Robotization in Central and Eastern Europe: catching up or dependence?

Cséfalvay Zoltán (2020).
European Planning Studies 28.8 (2020): 1534-1553.

While in the most developed European countries the combination of falling robot prices and high wages boosts robotization, these driving factors do not sufficiently explain why we are experiencing today a sharp increase in deployment of industrial robots in European countries with low wages. Particularly, in Central and Eastern Europe where a decade ago industrial robots were almost non-existent but today more than 30,000 robots are at work. Hence this paper, by recalculating the data of International Federation of Robotics and EU-KLEMS addresses the main question: What drives and hinders the robotization in Central and Eastern Europe?

Robotisation race in Europe: the robotisation chain approach

Zoltán Cséfalvay, Petros Gkotsis (2022),
Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 31(8), 693-710.

Who leads the robotisation race in Europe? For the answer, this paper develops a novel analytical framework, primarily by applying the concept of the global value chain to robotisation. By doing this, we investigate in detail the entire robotisation chain, from robotics developers over robot manufacturers to companies that deploy the industrial robots. For the R&D-intensive part of the chain (robotics development), we analyse robotics patent data from PATSTAT combined with firm data from ORBIS while for the capital-intensive part (deployment of robots) the source of information is the International Federation of Robotics. Our results show that the European robotisation landscape is fragmented into three groups. The first includes economies (Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark and France) that have the highest densities both in robotics development and in robot deployment. Countries of the second group (Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland) possess good positions only in some specific parts of the chain, while the lagging behind region (the majority of Central and Eastern Europe) is integrated into the robotisation chain solely by robot deployment. Hence, one of the main related policy challenges is to find ways for upgrading along the robotisation chain.

Gated communities for security or prestige? a public choice approach and the case of Budapest

Cséfalvay Zoltán (2011),
International journal of urban and regional research 35, no. 4 (2011): 735-752.

While in the mainstream narrative gated communities are regarded as incidental or deviate developments, this article attempts to offer, on the basis of public choice theory, an alternative answer to the fundamental question: why are people moving to gated residential areas? Drawing on the case of Budapest, it discusses the dominant theses and concludes that eagerness for prestige seems to surpass both fear of crime and the urge for self-segregation on the part of the affluent as the dominant motive. The search for prestige is particularly intense in Budapest, where local governments possess very weak fiscal autonomy and depend strongly on state grants, making them hardly able to provide the public goods and services that meet citizens' preferences. Consequently, in Budapest and to some extent rather ironically, the rise of gated communities, which in the literature is vehemently disputed as a socially problematic process, has become a manifestation of the revolt of the upper middle class against a grossly overcentralized government

TechTonic Shifts, 

Cséfalvay Zoltán (2017),
Kairosz Kiadó 

I originally intended this book to be a diary about my days at the OECD. However, as the entries mounted up I soon realised that we are experiencing a great transition. When does a new era start? Once our old notions do not work anymore, or if using them becomes so forced that we begin losing touch with reality. We continue to employ the concepts of the epoch of globalisation such as international trade, labour productivity or the SME sector, although they apply less and less to the world of robots, giant digital corporations, new global value chains, user networks hundreds of millions strong and dynamic start-ups. Perhaps we can better understand the transformation around us if we adopt a different perspective and start out from what we see, ie the features of a new age.

Gates or no gates? A cross-European enquiry into the driving forces behind gated communities

Zoltán Cséfalvay, Chris Webster (2012),
Regional Studies 46, no. 3 (2012): 293-308.

This paper addresses one of the biggest gaps in research on gated communities: why is the phenomenon so strong in some countries, but absent in others? After reviewing the mainstream explanations, it outlines an alternative thesis based on theories of public choice and fiscal federalism. To test the relevance of the theory, European countries are divided into two groups – those with a considerable number of gated communities and those with very few or none – and they are compared on fifteen indicators. The results indicate that beyond the visible manifestation of gates and walls, there are deeper institutional driving forces.