Differing development paths of spatial income inequalities after the political transition — by the example of Hungary and its regions

Abstract

The debate about trends and changes is a topical issue today regarding the current financial and economic crisis. Hungary delimited seven NUTS-2 planning-statistical regions with the less developed Northern Great Plain region and the top ranking Western Transdanubia. The study deals with the developing path of spatial income inequalities with the methods of Hoover index and the logarithmic standard deviation. The decay and the growth of inequalities were significantly higher in the case of the underdeveloped territories. Developed areas faced a moderate increase concerning their inequalities and these microregions were able to attract new investments and restructure their economy

Keywords

• Hungary
• income inequality
• Kuznets-Williamson inverted-U hypothesis
• spatial disparities
• spatial pattern
• transition economy