Abstracts of the Articles
The eurozone after the crisis: a monetary union operable without fiscal union
KÁROLY ATTILA SOÓS
When 11 European Union member countries established the eurozone, they did not follow the view of a large number of economist according to which a monetary union is not really operable without a concomitant fiscal union, and the latter should be basically similar to the one prevailing in the United States, assuring risk pooling among the member states. However, this view proved false in the final analysis. The euro crisis started at the beginning of 2010, as a fiscal crisis of Greece. But its actual cause was the rapid rise of unit labour costs. The consequent wage and price inflation in the Southern eurozone member countries turned crisis countries: Portugal, Spain and Italy besides Greece, and in Ireland, a country difficult to place between North and South. The lack of „Northern style labour coordination”, coupled with more or less fiscal irresponsibility, and with euro interest rates too low for the Southern countries’ interest rates, led to a bubble economy, undermining these countries’ competitiveness, worsening their current account balances, entailing unsustainable capital inflow. The sudden stop of capital inflow also strengthened the detrimental consequences of previous years’ fiscal irresponsibilities. The EU – with the active participation of its member countries and the cooperation of the IMF – could surmount the crisis, even though serious mistakes were also committed during the process. Further reforms are needed but even with their possible slowness or lack, we have no reason to suppose that the EU would not be able to handle
a possible new crisis, more or less similar to the previous one, or that any member country would exit from the eurozone by necessity, or exit otherwise, on the basis of economic considerations.129 Abstracts of the Articles
Some additions to the assessment of the role of foreign companies in Hungary
ÉVA PALÓCZ
The structural problems and low productivity of the Hungarian economy are often explained not only by politicians, but also by economic analysts by the fact that multinational companies bring low value-added activities to Hungary, which are aimed only at reaping the benefits of low wages. In other words: Hungary has become an „assembly plant”. This analysis seeks to refine this statement, showing that it is these ‚assembly plants’ that have contributed decisively to the improvement of Hungarian macroeconomic indicators (production, employment, wage levels) over the period 2008–2016. Foreign-owned companies generate more than half of the total value added produced by the Hungarian corporate sector and about 30 percent of Hungarian GDP, and their share is steadily increasing. This is the highest proportion among EU Member States, although their role is rather high in the other Visegrád countries, too – and has continued to grow in recent years. The productivity of foreign companies in Hungary is three times the national average and their average wage cost is 2.4 times that of domestic companies. More importantly, between 2008 and 2016, only foreign-owned companies contributed to the Hungarian wage convergence.
Unusual business behaviour of the ”Fidesz connected” companies? The case of the Mészáros company group
MIHÁLY LAKI
Assets belonging to Fidesz connected big entrepreneurs-businessmen grew faster than the average in the last 8–10 years. Important factor of the fast and forced growth of their assets was the permanent company acqusition. The story of the Mészáros company group shows the adverse side effect of this business behavior namely the less and less controllable product-service portfolio, and the increasing territorial fragmentation. Because of these tendencies the group applied new management methods and property conditions. They have been placed their property in private equity funds. During the stock exchange listing the share price of these funds increased extremely fast. The rapid price increase period was followed by stagnation. In spite of some failed foreign stock market entry the permanent company 130 Abstracts of the Articles
acquisition continued. One of important but not sufficient explanation of this forced expansion is the expected greater safety created by large size of the company group.
Bulletin An old-new type: frugal innovation
ANNAMÁRIA INZELT
From the end of the 20th century frugal innovations (moderate, requiring less resources) that are different from conventional, Schumpeterian innovations, are attracting more and more interests.
Following the clarification of the nature of frugal innovation this paper describes various types of frugal innovations, their characteristics and illustrates them with several examples. It devotes attention how frugality plays its role as a new frame of mind and strategy at companies. The CETA Opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the future of the investment court system
TAMAS SZABADOS
In its Opinion 1/17., the Court of Justice of the European Union found that the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism introduced by the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is in conformity with EU law. The confirmation by the Court of Justice is crucial, because the rules of the CETA may serve as a model for the trade agreements to be concluded by the EU in the future and for the planned multilateral investment court. At the same time, the analysis of the rules of the CETA
raises some doubts, since it seems that notwithstanding the view of the Court of Justice certain provisions on dispute settlement may still have an impact on the autonomy of the EU legal order.
Where is the centre of interest for legal persons? Violation of the personal rights of legal persons by web site: the Bolagsupplysningen case
GABRIELLA ANITA VINCZE
In recent years, a number of cases have been brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which highlight the friction between the flow of data enabled by Internet technology and the emergence of rules established by EU jurisdiction and conflict-of-law rules.
The 2017 CJEU decision marks a further milestone in the jurisprudence of the Brussels series of rules on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters, the interpretation of personal rights violations committed via the Internet and the rules on jurisdiction over tort.
The study aims to provide an overview of the Bolagsupplysningen case.