Daniel Felsenstein (p)

Zoltán Egri

The visibility value of the natural landscape is a difficult concept to quantify. Using GIS
techniques we create variables for measuring the visibility value of coasts and natural
open areas in a spatial hedonic model of house prices. Data come from repeated
house sales for the city of Haifa (Israel). As visibility of amenities often interacts with
other variables such as location, we suggest approaches for dealing with this
identification problem. We exploit the multi-level structure of the data to estimate
spatial panel models with multi-level random effects for identifying the visibility value of
natural landscapes. The estimated results show first, that visibility of coast and natural
open space adds to the value of house prices regardless of their location. Second, the
effect of proximity of natural landscapes on house prices is determined by the trade-off
between positive and negative externalities generated by these amenities. Third, we
find that viewshed effects are sensitive to different ranges of visibility.

Dora Szendi (p)

Daniel Felsenstein

Territorial economic and social disparities remain a major problem for the European Union nowadays. There are not two regions which have the same characteristics and starting conditions, resulting in significant disparities in the long term. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of the economic and social shocks of the 2000s (the economic and financial crisis of 2008-09 and the current pandemic situation) on the economies of four countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) in the Central and Eastern European (CEEC) countries.
The paper presents county-level differences in gross value added as a characteristic indicator of development in these countries and their changes in response to external shocks. The methodology used is based on classical descriptive statistics, convergence analyses and spatial autocorrelation studies.
The results show that the impact of the shocks of the 2000s varies across counties, with some areas being able to increase their gross value added even during the crisis period. The within-country and between-country convergence analyses show that sigma convergence was partially achieved within the countries under review, while beta convergence was also achieved only within Hungary and Slovakia and at the aggregate regional level between 2005 and 2020.
However, it is also worth to note that the first and second waves of the economic and financial crisis and the pandemic had an uneven impact on the region's counties (some suffering greater depreciation, others less), which further increased territorial disparities. Spatial autocorrelation is significant in both the broader and narrower study area, but patterns remain fairly stable through the period of exogenous shocks.

Zoltán Egri (p)

Dora Szendi

In recent years and decades, many researchers have dealt with the path dependence of development processes, which phenomena have also been confirmed at the subnational level. My study also belongs to this latter direction, I describe the effects of socialist industrial development and urban development interventions in Hungary, pointing out their effects on today's agglomeration (urban) economies. Urbanization in Hungary can be considered delayed due to historical reasons, today's urban network is largely determined by the development policy of the socialist period.
In my spatial econometric analyses, I estimate the local effects of employment and business density on city incomes with different regression models (Spatial Error Model, Spatial AutoRegressive Model, Spatial AutoRegressive with additional AutoRegressive error structure). For the correct estimation I use historical instruments, I explain the economic density with the characteristics of industry, education, and labor migration of the socialist period. During my analyses, I pay special attention to the issue of spatial dependence, which cannot be separated from path dependence. My results point to the historical roots of Hungarian agglomeration economies.