Szerzők: Csontos Tamás, Szabó Dorottya, Helena Drdlová

In: Köz-Gazdaság – Review of Economic Theory and Policy, 20(3), 60-94.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14267/RETP2025.03.05

Absztrakt

Industrial policy, which has long been marginalised in economic thought, is now experiencing a global revival. This new industrial policy renaissance has also reached the dependent market economies of the Visegrád Four (V4). However, there has been limited quantitative analysis of industrial policy in the region. This paper addresses this gap by using the recently developed NIPO database to evaluate industrial policies in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland between 2017 and 2023. In addition to the core NIPO categories, we have developed a customised classification system to analyse the objectives, beneficiaries and primary funding sources of industrial policy interventions. According to our results, the V4 countries, which predominantly outsourced their industrial policy to multinational companies after the 1989 regime change and focused on attracting FDI, started to implement vertical, sector-specific interventions alongside horizontal industrial policy. Nevertheless, this shift remains heavily dependent on external financing, particularly EU and EIB funds, and continues to prioritise foreign firms, highlighting the ongoing reliance on the dependent market economy model. Based on the results, we identify four distinct national industrial policy trajectories: Slovakia’s industrial policy is the most EU-embedded, with a particular focus on the automotive industry. Hungary’s industrial policy is centred on domestic resources, but heavily supports foreign (notably Asian) capital. In contrast, Poland pursues an industrial policy oriented towards domestic firms, while the Czech Republic’s industrial policy is EU-embedded and focused on foreign firms, but with a more diverse and RDI-focused approach than Hungary’s.

A Szabó, D., Drdlová, H., Csontos, T.: Return of Industrial Policy in the V4 Countries: Insights From the NIPO Database bejegyzés először VGI-én jelent meg.

Author: Tamás Csontos

In: Global Economic Observer, 12(2), 15-24.

Abstract

The paper attempts to reinterpret the concept of the middle-income trap and develops the theory of participation and self-effort. On this basis, the paper distinguishes two different types of middle-income traps. The exclusion trap, which is the result of a one-sided focus on the self-effort, and the vulnerability trap, which is the result of a one-sided focus on participation. The model argues that catching-up can be achieved when the participation and the self-effort are in harmony. The paper also uses this approach to analyse the middle-income trap in East-Central European countries, demonstrating the empirical validity of the theory. It associates socialist planned economies with the exclusion trap, while identifying the dependent market economy model that emerged after regime change with the vulnerability trap.

A Csontos, T.T.: Two manifestations of the middle-income trap in East-Central Europe bejegyzés először VGI-én jelent meg.

Authors: Gergő Medve-Bálint, Andrea Éltető

In: Journal of European Public Policy, 2024

DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2024.2305834

Abstract

Although economic nationalist governments in East Central Europe (ECE) have strongly challenged FDI-dependence, FDI-led growth has remained stable across the region. The political economy literature explains this puzzle with enduring business-state elite interactions and the disciplining role of the EU. Instead, we show that the EU’s regional investment aid rules, which provide central governments in relatively backward member states with considerable policy space, serve as the main policy tool for reinforcing FDI-dependence. Using a unique dataset on regional investment aid granted between 2004 and 2022 in the Visegrád countries (V4), we show that each government, regardless of its ideological background, granted the vast majority of this type of aid to foreign firms. In addition, contrary to their political rhetoric, economic nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland outperformed their non-nationalist counterparts in granting aid to foreign firms. This suggests an instrumental use of this transnationally rooted policy opportunity: as their European political isolation grew, economic nationalists increasingly resorted to the promotion of foreign firms because the continued inflow of foreign capital has a legitimising effect both at home and abroad.

A Medve-Bálint, G., Éltető, A.: Economic nationalists, regional investment aid, and the stability of FDI-led growth in East Central Europe bejegyzés először VGI-én jelent meg.