JÁNOS KORNAI
NEWS, EVENTS, LECTURES
Kornai at the Chinese "economic summit" In Beijing on December 26-27 2013 the Phoenix TV company convened an "economic summit" including several well-known Chinese economists and political economists. János Kornai was invited to speak. As Kornai could not travel, the organizers arranged a "tele-talk" for the final plenary meeting. The questions of the moderator, Professor Chengang XU (Hongkong University), were answered first by Kornai and then by Professor Jinglian WU (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), one of the major master builders of the Chinese economic reform. Professors Xu and Wu were sitting on the stage, and Kornai's contributions in English, recorded in a Budapest studio and simultaneously interpreted to Chinese, were broadcast live for the conference participants. China's pressing problems were discussed: the visible slow-down of growth, the economic and social tensions, the growing income inequalities and the possibilities of political reform leading to democracy.
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Discussion forum on Kornai's memoirs in Beijing On December 8, 2013 a discussion forum was organized on János Kornai’s memoirs in Beijing. (The book had been first published in 2009 in Hong Kong in traditional characters. In 2013 it was re-published, this time in Shanghai, in simplified characters.) The discussion forum was broadcast by the finance club of the Phoenix TV, one of the popular programs of the TV channel. Participants on the stage were the following (from left to right in the leftmost picture below): Professor Yijiang WANG (Doctoral School, Cheung Kong Business School), Professor Renwei ZHAO (former director of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Professor Tiangi MAO (senior fellow of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) and hostess of the programme Jing QUAN. The audience were mainly young people. The program announcement is here, the recording of the program and further information is available here.
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Announcement for doctoral students In early December, 2013 János Kornai made an announcement: he would be glad to consult three doctoral students in their research. The cooperation will be preceded by a selection procedure -- details and the selection criteria are available on the department homepage. The deadline is January 31, 2014.
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Kornai in ATV's Friderikusz Sándor Friderikusz interviewed János Kornai in his program at the ATV television channel on December 3, 2013 (watch it here). At the end Friderikusz said: "we have covered maximum half of the topics I collected to be discussed," and asked Kornai to continue the interview the following day. The December 4 second part is available here. The Galamus-group published the transcript of the Kornai-Friderikusz interview in two parts, here (December 3) and here (December 4). (The transcription was made by Ádám Kerényi.) The transcript is also available here.
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Kornai receives Hazám Prize In November 9, 2013 János Kornai received the Hazám Prize ('My country', named after an Attila József poem). Read about the details here (in Hungarian).
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Skype-interview with Kolozsvár on higher education On September 28, 2013 the Hungarian Institute of the Babeș-Bolyai University's Faculty of Economics (Kolozsvár / Cluj) organized an “Economics Alumni Evening”, inviting alumni of the Institute. The organizers interviewed János Kornai in Budapest (sitting at his own desk) through Skype about the higher education reform, projecting the live interview. First the moderator, assistant lecturer Ildikó Kovács asked questions, followed by the participants. A report of the event is available here.
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Kornai's talk at the SESS conference SESS, the Association of European Doctoral Schools in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies, had its annual conference in Budapest. The keynote lecture, 'Shortage economy - Surplus economy', was held by János Kornai on September 9, 2013. Find the slides here.
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The new Chinese edition of the Kornai memoirs is out After the 2009 Hong Kond edition in traditional characters, János Kornai's memoirs By Force of Thought is now published in simplified characters in Shanghai. This is the 10th edition, after the Hungarian, English, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, Chinese (traditional characters), German and Slovak edition. Read more details here.
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Kornai's talk at the Budapest University of Technology On June 5, 2013 the conference of the FAculty of Social Sciences at the Budapest University of Technology started with János Kornai's talk. The slides are available here.
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Kornai's talk in the Mathias Corvinus Collegium On May 30, 2013 János Kornai gave a talk on 'Shortage economy -- surplus economy' at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.
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Kornai's talk at Pázmány University On April 5, 2013 János Kornai gave a plenary talk on the soft budget constraint at the conference organized by the Faculty of Law of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. The slides are available here.
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Book launch On April 25, 2013 Corvinus University of Budapest and the Kalligram Publishing House launched Központosítás és piaci reform (Centralization and Market Reform), the third volume of János Kornai's ten-volume selected works. The event was opened by Vice Rector Zoltán Szántó, followed by talks by Mihály Laki and András Simonovits, academy doctors of economics, and János Kornai. The book launch was hosted by Sándor Mészáros, chief editor of the publishing house. This was the poster of the book launch.
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The third volume of Kornai's selected works is out Központosítás és piaci reform (Centralization and Market Reform), the third volume of János Kornai's ten-volume selected works is now published by the Kalligram Publishing House. While the first two volumes, A hiány (The Economics of Shortage, 2011) and A szocialista rendszer (The Socialist System, 2012) are two monographs by Kornai, this volumes is a collection of papers on the above topic. More information on the volume is available here, the table of contents is here.
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2013
Kornai received Pan-European University honorary doctorate On February 8, 2013 János Kornai was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of the Pan-European University, Bratislava, Slovakia. The ceremony was held at the beginning of the conference on 20 Years of Economic Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe, followed by Kornai's plenary talk.
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Kornai 85 János Kornai was 85 years old on January 21, 2013. Corvinus University of Budapest, in co-operation with the Central European University and the Hungarian National Bank, organised a full-day conference on January 18, where his friends, colleagues, past and present students celebrated him. Corvinus University Rector Zsolt Rostoványi presented him the Silver Corvina award. More on the conference here. Colleagues celebrated the birthday beyond the conference. Péter Gedeon (Corvinus University of Budapest) published a paper 'From Anti-equilibrium to The socialist system and beyond'' for Kornai's birthday. It is available here in English, here in Hungarian. ************************************************************************************************
Kornai in St. Petersburg On June 29, 2012, János Kornai gave a talk on „Breaking promises” at a conference on the „Economic culture of modern capitalism” held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The conference hosted the book launch of the Russian edition of Kornai’s new book Размышления о капитализме (Thoughts about Capitalism), introduced by professors Andrei Zaostrovtsev and Natalia Drozdova. The book was published jointly by the Smolny Institute (St. Petersburg) and the Gaidar Institute (Moscow), translated by Oxana Yakimenko.
2012
Re-published: A szocialista rendszer (The Socialist System) As the second volume of the Kalligram Publishing House's ten-volume selected works of János Kornai A szocialista rendszer (The Socialist System) is now available. The book was launched on June 12, 2012 in the bookshop 'Írók Boltja' where historian János Rainer M. talked to Kornai about the book.
2011
Re-published: A hiány (The Economics of Shortage) On December 14, 2011 the Kalligram Publishing House launched János Kornai's re-published work A hiány (The Economics of Shortage). At the book launch, hosted by Corvinus University of Budapest Rector Tamás Mészáros, the book was introduced by László Szigeti (head of Kalligram), Balázs Hámori (professor, department head at Corvinus), and János Kornai. The book, originally published in 1980, is the first volume of the ten-volume selected works of Kornai to be published by Kalligram.
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Kornai's memoirs available in Slovak János Kornai's memoirs By Force of Thought has been published by Kalligram. The book was launched in Pozsony / Bratislava on November 15, 2011 by renowned Slovakian economists: Slovakian finance minister Ivan Miklós, Central European University Budapest Professor Julius Horváth, and Brunel University London Professor Jan Fidrmuc. Slovak is the ninth language of publication for Kornai's memoirs, following the Hungarian, English, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, Chinese and German editions.
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Kornai at Corvinus Invited by Corvinus University of Budapest, János Kornai started to work there as of August 1, 2011. He is going to continue his research and also to teach there as honorary professor emeritus. In the fall term of the 2011-2012 academic year he has announced a six-talk course on Gondolatok a kapitalizmusról (Thoughts about capitalism) at the Department of Comparative Economics.
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Interview In the June issue of Baltic Worlds an interview "24 hours is a long time in revolutions: János Kornai on taking risks and ending up on opposing sides" can be read here.
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CB is closing On its June 30, 2011 assembly meeting Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study Association decided to terminate the activities of the Institute. János Kornai had been one of the founders of Collegium Budapest, who first as a Permanent Fellow, later, 2003 on as a Permanent Fellow Emeritus worked for the Institute, from the preparations on its foundation until the resolution on its termination.
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New book János Kornai's new Hungarian collection of papers Gondolatok a kapitalizmusról (Thoughts about capitalism) is out (Akadémiai Kiadó, 2011).
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“Honorary Professor Emeritus” at Corvinus University Corvinus University of Budapest has awarded János Kornai the title of “Honorary Professor Emeritus.” The certificate was presented by Rector Tamás Mészáros at the opening plenary session of the April 26 conference of the Faculty of Economics of the university. Read János Kornai's talk in Hungarian here.
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2010
Interview with Kornai In a recently published book of interviews dicussing the European situation and problems of mainstream challenging "heterodox" schools in economics (Rosser, J. Barkley – Richard P. F. Holt – David Collander (eds.), European Economics at a Crossroads, 2010. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar), the editors asked two scholars, Nobel laureate German professor Richard Selten and János Kornai, to overview and evaluate the interviews. The Kornai interview is available here.
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Article on Kornai's influence on China In the September 2010 issue of the journal Mozgó Világ Zoltán Farkas published a detailed analysis on the influence János Kornai's works and his book By Force of Thought exerted in China. The article A kínai kapcsolat ('The Chinese connection') presents the effect of Kornai's works published in China in a chronological order, in their relationship to current Chinese internal political affairs, with the help of reviews, memoirs and other matierials published there, including a television program and the discussion of two Chinese dissidents.
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Kornai receives highest Hungarian state order of merit Traditionally, on March 15 (a national holiday in Hungary) the President of Hungary presents state orders of merit in the Parliament building. In 2010 János Kornai was presented the highest Hungarian state order, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. According to the official laudation, he was awarded "for his works and world-wide recognized research results on the theory and behavior of economic systems".
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Kornai's academic recognition in Russia János Kornai was awarded the Leontief Prize, named after Nobel Laureate American economist of Russian origin Vassili Leontief, the creator of the input-output analysis. The Prize is presented annually to several Russian and one international economist by the Leontief Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the basis of the recommendation of an international committee. Earlier awardees include the late Yegor Gaidar, earlier Russian prime minister, American Nobel Laureates Robert Solow and Lawrence Klein, and Leszek Balcerowicz, the first Polish finance minister after the transition. The Prize was presented to Kornai in St. Petersburg on February 13, 2010 at a ceremony (read the report in Hungarian here). The great influence Kornai exerted on the thinking of Russian economists was also emphasized in the award description. "Kornai 1980 book, The Economics of Shortage, opened the eyes of Russian economists," as one of the laudatory speakers said. After receiving the Prize, Kornai gave a talk on „Leontief, mathematical planning: Dreams and reality.” (Read it in English here.)
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Professor Wu's birthday Professor Jinglian Wu is regarded the most notable and influential economist in the Republic of China. On January 26-27, 2010 his friends, students and colleagues organized a conference to celebrate him on his 80th birthday. They invited János Kornai to participate and give a talk at the conference. Due to issues of health, Kornai could not travel, but he sent his celebrating words in a video message. The talk he prepared was presented by his Harvard student, Professor Chenggang Xu (Hong Kong University). Kornai's talk was commented by Professor Masahiko Aoki (Stanford University, President of the International Economic Association) and Professor Yingyi Qian (Tsinghua University), the dean of the Faculty of Economics of the most prestigeous Chinese university. You can find the report sent by the organizers to Kornai.
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Kornai at Mindentudás Egyeteme On December 5, 2005 János Kornai gave a lecture on Közép-Kelet-Európa nagy átalakulása - Sikerek és csalódások" (The Great Transformation of Central and East Europe: Success and disappointment) at the Mindentudás Egyeteme ('University of Omniscience', a highly popular lecture series also broadcast by the Hungarian public television). You can watch the talk below. The link also includes a transcript of the talk and the Q&A session with the audience, together with the accompanying slides (all in Hungarian).
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