Silicon Valley in Zsámbék(?)

There's a next Silicon Valley being built right in our backyard. According to the numerous promises soon there will be one of the biggest technology (and a whole lot more) cluster in the world and Bill Gates drinking a Hungarian wine in one of the cellars in Etyek will be a regular sight. Zsámbék - which was mostly famous for it's historical church - now will be the heart of innovation. So how can this nearly miraculous thing can happen?...

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Why Siemens decided to boild its new logistic center in Vienna?

Siemens plans to establish its new logistic center in Vienna this summer – instead of Budapest. Electronic products made by Siemens in Far East will be allocated to Central European markets through port of Rotterdam from Vienna. Nevertheless, considering only the geographical distance[1], through Adriatic Sea Budapest seems to be a better solution to access the Central European region at first sight. However, the result of Budapest’s and Vienna’s competition...

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„We Built It, They Didn’t Come” The Tale of Great Expectations

Empty airport of Cork in 2011 There is this old wisdom that compared to low transport costs the lower transportation cost is even better. This was a rationale for many transport projects in the past and a good slogan however it is not quite clear whether that is a sound argument to build railways, motorways and airports upon. Here is the brief case of Ireland: they have made it all. What they did not know at the time what they had coming:...

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The advantages of a high-speed rail – an example between Madrid and Barcelona

In 2008 a high-speed rail connection has been opened between Madrid and Barcelona shortening the time getting from one city to the other to 2 hours and 38 minutes. The main goals of the construction were the reduction in travel time on the corridor and the increase of capacity and safety conditions on the rail line (Frontier, 2011). There are numerous changes that followed the launch of the HSR between Madrid and Barcelona. It shifts passengers...

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It there a life after Malév? A challenge for transport economists

Let’s imagine the following picture. Near our beautiful, charming city a well organized, well staffed, well equipped high quality airport is working. Citizens like it as well as trading companies. People can reach the airport easily and quickly with low cost, airport crew is always smiling so people like to travel. That means active airport activity through high demand. Because of these tendencies the environment for airlines is favourable, airport attracts them. The result will be more airlines who compete which drives the prices down and led to better services or simply larger airport capacity. The process makes the airways even more...

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Consumer dissatisfaction with Hungarian railways

It was 6 AM when I got on the train in a town called Cegléd, about 70 km from Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It was a cold morning in mid-January, so I was glad that the train arrived only 5 minutes late. The wagon was dimly lit, and without the sun it was hard to find my way to an empty seat, even though there were plenty of them. I did not bother with the cold on the train and quickly fell asleep. When I woke up, the train stopped in...

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The story of Liverpool

Beatles, Everton FC, Lusitania and River Mersey; they are all hallmarks of Liverpool and made it once famous. But the question is whether or not Liverpool connects to and fits into the world of new economic geography and if so, then how. Furthermore, can Liverpool be one of the famous textbook examples of agglomeration forces and trade like Chicago? Concerning these questions, I will do my best to show that the story of Liverpool is far more...

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America and the mass migration in the late 19th century

In secondary school one of my favorite topics in history was the age of the European mass migration. It must have been so wonderful to sit on a huge steamship and cross the ocean to a country, where even a peasant could reach his dreams and where it was so easy to  buy land and start a whole new life. In the late 19th century millions of Europeans made the journey to the New World, and it was possible exactly because of the steamships. Compared...

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