A Statistical Analysis of Government Change in Hungary

Overview

Objectives/Goals The aim of this project was to find the social and economic effects on Hungary of the country's varying regimes and policies of the past twenty years. I hypothesized that there would be no growth during the eighties, but some growth, more economically than socially, in the nineties. Methods/Materials To find out, I gathered eight social and economic indicators for Hungary from 1980-1999. The indicators studied were GNP per capita, life expectancy, population per physician, percent of relevant age group in primary and secondary education , percent of GDP in services, infant mortality, and commercial energy consumption per GNP. I also created social, economic, and overall averages by creating a weighted average, with more important indicators receiving greater weights. Because infant mortality shows high development when it is low, I used a linear function to "reverse" the numbers. Also, for years in which I lacked data and there were no significant policy changes, I interpolated data based on the previous and next years. I did not use interpolated data in the averages. Results (because of the nature of the conclusions, results are included there.) Conclusions/Discussion My results showed that my hypothesis was mostly correct; there was stagnation in the eighties under communism and there was strong growth in the nineties. However, the social indicators showed less and more erratic growth than I expected. Still, the policies of the democratic governments of the nineties were successful, and there was no slide immediately after the revolution, as in many other Eastern European countries.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1703

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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