Rankings of Hungary made by percentile rank on the basis of analyzed indicators in horse racing and equestrian

On the basis of data obtained from the IFHA and the FEI revealed that Hungary could be found among countries where horse racing and equestrian disciplines were practiced in the analyzed years. The importance of these sub-sectors was different. The rankings of Hungary among the registered countries made by percentile rank are summarized in tables 6.19 to 6.21.

Obtained results in the tables reveal that Hungary’s rankings were more favorable in equestrian than in horse racing. While, on the basis of the total number of horses/athletes/events in all equestrian disciplines, the percentile ranks of Hungary varied between 76 and 81, based on horse racing indicators, the percentile ranks oscillated between 14 and 55.

124 Table 6.19: Percentile ranks of the rankings of Hungary on the basis of horse racing indicators (%)

Indicator 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Betting turnover 21 14 18 14 14

Prize money 36 29 23 23 26

Number of different horses 43 39 45 37 41

Number of breed horses 41 39 42 40 36

Number of starts 57 55 51 50 51

Number of racecourses 18 18 18 16 18

Source: own construction based on own calculation on the basis of data obtained from the IFHA. For the benchmarks of the indicators, see table 8.3, appendix 2.

Table 6.20: Percentile ranks of the rankings of Hungary on the basis of equestrian indicators (%)

Indicator 2010 2011 2012 2013

Total number of horses in all equestrian

disciplines per 100,000 inhabitants 81 79 80 79

Total number of athletes in all equestrian

disciplines per 100,000 inhabitants 78 76 80 76

Total number of events in all equestrian

disciplines per 1,000,000 inhabitants 78 81 80 78

Source: own construction based on own calculation on the basis of data obtained from the FEI.

Table 6.21: Percentile ranks of the rankings of Hungary on the basis of equestrian indicators in each of the disciplines (%)

Indicator 2011 2012 2013 2011 2012 2013 2011 2012 2013 Total number of h. and a. per 100,000 inhabitants and the number of events per 1 million people

horses athletes events

Show Jumping 78 79 78 80 81 79 70 67 70

Dressage 64 65 71 72 64 72 59 89 51

Eventing 61 56 54 64 61 63 90 88 51

Driving 100 98 100 98 99 99 98 100 93

Endurance 48 48 50 54 53 60 61 45 67

Vaulting 55 74 74 67 78 77 - 78 96

Reining 50 - - 57 - - - - -

Para-equestrian - - - - - - - - -

Source: own construction based on own calculation on the basis of data obtained from the FEI.

Respective to the number of horses and athletes in each of the equestrian disciplines, the best rankings were achieved by Hungary in Driving followed by Show Jumping, Dressage, Vaulting, Eventing, and Endurance. In Reining, the ranking could be made only in one analyzed year, while in Para-equestrian no horse and athlete was registered in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Respective to the number of events, disharmony is apparent comparing it with the number of horses or athletes in each of the disciplines, except for Driving. Apart from that, disharmony is present among the years, as well, within the same disciplines. It seems as if the organization of international events in Hungary had not followed the international level national demand.

125 6.7.2 Values of economic indicators observed for Hungary

Characteristic economic values obtained for Hungary are provided in table 10.16, appendix 5, in which data observed in disharmony with revealed tendencies are indicated in red. It can be seen in the table that although high values of the HDI and above average levels of the SPI were characteristic in each of the analyzed years, disposable income per capita and GDP per capita which, in fact, should convert into high level quality of life, remained below average level in each of the analyzed years, by studying it at the world level. Apart from the mentioned indicators, harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was observed above average in three of the five studied years. Household and government final consumption expenditure (HFCE, GFCE) amounted to values much higher than obtained averages. Nevertheless, clear tendencies were revealed for HICP, HFCE and GFCE among other countries (where horse racing or equestrian disciplines were practiced), where these indicators were characterized by below average levels. (They were not detailed before, as they do not seem to have direct roles in the horse sector. Foreign direct investment, similarly as HICP, HFCE and GFCE do not seem to have a relationship with the horse sector, but a clear tendency was apparent below average value. In respect. below average values were characteristic of Hungary, as well, but below average values represent negative values in three of the five years, which was not characteristic of any of other countries where horse racing or equestrian was practiced. Besides all these indicators, gross savings were observed below average, except for 2013 and gross capital formation was revealed at below average levels, which must necessarily be the consequence of high consumption expenditures. Among the analyzed countries no tendency was revealed either respective to gross savings or gross capital formation.

Hungary belonged to the group of countries that was featured by above average values of the HDI and below average values of GDP per capita at the world level. Considering both analyzed sub-sectors, it seems to match well with observed rankings on the basis of horse racing and equestrian indicators. Hungary is a country, where horse racing and equestrian disciplines were practiced in the analyzed years and on the basis of the indicators, disregarding some exceptions, it could be characterized by at least one horse, start, athlete, event, … etc. per benchmark.

On the other hand, more specific classification can be done in order to see why the quality of life demonstrated by the above average level HDI itself proves to be insufficient for Hungary

126 to have higher demand for horses and horse-related activities. The disadvantages of the country are quite apparent when it is compared only to the developed countries.

By classifying Hungary among the developed countries (between 2009 and 2013), either among countries of OECD high income category (32 countries) or among countries which were identified as those with very high HDI in 2013 (49 countries) by the UNDP (2014), it can be seen that Hungary belonged to the group of countries which were characterized by below average levels of the HDI and below average levels of GDP per capita.

The future success of the Hungarian Horse Sector will basically depend on adequate long-term strategies. The first decision must be made on: among which group of countries the Hungarian Horse Industry is intended to be well positioned, in the first place, on the basis of demand. After denoting the long-term objective, all decisions and measures must be subordinated in order to achieve the goal. Apart from that, an efficient way must be found to represent the interests of the horse sector at the economy level, because of the synergetic relationship between the horse sector and the economy presented throughout the present doctoral dissertation and, also, because of the exposure of the horse sector to requirements, whose satisfaction lies beyond the competence of the horse sector itself; it belongs to the competence of the macroeconomic policies.

The authors, cited in relation to the classification of countries using the HDI and GDP, observed that the strength of linkages between economic growth and human development varies according to the structure of economy and distribution of assets. Those between human development and economic growth are dependent upon savings, investment rates, and the quality of social capital. And, in both ways of the relationship, the policy choices made play crucial roles.

It seems as if the conditions failed in Hungary that would be necessary for the feed-back from human development to economic growth that, in turn, would further improve human development. Regarding the position of Hungary among developed countries, human development seems to be the key factor to enable a move from the “vicious cycle” toward the

“virtuous cycle” through “human development lopsidedness”.

127 7. CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions of the research relevant to prove each of the hypotheses are going to be referred to.

Conclusions of the research that support hypothesis 1 can be summarized as follows:

1) The macroeconomic analysis revealed that countries, where horse sectors operate, can generally be characterized by below average of value added of the agricultural sector (93%-100%), above average of value added of the service sector (78%-96%) and above average urban population (83%-95%) that are consequences of a developed economic environment. In brackets, the levels of coincidence obtained in the analysis in both horse racing and equestrian are shown.

2) Above average GDP per capita alone did not seem to be a prerequisite for the operation of the horse sectors (52%-73% of coincidence).

3) Regarding the countries obtained from the OECD database in order to study the role of disposable income per capita, both horse racing (72%-75%) and equestrian (93%-100%) were widely practiced. High levels of coincidence were revealed among countries with above average level disposable income per capita and countries where horse racing (76%-94%) or equestrian disciplines (100%) were practiced. Despite this result, very low levels of coincidence were observed among the top 25% of countries ranked on the basis of percentile rank calculated by disposable income per capita and each of the indicators selected for describing horse racing (30%-50%) and equestrian (39%-50%).

4) The analysis did not seem to confirm the earlier statement that “as income per capita increases, equestrian demand grows”. The recommendation is to refine the earlier statement as follows: the more disposable income per capita, the less financial constraints for equestrian demand. This more likely expresses a possibility for spending in the horse sector instead of an implicated condition for spending in it.

5) High levels of coincidence were observed on one hand, among countries with high