Late careers in Hungary : coping with the transformation from a socialist to a market economy

Abstract

In this chapter, we first outline how macro-economic developments and the institutional context have influenced the Hungarian labor market during the period of economic and social transformation. We describe the main labor market trends, the changes of retirement policies, and the role of the educational system. In the following section, we present our hypotheses on how these macro-economic and institutional changes have influenced the late careers of Hungarian workers, and its consequences on pension income. Then, we describe the statistical methods used in our analyses. In the empirical part, we provide estimates from event history models predicting the risk of unemployment and the likelihood of early exit from the labor force via normal retirement or disability pension. We also provide estimates from a linear regression model examining the determinants of pension income. In our analyses, we use data from the Household Monitor Survey conducted by the TÁRKI Social Research Center in 2003. This is the most appropriate data source available, and provides the necessary information for the period between 1988 and 2003