From a kidnapped accountant to the secrets of a successful wealth tax at Researchers’ Night at Corvinus

Interactive games, talks and recent research findings will all feature in this year’s Researchers’ Night programme at Corvinus. 

In the accounting-themed escape room, participants will have to rescue a kidnapped accountant, with no prior knowledge of accounting required. The programme will be available in both Hungarian and English. Board game enthusiasts can compete in two teams in an economics word-search game based on fundamental economic concepts. Those interested in happiness can explore positive psychology, centuries of self-help advice and personal experiences through a science stand-up performance by researcher Barnabás Szászi. 

Social issues will also be in focus. One talk will explore how women are represented in political communication, the media and personal narratives about infertility. Another Corvinus research group will present findings from an experiment conducted this year on the factors that determine the effectiveness of spoken and written communication. 

The sustainability programme will bring together citizen science, a regenerative garden tour, soil health and artificial intelligence with the involvement of Corvinus University’s new AI and Sustainability Lab and its Makerspace creative workshop. Those interested in international politics can attend an English-language lecture by researchers Scott N. Romaniuk and László Csicsmann on power relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including how small and medium-sized countries can influence regional security. 

One of the evening’s featured guests will be French economist Gabriel Zucman, who will present the Hungarian translation of his book We Need to Tax Billionaires, which argues for the need to tax the world’s wealthiest individuals. Zucman has previously shown that billionaires pay less tax relative to their income than the average employee, as much of their wealth is held through holding companies while their declared income represents only a fraction of the actual increase in their wealth. During his English-language talk at Corvinus, he will also discuss the proposed global 2 per cent minimum tax on billionaires. The organisers will ask how a successful wealth tax can be designed without meeting the same fate as previous schemes in Germany, Sweden and France, which were later abolished. 

“Several hundred research projects at Corvinus University are seeking answers to some of the most pressing social and economic questions of the 21st century. Researchers’ Night offers a glimpse into this diverse work, combining an entertaining experience with knowledge-sharing,” said Tamás Bartus, Vice-Rector for Research and Academic Community at Corvinus University. 

Corvinus programmes are free of charge and will run from the afternoon into the evening on 25 September in the university’s Fővám Square building. Most activities can be attended without registration, although advance registration is required for the accounting escape room and the economics board game. More information about the programmes and registration is available on the joint Researchers’ Night website: https://app.kutatokejszakaja.hu/intezmenyek/budapesti-corvinus-egyetem-1. 

The english programme descriptions are avaible here:  

• Accounting escape room 
• Who Shapes the Indo-Pacific? Power, Security and a Changing International Order 
• “We Need to Tax Billionaires” – könyvbemutató előadás (Gabriel Zucman, Paris School of Economics) 

Researchers’ Night is a free Europe-wide series of events that introduces scientific research and research careers to the public in an accessible and engaging way.