Habilitation lecture of Ágnes Pogány

On March 18, 2024, the head of our research group, Pogány Ágnes gave two lectures at the Faculty of Arts of Eötvös Loránd University, as part of her habilitation procedure.

On March 18, 2024, the head of our research group, Pogány Ágnes gave two lectures at the Faculty of Arts of Eötvös Loránd University, as part of her habilitation procedure.

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Ágnes Pogány's first lecture, which she gave in Hungarian under the title "Overcoming the financial crisis in Hungary", presented the economic difficulties of interwar Hungary and the state's responses to them. She pointed out that, as a legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the oversized public sector and generous pension system of Hungary could be corrected through a significant reduction in public spending.

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The Hungarian banking crisis was caused by international developments, such as the Great Depression that began in 1929, and the collapse of the Credit-Anstalt in 1931, Vienna. The recovery from the crisis took place through the Győr Programme, announced in 1938. She also emphasized the central bank's role both in the stabilization of the forint exchange rate in 1924 through a secret agreement with the Bank of England, and in the rescue of the Magyar Állami Hitelbank in the 1930s.

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Ágnes Pogány, in her second lecture entitled The Economic Legacy of 1918, in English, presented the economic effects caused by World War I and its peace agreements.

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In addition to presenting 1918 as a turning point, however, she also drew attention to the fact that some economic historical research considers the Great Depression to be a turning point in the first wave of globalisation from around 1895 to 1928.

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After the presentations, there were questions from the audience, and then the committee retired to make a decision. Based on the unanimous opinion of the voters, the maximum score was awarded to Ágnes Pogány.

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