Research Group on European Integration
Leader: Andrea Éltető Ph.D.
Main areas of research:
- The changing role of the EU in the world economy as well as the effects of geopolitical, economic, and financial crises on the bloc;
- Challenges linked European integration, including regional convergence and the development of semi-peripheral regions;
- Populist tendencies and types of national governance systems;
- EU budget and cohesion policy – in relation to which we have undertaken the regular (re-)evaluation of Central- and Eastern European economies;
- Growth trajectories, development models, as well as the role of exports and FDI in EU member states;
- Sectoral analysis of economies, global value chains, and the competitiveness of Central- and Eastern European countries;
- The EU’s sustainability and green industrial policy, including its drive for strategic autonomy;
- Central Europe’s automotive, electric vehicle, and battery sectors;
- The fashion industry and its sustainability;
- FinTech and questions linked to digital currencies.
Research Group on Development Economics
Leader: Judit Ricz Ph.D.
Main areas of research:
- Analyzing the development trajectories of regions, countries, and country groups of the Global South from a development economics perspective;
- Assessing and typologizing capitalist/market economy development trajectories, including different development paths, the particularities of various models, as well as their successes and failures in emerging economies;
- International political economy-oriented work related to majors players of the Global South. Especially in the case of China, this is geared towards its rising international (economic) role, the regional and global implications of its rise, and a general analysis of the Asian power centre’s rise on the global scene;
- Alongside the factors and trends shaping domestic economies mentioned above, the integration of the world economy alongside relations of foreign trade and investment;
- Country and region-specific analyses, which focus on developing and emerging economies (e.g. China, Brazil and Turkey) and regions (e.g. Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa).
Research Group on Economics of Globalization
Leader: András György Deák Ph.D.
Main areas of research:
- Sustainability, the effects of the green transition and technological development on value chains, and the political economy of economic statecraft to which researchers tend to develop comparative analyses with Central- and Eastern European states at the front and centre of their work;
- New techno-economic paradigms that drive globalization and their impact on society, including questions of security, developmental inequalities, the reconfiguration of global economic and political power relations;
- The changing role of energy in societies amidst the rising prominence of a global decarbonisation and sustainability agenda, including questions linked to climate policy, energy policy, energy security, and greening supply chains;
- Multinational corporations – seen as the main drivers of economic globalization – with an orientation towards the contradictions between their global operations, the economic regulatory frameworks ensuring their operating conditions, and national institutional structures. It also includes how actors can integrate and advance in respective relations of production, how required factors can be established, as well as the role of the state and its room of manoeuvre in different types of countries;
- Economic statecraft and their political economy, its implications on the behaviour of small states in Central- and Eastern Europe, especially in the field of energy.
