Csaba Lentner

56614522100

Publications - 8

A Comparative Analysis of the Debt Dynamics of Municipalities and their Municipally Owned Corporations in the EU Member States with a Special Focus on Hungary

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Szilárd Hegedűs

Publication Name: Romanian Journal of European Affairs

Publication Date: 2021-06-01

Volume: 21

Issue: 1

Page Range: 134-153

Description:

The study examines the liabilities as a share of the GDP of the municipal subsystems of public finances and the organisations owned by them in EU Member States between 2013 and 2018. The main goal of the current study is to characterise the EU Member States regarding the examined two areas. Additionally, we analysed the connections between the entities’ liabilities, used statistical methods to compare the respective values and to examine the impacts of the local government system models and the geopolitical location on debt. There were three hypotheses formulated during the research, all of which were confirmed. A statistical connection can be perceived between the two areas of economic management of the local system, and it has also been established that the liabilities as a percentage of the GDP of local government owned corporations are significant, particularly in Scandinavian countries and Germany. At the same time, however, it has to be noted that the results of the theoretical division and the statistical analyses differ from each other. At the end of the study, we used a case study to examine how the two areas developed over time and how the regulatory environment affected debt value. In addition, we also considered the debt dynamics of municipalities and their business organisations, subject to a comprehensive fiscal reform after 2010, which represents another unique element of this study.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: DOI not available

Certain regulatory and efficiency issues of public utility companies in Budapest

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Molnár Petronella

Publication Name: Public and Municipal Finance

Publication Date: 2020-01-01

Volume: 9

Issue: 1

Page Range: 14-24

Description:

Capital cities of the world are usually characterized by a concentration of the majority of the population and most of the public administration and economic life. Therefore, the efficiency and quality of public service delivery in their administrative territories make a difference. The study examines public service companies in Budapest, Hungary's capital, with the focus on their sectors of activity to describe their system, which may provide good foundations for a prospective international comparison. This study explores sector-oriented reports of state- and municipally-owned public utility companies providing services within the administrative territory of Budapest and evaluates them in terms of total assets, finance, profitability and efficiency. The study looked for an answer to the question of how the tighter state regulation and control adopted after 2010 affected their management, and what influence the price regulation of consumer public utility charges, imposed since 2013, had on companies' activities.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.21511/pmf.09(1).2020.02

The assessment of financial risks of municipally owned public utility companies in hungary between 2009 and 2018

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Szilárd Hegedűs

Publication Name: Montenegrin Journal of Economics

Publication Date: 2020-01-01

Volume: 16

Issue: 4

Page Range: 29-41

Description:

The aim of this study is to assess the financial risks, as interpreted by us, of Hungarian corporations fully owned by municipalities across a national dimension after the global economic crisis broken out in 2008. In this study, financial risk was measured by profitability, liquidity and the equity ratio. We were seeking an answer to the question as to how more stringent state controls had influenced the companies’ ability to provide public services and their financial situation behind in a more robust public financial regulatory and control environment created in Hungary after 2010, that is, how the going concern principle of accounting had been implemented. Indirectly, we were also seeking an answer to the question as to how operational risks had been affected by the “breaking” effect on net income exerted by the administrative price regulation (reduction of utility costs on the consumers’ side) imposed on the services of public utility companies in 2013 (as part of the public finance re-form introduced in 2010), that is, whether a more robust regulatory environment of public finances compelled the promotion of corporate efficiency. With the complex (and inter-related) methodology of the assessments carried out, we could establish that financial risks improved, but we propose even stricter controls due the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research results present a comprehensive situational picture of municipally owned companies providing public services in an emerging market economy, which can be compared with the data of other countries as well.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14254/1800-5845/2020.16-4.3

Innovative solutions in the development of households’ financial awareness: A hungarian example

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Sági Judit

Publication Name: Economics and Sociology

Publication Date: 2020-01-01

Volume: 13

Issue: 3

Page Range: 27-45

Description:

Financial crises put stress on the society of the country of our investigation, whose financial vulnerability is raising from high indebtedness, a history of defaulted loans, and an insufficient level of financial literacy. In this context, financial awareness has been recognised as a means for decreasing households’ exposure to financial difficulties, bridging crisis periods with the substantial precautionary holding of liquid assets, and improving their well-being over longer periods of time. Raising financial awareness is a crucial policy aim, and has been investigated in this study as well. A questionnaire survey was completed by Hungarian university students across different majors, to assess the financial literacy level of the responders from their own perspective. In addition to this, we have investigated their e-banking habits. According to our findings, different student groups (clusters) have been identified by means of Ward analysis (where the significance of clusters were tested by ANOVA). Our results confirm that across all clusters the university students place their trust in non-governmental organisations and central bank foundations rather than those of the financial institutions in evolving financial literacy. This outcome of our study may provide an argument for designing policy incentives for raising financial awareness in an institutionalised way, relying on the role of the privately funded NGOs and on the central bank.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2020/13-3/2

New dimensions of internal controls in banking after the GFC

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Pál P. Kolozsi Zoltán Zéman

Publication Name: Economic Annals Xxi

Publication Date: 2019-08-20

Volume: 176

Issue: 3-4

Page Range: 38-48

Description:

The weakness of the control function of governments and central banks was the main regulatory cause of the global financial crisis (GFC) broke out in 2007, but the suboptimal regulatory environment «corrupted» the quality of internal control and audit of banks as well. After the crisis, corporate governance issues appeared in the focus of international organizations. In this paper, we present the relevant international recommendations aimed at improvement of the weak corporate governance practices of the banking sector. Based on the comparison of pre- and post-crisis internal control functionalities which are presented as a meta-analysis and a systematic review of the existing empirical researches, the authors conclude that the stricter guidelines could and can have a positive impact on banks' operations stabilizing through the strengthening of internal control practices.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.21003/ea.V176-04

A családi otthonteremtési kedvezmény költségvetési terheinek előreszámítása, 2020–2040

Csaba Lentner Sági Judit Tatay Tibor

Publication Name: Statisztikai Szemle

Publication Date: 2019-02-01

Volume: 97

Issue: 2

Page Range: 192-212

Description:

Decrease in the willingness of childbearing is an international phenomenon that afflicts Hungary just like any other country. Following the consolidation after the 2007/2008 crisis, new types of economic policy tools have been introduced in Hungary to improve birth rates. In consent with the arguments of former international research, the study assumes that although the factors affecting birth rates are wider than fiscal incentives, the government is able to have a considerable effect on achieving the required rate of reproduction via home settlement subsidies, and for this purpose, it has to ensure fiscal sustainability. The paper aims at providing an outlook for the period 2020–2040, in respect of the possible fiscal obligations of the family home settlement benefit that is an important pillar of the Hungarian family subsidising regime. Demographic data and the regulation for family home settlement benefit serve as the model computation framework. The calculations demonstrate that the family subsidising regime imposes sustainable commitments to the fiscal budget, and may change the birth rate trends favourably.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.20311/stat2019.2.hu192

Fiscal council: European model or new global standard?

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner András Póra András Bethlendi

Publication Name: Journal of International Studies

Publication Date: 2019-01-01

Volume: 12

Issue: 4

Page Range: 32-51

Description:

The great recession of 2008 caused fiscal crises in several countries. This phenomenon highlighted the relevance of the problem of fiscal alcoholism and excessive sovereign debt. Nowadays rules-based fiscal policies have become more and more widespread to limit indebtedness. This article explores one of the most important elements of rules-based systems: the fiscal council. The key question imposed was: is it mostly a European phenomenon, or rather a global standard? As a method, we employed descriptive statistics, then a hierarchical cluster analysis, based on the data of the IMF Fiscal Council Dataset. In conclusion, two separated groups were formed: an EU and a non-EU cluster with some outliers, thus our working hypothesis was underpinned. Our results have thus contributed to the literature and advanced the case that in the last ten years the increased number of fiscal councils can be attributed to international (European) regulations or internal political issues rather than actual enhancements of fiscal prudence.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-4/3

Comparative analysis of the process for compliance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government in The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia - with special emphasis on economic conditions and Hungarian atypical features

Laszlo Vasa Csaba Lentner Szilárd Hegedűs László Nagy

Publication Name: Economic Annals Xxi

Publication Date: 2018-12-24

Volume: 173

Issue: 9-10

Page Range: 10-18

Description:

The aim of this paper is to analyse legal and financial dynamics of the self-governance in three countries of the Visegrad Group: The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The paper explores compliance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government, financial independence and operational features of self-governance. The paper provides an overview of the regulatory environment that was set up for the local government in the Visegrad countries, examines the powers by local government, and the degree of its financial independence. The financial aspects of self-government are compared, and compliance with major fiscal rules is examined.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.21003/ea.V173-02