Investigating the effect of geographical distances and cultural proximity on the Hungarian wine trade

Wine is a very special product from an economic, cultural, and sociological point of view. Wine culture and wine trade play an important role in Hungary. The effect of cultural and geographical proximity on international trade has already been proven in the international trade literature. The size of bilateral trade flows between any two countries can be approximated by the gravity theory of trade. The gravity model provides empirical evidence of the relationship between the size of the economies, the distances between them, and their trade. This paper seeks to analyse the effect of cultural and geographical proximity on Hungary’s bilateral wine trade between 2000 and 2012, employing the gravity equation. The analysis is based on data from the World Bank WITS, WDI, as well as CEPII, and WTO databases. I apply OLS, Random Effects, Poisson, Pseudo-Poisson-Maximum-Likelihood and Heckman two stage estimators to calculate the gravity regression. The results show that in the case of Hungary, cultural similarity and trade liberalisation have a positive impact, while geographical distance, landlockedness, and contiguity have a negative impact on Hungarian wine exports.

Svájci rendszerű sakk csapatversenyek rangsorolása (Ranking in Swiss system chess team tournaments)

A cikk a páros összehasonlításokon alapuló pontozási eljárásokat alkalmazza svájci rendszerű sakk csapatversenyek eredményének meghatározására. Bemutatjuk a nem körmérkőzéses esetben felmerülő kérdéseket, az egyéni és csapatversenyek jellemzőit, valamint a hivatalos lexikografikus rendezések hibáit. Axiomatikus alapokon rangsorolási problémaként modellezzük a bajnokságokat, definícióinkat összekapcsoljuk a pontszám, az általánosított sorösszeg és a legkisebb négyzetek módszerének tulajdonságaival. A javasolt eljárást két sakkcsapat Európa-bajnokság részletes elemzésével illusztráljuk. A végső rangsorok összehasonlítását távolságfüggvények segítségével végezzük el, majd a sokdimenziós skálázás révén ábrázoljuk azokat. A hivatalos sorrendtől való eltérés okait a legkisebb négyzetek módszerének dekompozíciójával tárjuk fel. A sorrendeket három szempont, az előrejelző képesség, a mintailleszkedés és a robusztusság alapján értékeljük, és a legkisebb négyzetek módszerének alkalmas eredménymátrixszal történő használata mellett érvelünk. ____ The paper uses paired comparison-based scoring procedures in order to determine the result of Swiss system chess team tournaments. We present the main challenges of ranking in these tournaments, the features of individual and team competitions as well as the failures of official lexicographical orders. The tournament is represented as a ranking problem, our model is discussed with respect to the properties of the score, generalised row sum and least squares methods. The proposed method is illustrated with a detailed analysis of the two recent chess team European championships. Final rankings are compared through their distances and visualized by multidimensional scaling (MDS). Differences to official ranking are revealed due to the decomposition of least squares method. Rankings are evaluated by prediction accuracy, retrodictive performance, and stability. The paper argues for the use of least squares method with an appropriate generalised results matrix favouring match points.

Ranking in Swiss system chess team tournaments

The paper uses paired comparison-based scoring procedures for ranking the participants of a Swiss system chess team tournament. We present the main challenges of ranking in Swiss system, the features of individual and team competitions as well as the failures of official lexicographical orders. The tournament is represented as a ranking problem, our model is discussed with respect to the properties of the score, generalized row sum and least squares methods. The proposed procedure is illustrated with a detailed analysis of the two recent chess team European championships. Final rankings are compared by their distances and visualized with multidimensional scaling (MDS). Differences to official ranking are revealed by the decomposition of least squares method. Rankings are evaluated by prediction accuracy, retrodictive performance, and stability. The paper argues for the use of least squares method with a results matrix favoring match points.

Distance-based accessibility indices

The paper attempts to develop a suitable accessibility index for networks where each link has a value such that a smaller number is preferred like distance, cost, or travel time. A measure called distance sum is characterized by three independent properties: anonymity, an appropriately chosen independence axiom, and dominance preservation, which requires that a node not far to any other is at least as accessible. We argue for the need of eliminating the independence property in certain applications. Therefore generalized distance sum, a family of accessibility indices, will be suggested. It is linear, considers the accessibility of vertices besides their distances and depends on a parameter in order to control its deviation from distance sum. Generalized distance sum is anonymous and satisfies dominance preservation if its parameter meets a sufficient condition. Two detailed examples demonstrate its ability to reflect the vulnerability of accessibility to link disruptions.