling unremitting, we argue that the Hungarian stock of human capital is considerably less than the existing figures have led us to believe.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39860/3/wp475.pd