The June 2023 issue of the Financial and Economic Review is now published

The Future Vision column in the June issue of our scientific journal analyses the issues related to globalisation. The published studies discuss borrower-based measures, the concept of financial stability, artificial intelligence-based fraud detection, and green financial instruments for agriculture. An essay presents intangible capital investment and intangible assets. The feature articles examine household savings and the financing of solar power plants.

Péter Halmai analyses one of the biggest questions of recent years: what is the future of globalisation? The rivalry between the United States and China, some trade policy restrictions and the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak that threatened global production chains could, some argue, spell the end of globalisation. In fact, the globalised world economy is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Intangible assets, intellectual property and the flow of information and data are the main vehicles of globalisation. Identifying the main directions of change is an inescapable task for economics and a prerequisite for forward-looking economic policy action.

The rise in real estate prices in recent years has significantly increased the amount of self-financing required to buy a house with a loan, which has led to a deterioration in the borrowing opportunities for young, first-time home buyers. The borrower-based measure framework may affect these clients more severely compared to their credit risk, thus in their case, the application of a lower down payment could arise. In their study, Gabriella Grosz, Gábor Izsák, Alexandr Maxim Palicz and Katinka Szász review the side effects of the borrower-based measures on first-time home buyers, the characteristics of the affected clients, the related international practice, and the opportunities and risks of Hungarian application.

Public intervention is based on the public interest, and it is for the legal system to find the delicate balance between public and private interests. In the face of a strong public administration, it is a necessity to ensure that the administration is subject to the law and that the members of society are protected by law. The threat of financial instability is a circumstance that provides an opportunity for state intervention, which necessitates a definition of the term. In his study, János Kálmán seeks to make a proposal for this by analysing in detail the conceptualisation of financial stability, by systematising international definitions and by defining the general legal concept of financial stability.

The consequences of insurance fraud have a serious impact on the insurance sector. Fraud creates distrust in the industry, causes economic damage and affects people's daily cost of living. Therefore, there is no doubt that the identification of insurance fraud is an economically important area of investigation. Botond Benedek and Zsolt Bálint Nagy investigate whether the currently widespread AI-based fraud detection methods are more effective from a financial (cost-effectiveness) point of view than methods based on traditional statistical-econometric tools in the automobile insurance segment.

In the agricultural sector, there are clearly identifiable green development points that require significant financial resources. In their study, Anett Parádi-Dolgos, Tibor Bareith, László Vancsura and Arnold Csonka examine how effective green finance tools can be in financing improvements for the sustainability of the pig sector. As a result of a Q-method survey with stakeholders in the product chain, it can be seen that they are still uncertain and pessimistic about the ability of green finance tools to serve the development of the sector and to what extent.

In her essay, Magdolna Csath draws attention to the links between knowledge investment, productivity and the ability to improve competitiveness. Drawing on an extensive literature and statistical calculations, she shows that low levels of knowledge investment are not sufficient to increase knowledge assets, without which it is not possible to move to a knowledge-based, i.e. knowledge-competitive path, of development. The author also points out that public research and development investments must be made more efficient, and that the results of this flow type of expenditure must be reflected in the growth of the stock of knowledge assets.

Looking at data from the new household survey of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Tamás Briglevics and Annamária Hegedűs found that the share of households holding government bonds has increased, at the expense of fixed-term and sight deposit holdings, due to higher inflation. However, there are still some who have not taken advantage of the opportunities offered by high-yielding government securities.

The use of renewable energy has become a key issue, but investment faces many obstacles and risks. In her feature article, Nóra Baji-Gál Imréné Szarvas explores financing solutions that can help overcome these challenges. In addition to existing practices, innovative forms of financing and business and legal solutions to facilitate them are presented.

In addition to the above, the June issue of the Financial and Economic Review includes one book review and two conference reports.

The publication can be viewed on the website of our Journal:

https://en-hitelintezetiszemle.mnb.hu/

We wish you a very pleasant reading.

Editorial staff of the Financial and Economic Review