Borsod-Abaùj-Zemplén county both in 1992 and in 1998 showed an especially big absolute
specialisation on the basis of the Herfindahl index, because of the strong dominance of the chemical
industry. The formerly ruling metallurgy and metal industry was overtaken by the machinery and
equipment branch.
The regional specialisation rates, the dissimilarity index, and the GINI coefficient demonstrate
the relative specialisation of the counties, so the weight of the branches relative to their role on a national
scale. It can occur that in an absolute sense strongly specialised county the relative specialisation is low, if
its sectoral pattern applies to the national, as its dominant branch is important on the national level too. At
the same time it is possible that a county with a balanced sectoral pattern is relatively highly specialised,
if a branch of no national importance is essential in the county.
If we compare the relative specialisation with the national distribution, we find that in 1992 the
most specialised Hungarian counties were those, in which a nationally unimportant branch had a
relatively strong position. Such was the non-metallic mineral products. In 1992 the lowest relative
regional specialisation was experienced in Budapest having a decisive role in the industrial export of the
country, and in Pest county, which has a balanced export pattern. In 1998 the lowest relative
specialisation was shown by Somogy, Komarom-Esztergom, Vas counties, where owing to the
development of the machinery and equipment branch in Transdanubia, the export pattern was the same as
the one on the country level. Besides these counties also low regional specialisation characterised
Baranya and Pest county with still a homogeneous export pattern.
Industrial output
In 1992 the industrial turnover of the Hungary 23% of this amount was from
food, beverages and tobacco production, electricity accounted for 20% of it. 36% of the
overall industrial production was realised in Budapest. Nowadays the machinery and
equipment branch provides 36% of this. The share of the capital city from the overall
industrial production decreased to 24%.
In 1992 the values of the Herfindahl index -showing the absolute specialisation-
were the highest in the food, beverages and tobacco. While the weight of food,
beverages and tobacco industry fell in the industrial production, machinery and
equipment pulled ahead, which plays a crucial a role in the counties of Transdanubia.
The current highest degree of absolute specialisation, in most of the cases is caused by
the dominance of the machinery and equipment branch
If we relate the regional specialisation of the counties to the sectoral pattern of
the country, we talk about the relative specialisation. The regional specialisation rates,
the dissimilarity index, and the GINI coefficient show the degrees of regional
specialisation. The relative specialisation is especially big in the case of those counties,
whose more or less important branch represents a relatively small weight in a national
perspective or if their most essential branch is so dominant that it exceeds several times
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