"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
Lord Kelvin

Publications

The impact of Russia’s state-run propaganda apparatus on online media in Hungary – 2010–2017

23 March 2018

In this paper, we investigate the impact of Russia’s state-run propaganda apparatus on online media in Hungary using methods drawn from content analysis and distributive semantics. For the analysis, we downloaded articles published between 2010 and 2017 on nine Hungarian-language online portals (888.hu, hidfo.ru, index.hu, lokal.hu, magyaridok.hu, mindenegyben.com, mno.hu, origo.hu, and pestisracok.hu) and collected them in a database. We analysed 1 million articles and more than 278 million words in total. We used read more

Cronyism in Hungary. Empirical analysis of public tenders 2010-2016

21 February 2018.

Presentation at the conference “János Kornai 90th birthday ” at Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest,
21-22 February 2018

Abstract

In this paper, we use the public procurement database which contains data from more than 230,000 public tenders from 1997 to 2017. The analysis is based on data from 126,330 public procurement contracts from 2010 to 2016. The focus of the analysis is public tenders (without framework agreements) won by companies related to cronies and read more

Bangladesh, Zambia and Hungary. Data publication practice of the Hungarian Public Procurement Authority

19 February 2018

THE HUNGARIAN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AUTHORITY (HPPA) DID FILE A LAWSUIT IN 19 NOVEMBER 2018 AGAINST THE CRCB FOR HARMING HPPA’s REPUTATION IN THIS RESEARCH NOTE.

ACCORDING  TO THE INJUCTION OF THE BUDAPEST CAPITAL COURT (22.P.23.829/2018/5.)  WE HAD TO REMOVE THIS PAPER FROM OUR WEBSITE. THE STATEMENTS MADE IN THE ABSTRACT WERE THEREFORE ALSO TRUNCATED.

In this research note we briefly analyse the data publication standard used by the Hungarian Public Procurement read more

How does the Kleptocratic State Work in Hungary?

István János Tóth – Miklós Hajdu: How does the Kleptocratic State Work in Hungary? A research note based on Hungarian public procurement data. CRCB, Budapest, January 2018.

26 January  2018

In this research note, we use the public procurement database built by CRCB, which contains data from more than 200,000 public tenders from 1997 to 2017. The analysis is based on data from 126,330 public procurement contracts from 2010 to 2016. The focus of the analysis is public tenders (without framework agreements) won by companies related to cronies and read more

Public tenders of Hungarian hospitals on the standard dissection table of the economic analysis

24 January 2018

István János Tóth – Miklós Hajdu: Public tenders of Hungarian hospitals on the standard dissection table of the economic analysis. Analysis of intensity of competition, corruption risks and price distortion of Hungarian public procurement. Budapest: CRCB, January, 2018.

Abstract

In the following short paper, we analyse the contracts of a Hungarian EU-funded programme (KEOP – 5.6.0/E/15) involved in an ongoing investigation of the Hungarian Competition Authority (HCA). The investigation was started for suspect of collusion and among the suspects involved are both Hungarian owned firms and read more

Brief analysis on the cronyism in Hungary

24 December 2017

Before the issuers publish their calls for tenders, they have to calculate the estimated price of the procurement. This calculation can be based on their experience from previous tenders and on the results of market research.  The price drop between the estimated value and the actual contract price can be regarded as a proxy for measure the intensity of competition. The higher competition between the bidders will result in more intense price competition what should lead to lower read more

Intensity of Competition, Corruption Risks, and Price Distortion in the Hungarian Public Procurement – 2009-2016

 

December 29, 2017

 

Tóth, I. J. and Hajdu, M. 2017. Intensity of Competition, Corruption Risks, and Price Distortion in the Hungarian Public Procurement – 2009-2016. Working Paper Series: CRCB-WP/2017:2, CRCB, Budapest.

The report was carried out by CRCB for the European Commission and examines data from Hungarian public procurement in the period between 2009 and 2016. The data of 151,457 contracts were used for the analysis. The analysis focuses on information regarding the read more

In the footsteps of a kleptocratic state. A presentation at the Budapest Science Meetup

9 November 2017

Budapest Science Meetup, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Science, 7pm

In the presentation we dealt with the effect of friendship and family ties with the Hungarian Prime Minister (Viktor Orban) on the intensity of competition of public tenders won by companies owned by his close friends and family members. The analysis is based on more than 151,000 Hungarian public procurement tenders in the period of 2009-2016. Using OLS and ordered logit estimation and propensity score read more

Corruption risks, intensity of competition and estimated direct social loss in public procurement of Zagreb – 2011-2016

11 October 2017

The research carried out by CRCB for the CMS is based on the analysis of 5,922 contracts of 4,483 public procurement issued by Grad Zagreb and Zagreb Holding between 2011 and 2016. During the data extraction, we could identify 1,197 winner companies on these tenders which are also the subject of the investigation.

The paper deals with the following questions: (i) What are the tendencies regarding the strength of competition and the corruption risks during the analysed time read more