Béla Kádár, economist and honorary doctor of Corvinus University, passed away

Béla Kádár was born in Pécs in 1934 and graduated in finance in 1956 from the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences, the predecessor institution of Corvinus University. During his studies, he also attended courses in history and Spanish as a visiting student at Eötvös Loránd University. 

He began his career at the National Bank of Hungary. He later worked at the Center for Afro-Asian Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), then at the MTA Institute for World Economics, and from 1988 he headed the Institute for Planned Economy of the National Planning Office. As a researcher, his work focused on economic and industrial development, the international division of labor, comparative economic policy, and the challenges of delayed modernization. 

A unique feature of his work is that, closely linked to his rich and fruitful research career, he became a key architect of economic policy—particularly foreign economic policy—during the period of the democratic transition. Following the first free parliamentary elections, he was appointed head of the newly established Ministry of International Economic Relations in the Antall government, a position he continued to hold in the Boross government. Later, he served as President of the Hungarian Export-Import Bank, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Hungary to the OECD, and a member of the Central Bank Council and subsequently the Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary. 

Alongside other universities, Corvinus awarded him an honorary doctorate. He was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) in 2001 and a full member in 2007. In 2019, his outstanding scientific work was recognized with the Széchenyi Prize. 

He was the author or co-author of nineteen books and more than four hundred scientific publications, over one hundred of which were published in foreign languages. 

We will cherish his memory. 

The commemoration by Academician Péter Halmai, President of the Section of Economics and Law of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, can be read on the MTA website.