Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence

Backward Linkages in the Hungarian Automotive Industry:
Where Are the Links Concentrated?

Tamás Gáspár -  Kaoru Natsuda -  Magdolna Sass

Abstract

Our paper is of descriptive nature and analyses the “connection points” of lead firms and suppliers in the automotive value chains. It relies on two types of methodologies: first, through the analysis of inverse input-output matrixes, it presents the local and international links of the Hungarian automotive industry and estimates, where (in
which activities) local suppliers play an important role and from which countries the various inputs come. Second, through relying on company interviews, it presents a more nuanced picture about backward linkages in the Hungarian automotive industry. We conduct interviews with German and Japanese lead firms and foreign- and domestically-owned suppliers and thus our analysis is able to contrast the supplier policies of Western European and Japanese lead firms and the features of foreign- and domestically-owned suppliers.

Keywords: automotive industry, Hungary, supplier relations, input-output analysis

JEL Classification: F23, F61, L23, L62