ABSTRACT
This is a study of efficiency and productivity, using firm level data for the Hungarian economy for 1985-1991, which covers the beginnings of the transitional period. The study was in a real sense driven by the availability of these data and the alarming disparities in the national income accounts for the CEE countries. Thus, the study tries to identify problem areas in which empirical results are needed just to know what is happening and maybe to help in policy formulation, both to encourage the promotion and to smooth the difficulties of the transition process. The output is really two inter-connected sets of information. The first is an ongoing assessment of what the data can produce and what would have been necessary in order for it to do the job properly. The second is a series of results on efficiency and productivity leading up to, and for the early years of the transition, rather than for the Hungarian economy per see, which are used to formulate limited policy conclusions.
