Lessons from the 2009 roaming convention of economists

Abstract

The Presidency of the Hungarian Economic Association releases a summary of the annual roaming convention of economists year by year. The 2008 conference focused on the Lisbon reforms and their implementation in Hungary. We believe that the main message was that although the Lisbon strategy of the European Union is definitely not perfect in terms of either quality of concept or implementation, it could spur many important reforms in Hungary. These reforms are and have been necessitated by the position and operational deficiencies of the country's economy and society, along with economic policy mistakes and failures. Thus the global financial and economic crisis was not the cause of Hungary's economic weaknesses, only made them more visible. The key message at the 2009 roaming convention was that despite the crisis management measures that are undoubtedly effective in the short run, hardly any progress had been made regarding reforms.