Home high above and home deep down below -- lending in Hungary

In Hungary in the pre-crisis period, the bank sector-initiated private credit boom significantly contributed to the accumulation of economic imbalances. Nevertheless, before the 2008 crisis no special regulatory measure was taken to mitigate the foreign exchange lending to unhedged borrowers, which was a main moving force of the credit boom. Depreciation of forint-denominated subsidized housing loans and the increased risk premium significantly deteriorated customers'positions and resulted in rocketing nonperforming loans. A recession, deteriorating portfolios, and lack of efficient workout. The introduction of strict regulation froze banking activity and the danger of recovery without lending emerged. This paper compares the pre- and post-crisis lending activity and analyzes the lack of regulation in the pre-crisis period and the inefficient regulation in the post-crisis period.Debt Markets,Banks&Banking Reform,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress,Emerging Markets

Klusterutveckling i Öresundsregionen - en analys av Medicon Valley utifrån ett livscykelperspektiv

Clusters have become a buzzword in the economic vocabulary. But what characterises a cluster? A superficial definition of the term cluster is companies operating, cooperating and competing within a joint industry. Research suggests that clusters will have an important role in creating growth in the future, but a cluster is seldom created overnight. It requires specialisation and close cooperation between companies, which takes time to develop and nurture. The creation and development of clusters has attracted the attention of a multitude of economic scientists, and some their research has resulted in what is mostly known as the cluster life cycle. The cluster life cycle forms the foundation of this thesis, which examines the development of the Medicon Valley cluster in the Öresund region. The purpose of the essay is to determine wether Medicon Valley has developed in accordance with the cluster life cycle, and the results show that although not every single condition is met or fulfilled, Medicon Valley has in fact followed a development path that is similar to what is described in the theoretical framework

Energy Consumption in Hungary: An Ex Post Analysis

This paper analyzes the causes of the recent stagnation of Hungary's gross energy consumption. Applying a dynamic method, we estimate the effect of three factors: reduced growth, structural adjustment, and energy conservation. After an explanation of the methodology and a description of the estimating procedures, we discuss our results and offer some conclusions. Individual equations are contained in the appendix.

Plans and Exogeneity: The Genetic-Teleological Dispute Revisited.

This paper presents empirical results testing the nature of output in output-plans relations for net material product and consumption for seven European CMEA countries, 1960-1985. The dispute between the genetic and teleological schools of central planning is discussed. In general, a plan is defined as teleological if its conditional distribution does not contain information on output. It is found that the hypothesis of teleological planning can be maintained (with some reservations) for the U.S.S.R. and that of genetic planning for Hungary. For the remaining countries examined, results are less conclusive. Copyright 1990 by Royal Economic Society.