Microsimulation | Households, Work and Flexibility | Generational accounting | Gender Data Archive | TÁRKI—Andorka Library | TÁRKI Homepage |
Mission and Activities |
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Microsimulation | Households, Work and Flexibility | Generational accounting | Gender Data Archive | TÁRKI—Andorka Library | TÁRKI Homepage |
Mission and Activities |
Our Mission“The most important resource of TÁRKI’s operation is its reputation. This reputation, the safeguarding of which is top priority on the organisation's agenda, has been gained as a result of TÁRKI’s independence, the professionalism of its activities and products, its balanced and transparent operation and its dedication to democracy. Independent operations. TÁRKI’s management must pursue a business policy which does not allow any given interest group or political trend to acquire an influence over the institution leading to material dependence which may jeopardise the credibility of the analyses and evaluations published by it. Balanced interpretations. The studies conducted by TÁRKI shell have to be balanced. Analyses presented on the basis of research findings must point out that whatever the evaluating conclusions drawn from them are, the implementation of those conclusions will have both advantages and drawbacks. Any study completed by TÁRKI must always stress these positive and negative aspects. Openness in approach. In the course of its operation and the preparation of its professional products, TÁRKI does not give ground to neither political nor professional preconceptions. TÁRKI only accepts contracts where there is not even the remotes possibility of TÁRKI’s analyses becoming, whether directly or indirectly, a justification for activities undermining democratic values. Professionalism. One of TÁRKI’s most important resources is the credibility of the studies published by it. Credible analyses and data can only be produced by placing professionalism and proficiency above all. Professional analyses must always be up to the state-of-the-art methodological standards of systematic, analytical and empirical research.” Excerpt from TÁRKI’s Articles of Association The TÁRKI GroupTÁRKI, a research institute of high renown, both nationally and internationally, in the field of social science and market research was founded in 1985 as the first legally private research center of Central Europe. The aim of the Founder was to create a service-providing center which would:
The empirical surveys conducted in the past one and a half decades, concerned mainly with the overall processes of the transformation of Hungarian society, have established TÁRKI’s well-founded reputation and have led to the establishment of a professionally unique, accessible data base. The economic and social context of the late 1990's necessitated the sharp separation of TÁRKI’s wide range of activities, leading to the formation of the TÁRKI Group. The Group comprises three organisations: TÁRKI Social Research Institute Inc. a joint stock company, TÁRKI Joint Research Center, and the TÁRKI Foundation. TÁRKI’s specificity, uniqueness and peculiarity lies, besides the high standard of its operation, in its openness and transparency. TÁRKI takes full responsibility for its research findings both before a more restricted, professional audience and before the larger public. The organisation engages in regular publication activity, its highly qualified researchers continually publish comprehensive studies and books, and pass their knowledge on to younger generations in higher educational institutions. TÁRKI Social Research Institute Inc.…is a research center and a business venture that encompasses profit-orientated, market-based activities. Research Work – Empirical SurveysIn professional circles TÁRKI is mostly known for its sociological studies, for its empirical surveys and its data base building activity, while the larger public is more familiar with its nation-wide opinion polls. Surveys that have been regularly repeated over the years secure a solid professional background that research of the present and of the future can build on. The results of the various surveys are continually reported in the media.
The current main directions of research within the joint stock company are the following:
The following types of surveys are available upon order:
The quality of TÁRKI’s studies and surveys is guaranteed by constant professional controlling thatTÁRKI Zrtnies each and every work phase. Respect for confidentiality of individual data is ensured TÁRKI also pursues methodological research that sociology does not apply directly in everyday life. Organisation and FinancingTÁRKI Social Research Institute Inc. is an independent, self-financing enterprise. The owners of TÁRKI Rt. include the company’s staff and other individuals. Most of the research work is commissioned by government agencies, professional associations, local governments, international organisations, financial institutions, as well as large, medium-size and small enterprises. Some Major SurveysHungarian Household Panel SurveyThe Hungarian Household Panel Survey was a joint research project of TÁRKI, the Budapest University of Economics, the Central Statistical Office, the National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) and several other Hungarian institutions, in the course of which, between 1991 and 1997, a nation-wide sample of 2600 households was surveyed on a yearly basis. The research focussed on the dynamic changes of the labor market, income inequalities, the life prospects of the various strata of the population, and the financial and economic strategies of households. Papers based on the survey are widely accessible in TÁRKI publications such as the Social Report or the Working Papers of the Household Panel (Háztartás Panel Műhelytanulmányok). TÁRKI Household Monitor SurveyIn terms of its research topics, the Household Monitor is the continuation of the Hungarian Household Panel, without its longitudinal character. Its purpose is the quick assessment of the changes in the stratification of society and in social inequalities. The survey is primarily focussed on issues concerning the labor market and incomes, consumer attitudes, savings, economic expectations and economic behavior, as well as changing social relations are also included among the subjects of the survey. The survey is supported by several governmental and state institutions, as well as by private institutions through research commissions. The survey encompassing up to 2000 households is normally conducted in late spring and each year a specific volume containing the results is published, available to the public. Micro-simulationTÁRKI has created a micro-simulation system founded upon various data bases, composed from the analysis of taxation systems and the welfare benefits model. Társzim 2000 is a software able to numerically define the changes that ensue from altering any parameter in a given tax/benefit regime. This model has been developed by TÁRKI in line with international modelling practices that have emerged in the past decades. Omnibus SurveyTÁRKI has been conducting this survey, based on a sample of 1500 persons and repeated on a monthly basis, for several years now. The sample represents the adult population of Hungary. Customers can "board" the survey based on personal questioning with a block of questions or even with one single question. TÁRKI Joint Research Center…is a non-profit organisation with a threefold mandate: it serves as the infrastructural background to both scientific and market-orientated economic activities, it facilitates the ongoing work of the joint stock company with its information technological activity, and it supplies information and data to its member organisations. It encompasses the Social Science Data Bank, the TÁRKI and the Andorka Libraries. At present, the member institutions of TÁRKI Joint Research Center are the following: Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, József Attila University of Sciences (Department of Sociology), Kossuth Lajos University of Sciences (Department of Sociology), Central Statistical Office, Budapest University of Economics (Department of Sociology and Social Policy), Institute of Political Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Sociological Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, National Institute of Vocational Training. At the time of its establishment, TÁRKI JRC committed itself to the systematic, professional processing of the data to be supplied, as well as to the creation of the information basis of Hungarian social research and the further development of the methodological co-ordination thereof. Data are accessible via two different filing systems: in traditional, hard-copy form and in electronic format. Data stored electronically, on-line are archived by the data bank, while traditional, hard-copy documents are kept in the library. TÁRKI Data ArchiveContains more than 600 data bases at present (including topics like attitudes, family, demographic indicators, social deviance, health care, life styles, values, consumer patterns, occupations, housing situation, agriculture, mobility, ethnic and migrant groups, education, local governments, stratification, poverty, social policy, social statistics, social relations, social strata, rural society, religion, elections etc.) The latest printed catalogue listing the studies stored in the Archive was published in 1997. The Women's Data Archive on the Internet (www.tarki.hu/adatbank-h/nok) sums up social scientific research projects concerning women's issues and thus makes data and publications, a register of researchers and URLs easily accessible. The long-term objective of the Data Archive is to create Central-Eastern European and thematic data archives. The Data Bank also publishes and distributes the CD-ROM version of the Hungarian Household Panel surveys conducted between 1992 and 1997. TÁRKI Library and Library of The Andorka Rudolf Foundation…store documents in traditional, printed format. TÁRKI Library was founded in 1990. Its original aim was to serve the staff of TÁRKI, as well as lecturers and students specialising in sociology. At present it functions as a restrictedly public library. Its sphere of collection comprises mainly the methodology of sociology and other sociological fields, but the library also stores the printed documentation of all empirical surveys conducted by TÁRKI. The book stock consists of approximately 8000 volumes. Library service includes: – loan of books to internal staff – consulting on the spot by external users, with photo-copying facilities Andorka Rudolf Social Science Library The library has a unique stock of special literature and is operated as a foundation. It greatly facilitates sociological research and in-depth scientific activity. In accordance with the will of the Andorka family, the Andorka Foundation and TÁRKI jointly manage the library of Andorka Rudolf, the outstanding Hungarian sociologist who deceased in 1997. The Andorka patrimony, donated to the public, comprises more than 5000 volumes. This rich collection is complemented by donations from professors Béla Buda, László Cseh-Szombathy and Peter Laslett. Several publishing houses and other institutions contribute to the updating of the stock. The records and the periodicals sections of the library are available to the public as well. The Andorka collection covers almost all the fields and sub-fields of sociology. The main fields include demography, family sociology, social mobility, poverty, deviationism. The Andorka library is open to students and lecturers of higher educational institutions. Services: consulting on the spot and photocopying. The stocks of the two libraries can be searched in a common catalogue (www.tarki.hu) and their spheres of collection are complementary. TÁRKI Foundation…functions primarily as a facilitator of international relations and the funder of study tours abroad for young scholars. International relationsThe TÁRKI Group seeks to strengthen its international relations by establishing a close co-operation with the neighbouring countries in order to conduct joint studies and with similar research institutes from all around the world. TÁRKI often organises international workshops and its research staff members are regular participants at domestic and international conferences. Ever since its foundation the TÁRKI Group closely co-operates with many important social science data banks, institutes of similar background, e.g. NORC, ZUMA, as well as with universities:
TÁRKI is a member of three international data organisations:
TÁRKI has been involved in Luxembourg Income Study projects conducted within the framework of CEPS/INSTEAD based in Luxembourg, as well as in the work of the European Household Panel Network. It is possible for Hungarian researchers to use LIS data files free of charge, and the above research centers also grant fellowships to scholars interested in international income-comparison studies. TÁRKI has been a participant of ISSP (International Social Survey Program) since 1986. Within the framework of this programme the role of the state, social inequalities, attitudes to work, the changing of religious, family and gender roles as well as the status of environment protection have been studied. Since 1999 the TÁRKI Group has created, together with Czech and Polish research institutes, the Central European Opinion Research Group (CEORG), the task of which is to conduct Eastern-European comparative analyses in the social and the economic field, as well as to publish the research findings. Publishing ActivityTÁRKI regularly publishes the results of its research work in its publications in order to inform the profession and the larger public. The papers published in the series called Social Report, launched in 1990 and published every other year since then, analyse the most significant social and economic trends of Hungarian society. The 1990 and the 1998 editions of the series are also available in English. The series entitled Changing Gender Roles (Szerepváltozások) presents the social and economic status of Hungarian women and men at the end of the 1990's. This thematic publication, structured on the model of the Social Report, is also published every two years. The first volume came out in 1997. TÁRKI’s annual, cross-sectional survey called the Household Monitor has existed since 1998. The volumes of the series entitled TÁRKI Monitor Reports (TÁRKI Monitor Jelentések) appear in the December of every year. Since 1999 TÁRKI’s Economic Trends Research Papers (TÁRKI Konjunktúra Kutatási Füzetek) are published twice a year. The papers analyse the status and the expectations of the 1500 largest Hungarian companies in manufacturing. In the autumn of 1997, with support from the Vienna-based IWM, the series called TÁRKI Public Policy Discussion Paper series (Társadalompolitikai Tanulmányok) was launched, with the purpose of publishing the research findings of the Institute. Its aim is to make decision-makers aware of analyses targeted at current social processes and issues, and thus facilitate the communication between the academia, the policy makers and the actors of the market. TÁRKI believes in the importance of making its research findings available to a larger public as well, besides a more restricted professional audience. Therefore it places a special emphasis on media relations, and the publication of its scientific results in newspapers, as well as on the radio and on television. This takes place in the following forms:
TÁRKI’s Most Important Publications
ReferencesGovernment agencies: Ministry of the Interior, the Prime Minister's Office, Danube Programme Office of the Prime Minister's Office, Economic Protection Co-ordination Committee of the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Culture and Education, Ministry of Welfare, Pension Working Group of the Ministry of Welfare, Ministry of Finance, PHARE – Aid Co-ordination Office of the Ministry of Welfare Public institutions: State Pension Funds Supervision, Budapest Mayor's Office, Trade Union of Commercial Employees, National Employment Foundation, Communication Authority of Hungary, National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT), Voluntary Mutual Founds Supervision Financial institutions: Budapest Bank Rt, Hungarian National Bank, National Savings Bank (OTP), Postabank Rt. Companies/Corporations: Bajor Házépítők Kft, Budapest Festival Center Public Benefit Company, Budapest District Heating Authority, Fortuna Reklámügynökség Kiadó Kft., Budapest Sewerage Authority Inc., Budapest Gas Authority Inc., Budapest Water Authority Inc., Editorial Office of Magyar Orvos, Hungarian Telecommunications Company (MATÁV Rt.), Pantel RT., Virement Kft., WESTEL 900 GSM Mobile Telecommunications Company. Research institutes: Active Society Foundation (Aktív Társadalom Alapítvány), Department of Economic Policy of the Budapest University of Economics (BKE), the Agency of the Budapest Suburban Development, Department of Social Policy of ELTE University, Kopint Datorg Foundation, Economics Research Center, Institute of Traffic Science, Demographical Research Institute of the Central Statistical Office, Economics Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Open Society Institute Foundation, National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), Sports, Social Science, Education and Research Foundation, Századvég Political School Foundation International and foreign organisations: Benkő and Associates, CEORG, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, ISSP Working Group, Hungarian Soros Foundation, Hungarian Association of the International Children Safety Service, NORC, PACO/PECO project (EU), USIA Harvard Institute for International Development. Staff and DepartmentsPresident: Prof. Dr. Tamás Kolosi, doctor of sociology, university professor at ELTE, Budapest
General director: Dr. István György Tóth, economist and sociologist, associate professor BKE, Department of Sociology
Scientific Director: Prof. Dr. Tamás Rudas, DSc, Professor at ELTE, Budapest.
Survey Department: Dr. Matild Sági, sociologist, mathematician
Data Archive Department: Dr. Zoltán Fábián, sociologist
Research Staff:András Gábos Field of research: family policy, population economics
Dr. Róbert Iván Gál
Dr. Ildikó Nagy
Márton Medgyesi
Dr. Endre Sik
Dr. Péter Róbert
Dr. Péter Szivós
TÁRKI & Andorka Rudolf Library: Angelika Pásztor (konyvtar@tarki.hu) Financial Manager: Istvánné Németh Office Manager: Ágnes Katalin Werner (wernerka@tarki.hu) |
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Gender Data Archive | Microsimulation | Flexibility | Generational Accounting |