An Analysis of the Incomes and Current Personal Transfers of Hungarians Living Abroad

Orsolya Csortos () and Balázs Kóczián ()
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Orsolya Csortos: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Balázs Kóczián: Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Financial and Economic Review, 2017, vol. 16, issue 2, 5–27

Abstract: The funds transferred or available for transfer home by households working abroad appear in several items of the balance of payments, which often leads to misunderstandings. This paper therefore attempts to define these concepts. It is necessary to clarify and understand the concepts associated with remittances because they may represent more stable sources of external funding compared to other external sources, and may also shape economic growth, improve the current account and thus contribute to reducing the risk premium and improving investor sentiment on the country. After illustrating the economic significance of the compensation of employees and transfers, we shed light on their trends in recent years in Hungary. The United Kingdom’s referendum on EU membership in June 2016 lends particular relevance to the topic. We show that the compensation of employees working temporarily abroad significantly exceeds the current personal transfers of Hungarian households permanently living abroad, and these significantly improve the current account. Hungarian workers in Germany and Austria received the majority of wages, while the United Kingdom also plays a prominent role alongside Germany in current personal transfers made by Hungarian households living permanently abroad. At the scale of the European Union, the volume of compensation of employees and current personal transfers decreases in parallel with the level of economic development.

Keywords: remittances; foreign worker incomes; external funding; labour flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 F24 F43 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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