TARKI Social Research Institute

TARKI Social Research Institute is an independent research centre located in Budapest, Hungary.^[1] TARKI conducts applied socioeconomic research in social stratification, labour markets, income distribution, intergenerational transfers, tax-benefit systems, consumption and lifestyle patterns and attitudes. Senior staff at TARKI all have PhD’s and many hold professorial appointments at major universities.^[2]

Organisation

TARKI Social Research Institute is a member of the TARKI Group. Other members of the TARKI Group are:

• TARKI Joint Research Centre
• TARKI Foundation
• KOPINT-TARKI Institute for Economic Research Ltd^[3]

TARKI Joint Research Centre operates the Hungarian national social science data archive ^[4] and is a member of the Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). TARKI also conducts regular polls in Hungary.

History

Profile

TARKI’s research profile has changed since it was first established.

• from macro to micro aspects of social stratification and economic activities
• from a focus on academic research towards applied social science
• from pure sociological to socio-economic methods
• In 2005, the institute shifted its focus to European comparative research. Activities related to this account are about half of the Institute's research portfolio.

European Research Projects

• Poverty Reduction in Europe: Social policy and innovation (IMPROVE), (2012-ongoing)

The research will develop new tools for monitoring poverty, social policy and social innovative practices. For the first time reference budgets will be computed for several member states using a single theoretical framework and a consistent methodology.

• European Regions, EU External Borders and the Immediate Neighbours. Analysing Regional Development Options through Policies and Practices of Cross-Border Co-operation (Euborderregions), (2011-ongoing)^[6]

The project's main objective is to identify challenges to economic, social and territorial cohesion as well as regional development potentials in different borderlands at the EU’s external frontiers.

• Understanding Conflict and Integration Outcomes of Inter-Group Relations and Integration Policies in selected Neighbourhoods of Five European Cities (Concordia Discors), (2011-2012)^[7]

The Concordia Discors Project is investigating intergroup relations at neighbourhood level, with the aim of producing a deep, strongly empirical-based and directly policy-relevant understanding of integration and conflict processes in the neighbourhoods of European cities.

• Growing Inequalities' Impacts (GINI), (2010-ongoing)^[8]

A major European-wide study on the impact of growing inequalities. The project is coordinated by University of Amsterdam.

• Social Situation Observatory - Income Distribution and Living Conditions, (2004-ongoing)^[9]

A consortium led by Applica, Brussels (having TÁRKI, Essex University and Eurocentre, Vienna) produces annual monitoring reports on trends of income distribution and social inclusion in Europe.

• Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations (ANCIEN), (2009-2012)^[10]

The project proceeds in consecutive steps of collecting and analysing information and projecting future scenarios on long term care needs, use, quality assurance and system performance.

• Workcare synergies: Dissemination of EU research findings, (2010-2011)^[11]

A support action with the aim of disseminating research findings of previous EU Framework Programme projects in the field of work and care.

• EUROMOD research project, (2005-2011)^[12]

EUROMOD is a tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union (EU) that enables researchers and policy analysts to calculate, in a comparable manner, the effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes and work incentives for the population of each country and for the EU as a whole.

• Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), (2009-2011)^[13]

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks of more than 45,000 individuals aged 50 or over.

• Interplay of European, National, and Regional Identities: Nations between States along the New Eastern Borders of the European Union (ENRI-East), (2008-2011)^[14]

ENRI-East is an international research project dedicated to the study of socio-ethnic identities in East European countries.

• Towards a Lifelong Learning Society in Europe: The Contribution of the Education System (LLL 2010), (2005-2010)^[15]

The project focuses on the contribution of the education systems to the process of making lifelong learning a reality and its role as a potential agency of social integration.

• Study on Child Poverty, (2008-2009)^[16]

A study on in-depth analysis of the determinants of child poverty, policy overview and impact analysis, identification of best indicators. The publication was supported under the European Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (2007-2013) and the programme was managed by the DG Employment.

• Social Quality and the Changing Relationship between Work, Care and Welfare in Europe (WORKCARE), (2006-2009)^[17]

The research project explores the relationships between, structural changes labour market, demography, welfare and economic policies at the macro level and at the micro level changes in individual orientations to work and care.

• Higher Education as a Generator of Strategic Competences (HEGESCO), (2008-2009)^[18]

The project addresses the needs of the main groups of higher education (HE) stakeholders who are interested in the employability of graduates. Based on several project reports, higher education institutions have been provided with empirically based evidence for planning their curricula, strategies and general orientations.

• Monitoring pensions developments through micro socio economic instruments based on individual data sources: feasibility study (PENMICRO), (2008)

The overarching aim of this project is to develop an analytical framework capable of capturing the relevant aspects of micro socio economic instruments Member States apply in modelling future developments in their pension schemes and the datasets behind them, and to apply this framework in describing and comparing the national approaches.

• Adequacy and sustainability of old-age income maintenance (AIM), (2005-2008)

This project aims at providing a strengthened conceptual and scientific basis for assessing the capacity of European pension systems to deliver adequate old age income maintenance in a context of low fertility and steadily increasing life expectancy.

• Ageing, Health Status and Determinants of Health Expenditure (AHEAD), (2004-2008)

AHEAD was a three-year research project on the future evolution of health expenditure in the enlarged European Union.

• Euroalmalaurea Network: E-Recruitment Services, (2005-2007)^[19]

The main goal of the project was to develop a “functioning” prototype of a European graduates’ database including the CV’s of graduates from the French, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian and the Italian Universities which are part of the AlmaLaurea Consortium.

Membership in Networks

• International Federation of Data Organizations for the Social Science (IFDO)
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
• Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)
• International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
• European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
• European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes (ENEPRI)
• Central European Opinion Research Group (CEORG)
• Inequality Watch, European Observatory of Inequalities

Publication series

Social Report (Társadalmi Riport): Collection of studies on social trends in Hungary. The first Social Report was published in 1990 and has been published every second year since then. It is widely reported upon in the Hungarian media.^[20]

TARKI Household Monitor Report (TÁRKI Háztartás Monitor Jelentések): Analyses of data collected from the biennial cross-sectional TARKI Household Monitor survey.

Changing Values (Szerepváltozások): Presents and tracks changes in the social position of women and men in Hungary. Changing Values is commissioned by the Hungarian Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.^[21]

European Social Report: A series on European social trends.

Researchers

References

External links

• TARKI Social Research Institute homepage
• Social Report (Társadalmi Riport)
• Changing Values (Szerepváltozások)
• European Social Report