New Hungarian Economic Philosophy to Improve Households’ Financial Situation

Abstract

SummaryAs a result of the neoliberal economic philosophical doctrines that spread in the 1980s, decreasing attention was paid by researchers and other experts in the European Union to developments in households' financial position and consumption in boosting economic growth. This is despite the fact that the examples set by the increasingly faster growing countries, especially India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, seem to markedly confirm that developments in incomes and household consumption have an increasing role in the acceleration of economic growth. As globalization and the 2008 economic crisis undermined the financial position of households in the European Union, and thus also in Hungary, and a growing part of the population was thrust into increasingly deeper poverty, so people started to become once again aware of the actual consequences of deterioration in households' financial position on developments in economic growth. Having recognised all this, the Hungarian government fundamentally altered Hungarian economic policy. Tax hikes were replaced by tax cuts, and previous high taxes were replaced by tax credits to facilitate households' position. In contrast to the previous austerity packages, actions were taken with the primary aim to increase the income left with households. This is also the purpose of the utility cost cut procedure. In this framework, long-term changes were performed with the aim to allow the government ensure public services in the field of waste water management, drinking water, natural gas and electricity supply, district heating, waste incineration and mass catering on a non-profit basis, in order to increase the income

Certain Aspects of Family Policy Incentives for Childbearing—A Hungarian Study with an International Outlook

“…States are reacting to declining fertilities by applying tax-related types of pro-birth policies, and by targeting marriage, child-raising, and the re-entrance of women to the labour market. Fiscal expenditures are being phased into the personal income tax regimes, and are being supplemented by parental support [54].…”